3 Scandi brands that all the girls in Copenhagen are wearing right now

When you think of Scandi style, the likes of Ganni, Cecilie Bahnsen and Toteme all spring to mind – internationally successful brands that have found an audience at home, too. But on the cobblestone streets of Copenhagen, a series of newer labels have also been gaining favour among the fashion set. “While so many metropolitan cities stifle their own home-grown talent, this hasn’t been the case here in Copenhagen,” Isabella Rose Davey, COO at Copenhagen Fashion Week, tells Vogue. “From A Roege Hove’s knitwear to Nicklas Skovgaard’s puff-ball skirts, there’s always been an exceptional dedication in the city to wearing the talent that encompasses the landscape.”

Happily, three of these rising brands are making their runway debuts in Copenhagen for autumn/winter '25. Below, we caught up with them to find out more.

Founded in 2018 by Kyeongmin Kim and Seyoung Hong, after the designers moved to Copenhagen, Birrot (named after the Korean word that means “to draw a process to its conclusion”) fuses together Scandi minimalism with Korean precision. The brand’s tailored two-pieces and foundational knits have been worn by the likes of Sofia Richie Grainge, alongside Danish creatives like Josefine Haaning Jensen.

How would you describe your brand aesthetic?

Birrot for us is about the connection between Denmark and Korea. We grew up in Seoul, where we were inspired by traditional garments and learned Korean patterns as our foundation. Moving to Copenhagen introduced us to a totally new mindset and reshaped our approach to design. So our aesthetic is a fusion of the two cultures, pragmatic and minimalist.

Who is your style muse?

Our muses are our mothers, who actually share the same name. They’re always on our moodboard – the textures, colours and feelings in those photographs of them guide us every season.

What are your favourite spots in Copenhagen?

We’re so lucky to have our store and studio right in the heart of the city, so we’re really close to some of our favourite restaurants, cafés and shops like Reseller and Bar Vitrine. We also love Lee’s Kitchen, Et Cetera and Rosforth for natural wine.

Related: Sophie Bille Brahe's guide to shopping in Copenhagen

After their respective stints at Maison Margiela and Cecilie Bahnsen, Yoko Maja Hansen and Anna Myntekær launched Bonnetje in 2021. The pair – both alums of Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam – share a love of deconstructing vintage garments suits, with the brand’s name coming from the Dutch word for receipt, after the pair found a dry cleaning ticket in an old suit they were working with.

How did your brand first come about?

We started slowly in Anna’s basement, cutting a lot of vintage garments up and sewing them back together. It was like a creative playground in the beginning, where we had a lot of ideas we needed to test out, after working for others for some time. At the start, it was all kinds of clothes, and we slowly moved towards working only with suits. We both had a big fascination with the suit and all its layers. Looking inside a suit is like opening a treasure chest.

Which Scandi girls have worn your designs?

Björk once bought a pair of our showpiece shoes. She’s maybe not the classic Scandi girl, but she’s for sure someone we like to see in our clothes. We like to see our clothes on people who style them completely differently than we do – we really love to dress Ane Lynge-Jorlen from Alpha, for example.

What’s your approach to sustainability?

We work with discarded clothes as much as possible and try to keep all production and sourcing if not local, then in Europe. For us, design is the most important. We don’t want to make clothes just for the sake of making clothes, so keeping a small production and trying to grow but not over-scale, while keeping our aesthetic, feels like the right thing to do

Astrid Andersen spent more than a decade at the helm of her namesake streetwear brand, which counted the likes of A$AP Nast and Noomi Rapace among its fans. Following a three-year hiatus from fashion to focus on her children, the designer is back with a new womenswear proposition, Stel, which launched last summer.

Related: Astrid Andersen toasts the launch of Stel with an intimate celebration

What’s the story behind the brand?

It’s been a journey evolving from my previous brand, Astrid Andersen, which I founded when I was in my mid 20s. Growing as a person and as a creative, you slowly start to evolve your language and your interests and everything. Stel was something that grew from there, and the need to maybe have a new point of view, where I could sit a bit more at the centre of it.

What’s your approach this time around?

It’s more about the product and this wardrobe-building concept that’s much more in tune with my personal approach to clothes and my Scandinavian heritage. When we first started talking about the intentions with the garments, I kept going back to the idea of tailoring you can skate in. I’m trained as a menswear designer, so comfort [and] movability is an integral part of how I empower through clothes. I’m also thinking about it from a more… I don’t want to say non-seasonal, but definitely collections-based approach. I’m excited to create pieces that feel quite timeless, but at the same time, have a language of their own.

Do you design with yourself in mind?

It’s such a different world for me now – I am part of the brand in that muse category, because I reference myself. I’m a EU size 44 (UK size 16), so when we get a sample sent back, I’m looking at whether it works across sizes – that’s very essential for me. We have a lot of adjustability elements inside the waistbands and the seams to make sure that it’s easy to take them with you, if you go up a size. I think there’s a conversation to be had around making clothes that can go with you on that journey.

These interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.