“The epicentre of cool seems to have shifted to Copenhagen. We always look to it for new and exciting brands,” says Aoife McBride, buyer with MacBees in Killarney, an Irish boutique with a big reputation for contemporary classic and innovative fashion. It’s a view echoed by other Irish buyers.
“Scandi and Danish brands are more relevant than ever,” says Kelly Dryden, womenswear buyer of Brown Thomas and Arnotts. “The laid-back look of the Scandi girl is very in keeping with the lockdown life we have been living,” she adds.
McBride, a civil engineer by training who organised vintage pop-up fashion events in London, moved back home to help with the family business. Now she and Doranne Hickey do all the buying for the shop which has been championing Danish and Nordic design for nearly two decades.
“We introduced our first Danish label by Malene Birger in 2006 and Baum und Pferdgarten in 2011 and over the years we have had many Danish brands including Samsoe & Samsoe, Stine Goya, Custommade and the uber cool Swedish brand Rodebjer in 2019 which we had exclusively in Ireland.”
What draws her to Danish labels (with sizes up to 16) is that “they combine quirky design elements with interesting tailoring while also being very wearable. They are not afraid of colour which suits Irish customers perfectly. Sustainability is also high on their agenda which is important for us. Danes have a similar build to the Irish; it always rains there too,” she adds.
On many trips to the Danish capital, she has frequently noticed how stylish Danish women cycling to shows or restaurants in heavy rain, sport quilted all-in-one suits which unzip “and underneath they have some effortlessly cool, pristine outfit”.
Well known for its cycling culture and famous for its love of home interiors and all those hygge rituals, Copenhagen has been steadily acquiring a status as a style capital and, in contrast to others, its fashion week is now firmly focused on sustainability, highlighting brands with firm commitments to producing clothes in responsible ways and use of resources.
This season, Swedish giant H&M chose to present its “fashion forward” eco conscious studio collection at Copenhagen Fashion Week (CFW) in February instead of Paris, and Rixo, the UK brand known for its feminine print dresses, also opted to show there rather than in London. In addition, Zalando, Europe’s leading online platform from Germany, initiated a Sustainability Award – the first awarded to the Danish House of Dagmar – as part of its three-year strategic partnership with CFW.
Danish and other Nordic fashion brands in Ireland continue to grow in popularity – one has only to look at how Ganni*, a street style favourite known for affordable prints and dresses, has become one of Brown Thomas’s success stories along with other brands Acne, Gestuz, Masai, Rains, Samsoe and Munthe. “New brands like Rotate and Remain have been an incredible success [for us] and this year sees the introduction of more, including Anine Bing,” says Dryden.
For Niamh McCoy of Gallery 9 in Naas, it’s not just the quality of Danish brands and how they relate to Ireland that attracts, but also how they conduct business.
“They are so easy to deal with in the way they operate in comparison with many British brands who did nothing to anticipate problems with Brexit.
“I would say to some [British brands], ‘How can I plan as a buyer when you are not planning as a business?’ It was such a poor attitude.”
What all this means in the wake of Brexit is that European buyers like McBride, McCoy and others are shifting their focus away from the UK. The 42 per cent of luxury goods exported to the EU from the UK now have to deal with additional tariffs and paperwork. It is hitting hard. Big operators like Paul Smith, who exports his clothing to France, Italy and Germany, said recently that “the changes will cost us multiple millions each year”.
It’s no wonder that Denmark is now seizing the initiative as the £36 billion (€41 billion) British fashion industry worth more to the economy than the car, film, music and fashion industries combined, reels from the shock of Covid, plummeting clothing sales and the new realities of life post Brexit.
*Style snippet: The Outnet has reissued 13 of Ganni's most popular prints and styles in dresses in new combinations at prices from €73-€140 on its site. Visit theoutnet.com
