Having graduated from the Royal College of Art in London and cut her teeth in French couture houses, Danish designer Cecilie Bahnsen is today her country’s most preeminent fashion talent.
Combining that famous Scandinavian ease with the finery of French couture traditions, Bahnsen creates clothes that are defined by the soft struggle of opposition, both distinctly modern and effortlessly timeless. This juxtaposition is witnessed in many forms, from her cuts and silhouettes—which can oscillate between floating fairy dresses and structured Victorian gowns—to the materials and details she selects.
For Bahnsen, contradiction is forever playful and unaggressive. Simple A-line dresses are enhanced by voluminous puff sleeves and tiered, panelled skirts, while sculptural silhouettes are rendered in ethereal silks. Even within a collection, Bahnsen is unafraid to experiment and unwilling to be pigeonholed, equally adept at producing luxurious, futuristic knitwear as she is at adding a romantic touch to your everyday midi dress. There are certain signatures that act as a throughline in her work: scalloped ruffles and cutouts adorn seams and hemlines, shoelace ties that wrap around waists, sleeves and backs, but they do not serve as simple embellishments, rather as a counterpoint to the clothes they inhabit.
This combination of couture craftsmanship interworked with modern styles that speaks to Bahnsen’s greatest strength: her ability to blend the ornate and the everyday.
A ruffle disrupts and enlivens the spartan lines of the dress underneath, while the myriad ties envelop the wearer in a way that only hints at restriction, serving instead as a sensual counterpart to the playful puffs and conservative cuts of the garment’s whole. This decorativeness is, in turn, questioned by Bahnsen’s tendency to deconstruct her own designs, shrinking dresses into tops, reversing and dissecting their construction to transform a fluid tulip shape into a patchwork cuirass, an exoskeleton whose rigidity of structure belies the lightness of its constituent parts. Other pieces are further deconstructed and reassembled into asymmetric collisions of scrunched taffeta and metallic embroidery, or shirred cotton and broderie anglaise bedecked with bows and ties.
It is this combination of couture craftsmanship interworked with modern styles that speaks to Bahnsen’s greatest strength: her ability to blend the ornate and the everyday. Many designers can create stylish ready to wear or handmade gowns, but it is rare to find one that can incorporate elements of both in a single garment. Bahnsen’s custom fabrics and finery reflect her esteemed education, but it is clear that she has no desire to be the next Alaia. Instead, Bahnsen looks “to develop a world of pieces that can be cherished for years, passed between friends, and reinterpreted and restyled to express the individuality of the wearer.” Pieces whose craftsmanship is tempered by their wearability, whose sophistication is restrained by a dash of whimsy that keeps them from straying into the self-serious, and clothes that look as equally at home in the front rows of Paris as they do lounging in a field on a picnic blanket.
Quick Facts
- Studied at the Royal College of Art in London and worked for French couture houses in Paris.
- Recipient of the DANSK Design Talent Award in 2016 and an LVMH Prize Finalist in 2017.
Words — Nick Ainge-Roy
