“We can definitely read each other’s minds”: The sisterhood behind 10 years of Skall Studio

Amid the constant noise about ‘quiet luxury’, there’s something to be said for brands that are simply quiet. Quietly beautiful, quietly responsible, quietly intelligent. One such brand that has been making quiet, meaningful strides out of Copenhagen since 2014 is Skall Studio.

That’s not to say any sense of ‘luxury’ is lacking. Just a few days before I sit down to chat with the Danish sisters behind the brand, Julie and Marie Skall, the duo have staged their latest autumn/winter runway show at Copenhagen Fashion Week. It’s a continuation of Skall’s seasonal pendulum that swings serenely from gauzy cottons and delicate crochet to chunky knits and ‘borrowed from the boys’ suiting. This time around, the pieces are sublimely cut and constructed (entirely from natural materials) for an air of beatnik, bookish charm. Every detail – from the contours of wool and corduroy to the Børge Mogensen chairs on which front row guests are perched – is carefully considered.

The notes for this particular show describe an ode to the written word: that magic that happens when pen meets paper. It’s an act that is sacred to the sisters, who admit their preference for working with old-school tools for every collection. “We appreciate starting our design process by hand, using a real pen,” says Julie, who often speaks first, with a gentle assertiveness that comes with being an older sister. “I think that many young, new designers just use technology and computers, but we hold on to using our hands and real paper. It’s something about the craft. It starts in our minds, goes through the body, and comes out through the hand on the piece of paper.”

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There’s a harmonious energy between Julie and Marie as they appear together on my screen in neutral-toned knitwear of their own design, backed by a brimming moodboard in their Copenhagen studio. This sisterly harmony certainly “comes out through the hand” and into their designs, and is also palpable when they walk together hand-in-hand, beaming, at the close of their runway shows.

Julie, who is three and a half years Marie’s senior, works more directly with the product and garment technicalities, while her younger counterpart drives more of the visual storytelling. That being said, they work side-by-side daily at the helm, with equal involvement in the brand’s identity and the development of every collection. After all these years, they’ve mastered the balance in their perspectives, too. “I step more into history and the past, while Marie’s view is on today, on tomorrow, on what’s ahead,” Julie explains. “I might be more nostalgic, whereas Marie is a bit more modern. We are like yin and yang.” And while they’re not twins, the two share an intuitive bond. “We can definitely read each other’s minds,” Marie says. “We always know what the other is thinking. You can just feel it.”

Having a quiet kind of presence on the Scandinavian fashion scene for the past decade hasn’t earned Skall Studio any less attention than deserved. The brand’s beginnings were measured, the debut collection only 10 pieces. From there, growth was slow and steady – until a simple, dainty flower print really kicked things into gear. “I remember we went to a fair in Copenhagen in 2018 and we were both pregnant – I was pregnant with my first child and Marie with her second child,” Julie says (each of the Skall sisters is now a mother to three). “It was the spring/summer ’19 collection, and with that collection and that flower print, people really started to notice the brand. There was something very magical about that collection, it was attracting so many people and buyers. We felt like, ‘Wow, OK. Something is really happening’.”

Fast forward to now, and the sisters, backed by the Skall Studio team of around 30, have established a clear and coveted space in the market for the brand’s romantic, bohemian and inherently wearable repertoire. And along with that has come a steadfast fanbase that extends well beyond Nordic borders. However, one of their favourite fans is very close to home: Queen Mary of Denmark. “The first time we saw a picture of Queen Mary of Denmark wearing Skall Studio, Julie and I, we had such a special feeling,” Marie says. It was Christmas 2023 and Queen Mary – still Crown Princess at the time – stepped out in a Skall Studio woollen suit. “It’s such a beautiful recognition of the brand,” Julie chimes in. “To have someone like her wearing our clothes makes us so happy.”

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Skall Studio is clocking 10 years in fashion’s record books, but the story trickles much further back. Skall, the Danish word for seashell, is both a namesake and nod to the sisters’ lineage. In the coastal area of north Jutland where Julie and Marie grew up, their great grandfather and his brothers had once collected seashells to trade for chicken feed in order to earn a living – hence the family name. Their mother, Jette, played an influential hand in the Skall Studio story as well, as a creative force in their family home who gave her daughters a keen appreciation for art, music, and seamstress skills. “She’s been working in the fashion industry for as long as we can remember,” Marie says. “I remember her sewing clothes for us when we were kids and teaching us.” Until just recently, Jette was actively involved in Skall Studio, but has stepped back to spend more time with her six young grandchildren.

Sharing a close sisterly bond from a young age, Julie was something of a role model for Marie (“I always looked up to her, she was so creative,” she says), while Julie recalls a more antagonistic relationship (“I remember her as the annoying little sister at one stage, taking my dolls without permission,” she laughs). Their common interest in sewing, sketching and drawing led them both to study at VIA University College (named TEKO at the time) at the same time, sharing a small apartment in Herning and both working a student job at the same local clothing store. Years later, the sisters again followed a path forged by their mother, separately spending stints of their careers working in Delhi just as their mother had done decades previously in her textile and fashion pursuits.

Take a close look at any Skall Studio collection and the threads of these stories and influences are all there. Small seashell insignia are dotted across their creations, Indian-inspired embroidery traces along shirts, plackets and hemlines. Their inherited love of art sees the pair scour antique and vintage markets for design references while songs from bygone eras that once played through their parents’ home radio now soundtrack their shows.

Fittingly, the brand’s ethos is ‘everything is connected’. It’s a statement that resonates in their aesthetic world, but in their values, too. “We see nature, animals and people as equal on the planet. We are all equal,” Marie says. She goes on to describe how she and Julie, who are both vegan, “live the brand” through their personal, circular ethics. “It’s important when you have a company and lead a team that you show the way. It’s not a board member saying ‘OK, now we need a sustainability strategy’. It simply comes from Julie and I. You have to live the way you work.” Since its early days, the brand has produced its knitwear in Denmark, working with Hjelholt spinning mill – family run and one of the last-remaining in the country. Other aspects of collections are responsibly produced in Europe, while the cotton and linen garments are made by a GOTS-certified factory in Delhi run by another pair of sisters who Julie and Marie regularly visit and view as an extension of the Skall family.

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Perhaps most importantly, the duo only design and produce clothes they know will stand the test of time, and which they both personally love. “Everything we create, we must love and want to wear ourselves,” Julie says. “So I guess we are designing for women like ourselves. Who have the confidence to wear what they like and not necessarily follow trends. Modern, confident, curious women who care about what they are wearing.”

A milestone anniversary is cause to celebrate and the brand will do so throughout the coming summer months. But for Julie and Marie, it is cause for quiet reflection as well. “When I think back about creating this brand together with my sister, I’m thinking, ‘Wow, how lucky we are’,” Marie says pensively. But most meaningful to the duo is seeing women living their lives in the pieces Skall has produced over the last decade. “I love seeing a girl on a bike in Copenhagen wearing an old Skall cotton shirt with the laces,” Marie says. “It makes me think, ‘that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing’.”