Is Copenhagen Still the "Happiest Fashion Week on Earth"?

For those who know it as the "Happiest Fashion Week on Earth," the opening remarks at Copenhagen Fashion Week’s 20th anniversary season sounded like a vibe shift. Addressing a crowd of designers, editors, buyers, influencers, and sustainability advocates packed shoulder-to-shoulder last Monday night, CEO Cecilie Thorsmark didn’t mince words in reference to the state of the industry: "It’s becoming increasingly difficult to navigate," she said, "as if it wasn’t enough already."

Copenhagen Fashion Week started in 2006 with ambitions to become a platform for Danish and Nordic brands to go worldwide. (Becoming a destination for vibrant street style and friendly crowds was a pleasant side-effect.) In the past, labels like Ganni and Cecilie Bahnsen have gained enough momentum to decamp to Paris Fashion Week. Others have built fanbases around distinctive items—a lacy scrunchie, a striped sweater, a fur-trimmed coat—allowing them to nail placement in major retailers.

The same sort of ascent doesn’t come easy in a year like 2026. Thorsmark’s speech referred to a slate of global conditions—including rising tariffs from the U.S., the market that’s many designers’ biggest opportunity for international growth—that seem intentionally designed to challenge the independent, primarily women-owned labels the city is known for.

"What we’re seeing is that these broader economic and political shifts translate very directly into day-to-day decisions for designers," Thorsmark tells Marie Claire after her remarks. "Increased tariffs, trade uncertainty, and fluctuating policies add pressure to businesses that are already operating with tight margins and high production costs. And yes, for the brands part of our fashion week, rising costs can influence everything from the scale of a collection to whether staging a runway show is financially viable at all."

The honest assessment of what Scandi designers face as their market turns 20 isn’t a white flag of surrender, however. For Thorsmark and the 21 designers holding official runways this season (down from 27 last January), challenges in the fashion business are justification to keep going—and even to double down on Copenhagen’s trademark runway elements, like size- and age-inclusive casting and minimum sustainability requirements for participating designers. When times get hard, it "reinforces how important it is for platforms like Copenhagen Fashion Week to not only offer visibility," Thorsmark says, "but also help create stability and support in an increasingly unpredictable landscape."

Designers who spoke to Marie Claire say participating in fashion week has been worth the investment, regardless of what’s happening beyond their ateliers. "[This] fashion week has supported our growth by giving us a very strong and relevant international platform," says Julie Skall, who operates Skall Studio with her sister, Marie. "It’s connected us with buyers and press who understand our approach and are interested in long-term brands."

They’re also hard-wired to view what some businesses may see as roadblocks as opportunities. Sustainability, an early priority of Copenhagen Fashion Week's, has become even more of a selling point in recent years, despite the supply chain rewiring it requires. When it introduced minimum sustainability standards for participating brands in 2023, it generated heaps of positive press—and a sign-on from the British Fashion Council for upcoming editions of London Fashion Week. For designers, it's "helped shift the conversation from intention to action, showing that creativity and accountability can exist side by side," says MDKT Studio creative director Caroline Engelgaar.

It helps that Copenhagen isn’t a place where designers feel pressured to spend extra for the sake of a memorable show or sell-out collection. In fact, some of the best moments come from staying intimate. Caroline Bille Brahe, founder of Caro Editions, purposefully keeps her collections small and her shows tightly packed—like a couture salon of the mid-twentieth century. (Only, at hers, there are sheer, '80s-inspired puff-sleeve blouses and a thumping rap soundtrack.) "There’s space for something personal and slightly rebellious," she says of the city. "It doesn’t have to be loud to be strong."

Even brands on the periphery have benefitted from the runways’ bi-annual return. Take Pico, the hair accessory and jewelry store that’s become a must-stop shop first for fashion editors, and now for anyone who strolls by.

"The growth of Copenhagen Fashion Week has been very positive for Pico—it has helped to put Copenhagen on the map," says founder Anne-Marie Pico. "We have seen many more tourists in our stores in recent years." And while tariffs mean operating in the U.S. isn’t a priority, they don’t even need to: Last year, Pico reported a 250% jump in in-store customers from the United States.

Despite the challenges brands are facing behind the scenes, the start of Copenhagen Fashion Week's 20th anniversary year managed to stay true to its values on the public stage. Participants got creative with their environmental promises—like Stem, whose entire collection of knit dresses was crafted from biodegradable wool. Models with gray hair and third-trimester bellies walked in shows from OperaSport and Niklas Skovgaard to The Garment and Baum und Pferdgarten. In a pointed nod to international diplomacy, two shows, Paolina Russo and Rave Review, showed their collections at the French and Swedish embassies with performances by musicians from each country.

The adjustments designers needed to make in light of shifting geopolitics and trade restrictions weren’t necessarily visible from the front row, anyway. MDKT Studio displayed another reliably upscale take on workday suiting and structural outerwear. Engelgaar says the biggest changes now are the practicalities after the show: where and how the brand sells.

"The landscape is complex and continuously changing, which calls for a sensible way of navigating it," she explains. But by focusing on "meaningful, wearable collections," she knows they’ll always have an audience.

Skall Studios has likewise managed to keep its assortment of billowing cotton dresses and equestrian coats consistent for the Fall 2026 collection. "We stay close to our suppliers, work with trusted partners, and design pieces that are meant to last beyond one season," says co-founder Marie Skall. "If anything, the current challenges reinforce why that approach matters."

Bille Brahe agrees that her label was "built for this moment." Her show notes proudly point out where she upcycled existing materials—deadstock Dries Van Noten fabrics, Harris Tweed, and reworked vintage Yves Saint Laurent garments—instead of working from scratch.

"Restrictions on trade or market instability only reinforce my belief in working with what is meaningful and available," she says. "My ambition hasn’t changed. I don’t want to scale fast. I want to build something that feels personal, couture in spirit, even when it’s denim."

Ahead of the shows, Skall Studios’ founders introduced another way to broaden their appeal even without new wholesale accounts or an international pop-up shop: publishing the knitting patterns for their best-selling sweater silhouettes.

"By sharing the patterns, we’re inviting our community into the process, slowing things down, understanding the work behind a garment, and creating something they can keep and repair over time," Marie Skall explains. "It’s about connection, not just consumption."

There’s no telling what the world will look like when fashion insiders gather again in August for Copenhagen Fashion Week’s Spring 2027 season, an event organizers have already teased as a massive celebration relative to last week’s more intimate calendar. But if conditions aren’t allowing for it to remain the happiest fashion week, it’s still going to operate like it’s the most optimistic.

Thorsmark said as much in the conclusion to her opening remarks. Before leaving the stage, she addressed the labels who needed to take a step back from presenting this season. "Do know that your presence is sorely missed," she said, "and we’ll welcome you back any day."