Copenhagen-based designer Cecilie Bahnsen, beloved for her voluminous dresses, operates at the intersection of couture and ready-to-wear. Think high craft: she creates her own textiles, and loves to use embroidery and smocking. But while admittedly expensive, it’s not untouchable, as you will hear. Cecilie wears hers’ on her bike! A very Danish approach.

In this inspiring conversation, we cover the challenges of upcycling precious scraps which defy standardisation. The idea of timelessness in a novelty-obsessed world. Building a creative business, and how Cecilie approaches scale and growth. What it takes to make it - determination, for sure, but also a really clear sense of what you want, and how you treat others.

Ultimately, though, this Episode is about joy - the pleasure we can find in clothes, even down to the sound of fabric rustling. With all our worries about sustainability, we can easily forget why we came to fashion in the first place.

All up, this one’s a delight. Cecilie Bahnsen is throwing the fashion party you want to be at.

NOTES

CYCLING The Danes love it. “In Denmark, bicycling is one of the primary forms of transportation. In sunshine, rain, hail, snow - you will see bicyclists on their way to work, the grocery store, or social events. "The bike is a Dane's best friend" - particularly in the larger Danish cities that offer an extensive network of bicycle lanes. It also helps that the country's terrain is primarily flat. The Danes ride many different types of bike, from racing cycles to the large box-like cargo bikes used to transport of goods - and children, too. At rush hour, bike lanes in Copenhagen can be as crowded as car traffic in other parts of the world.’ Via Denmark.dk

Big skirt? No problem. Just knot the hem, or tie it up with a hair ribbon, as Cecilie suggests. And don’t forget your sneakers.

SMOCKING is a pleating and embroidery technique that allows fabric to stretch. Before elastic, smocking was commonly used in cuffs, bodices, and necklines in garments where buttons were undesirable. SHIRRING is a decorative gathering with many rows of gathering stitches with elastic on the back.

Cecilie studied at RCA in London, and interned with John Galliano and Erdem before starting her own label in 2015. She is passionate about textile artistry and designs many of her fabrics from scratch working with mills in Italy.

ASMR Do you enjoy the sound of ruffling taffeta? You’re not alone (anymore). The internet has entire worlds of people searching for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Responses through auditory stimuli. Confused? Try this Vox article: “ASMR Explained: Why Millions of People Are Watching Youtube Videos of Someone Whispering.”

EVOLUTION NOT TREND REVOLUTION Cecilie talks about building collections around evolution from the season before: “We work with the silhouettes that are already there, we work with our archive, our fabrics and that’s where it starts… that allows us not to be too affected by trends. A timelessness.”

QUILTING, CROCHET & GRANNY SKILLS may have skipped a generation, but in the era of the fast fashion backlash, they are enjoying a resurgence for all sorts of reasons - craft appreciation, slowing down, fun, even mental health. “It’s about the touch of the hand and the poetry of that,” says Cecilie. “For me, it’s almost like therapy.”

“BIG DRESS ENERGY” headlined in 2018, after the TV series Killing Eve captured fashion hearts with actor Jodie Comer as Villanelle in Molly Goddard tulle. Soon it felt like the only way to arrive at a premier was in a mini-bus big enough to fit your whole 9 yards of Giambattista Valli. These days, the giant frock has been normalised, and no one batts an eyelid at your puff ball Tomo Koizumi (okay, they probably do look at bit longer at you than when you where jeans) but you get the point. Florence Pugh in at the BAFTAs in neon Nini Ricci too big to get through the door? All in a day’s work. But as Clare says the origins of the trend lie in … 1750 :) “If you’ve watched at least one biographical movie about Marie Antoinette, then you're familiar with her gowns' spectacular sides. To achieve the hooped-sides effect, ladies in the 17th and 18th Century need to wear a special undergarment called Pannier. These panniers or side hoops widen the side of the skirts while leaving the front and back relatively flat. This means that woven patterns, elaborate decorations and rich embroidery could be fully displayed and appreciated.” Via History Daily. The grandest panniers could reach 5 metres wide!

Sack dress, maker unknown, around 1775. V&A collection. “By the late 1770s, the sack and petticoat, like this example, were reserved for formal evening or court dress. The shape of the petticoat, requiring a wide square hoop, also indicates the formality of the ensemble. An arc of precise, wedge-shaped pleats illustrates how the gown was shaped to fit over such a hoop.”

THE VALUE OF SCRAPS “For me they are some of the most special pieces in the collection because they are patched together from so many seasons.” Cecilie’s ENCORE collection is upcycled, with limited pieces available from leftover materials pulled from previous seasons. Discover it here. “For me it’s also one of the most creative processes: not working with a blank canvas but with what you already have.” She started working this way with soft accessories.

Cecilie Bahnsen x ASICS, 2023. More here.

DANISH DESIGN & PRACTICALITY We love it for its clean lined, graceful simplicity, and use of simple often natural materials - Danish design is famed for being practical without compromising on beauty. ARNE JACOBSEN is perhaps the most famous Danish furniture designer. He is remembered for his contribution to architectural functionalism and for the worldwide success he enjoyed with simple well-designed chairs, like his famed Egg Chair - an icon of 20th Century design with its sweeping curves and striking aesthetic. Read about this life, legacy and work here. Cecilie also mentions hand-painted porcelain by Royal Copenhagen - the company was established in 1775 by Frantz Heinrich Müller under the patronage of the Danish Royal family and is known for its blue-and-white Musselmalet or "Blue Fluted" dinner ware styles. Fun fact: that blue comes from cobalt, a rich seam of which was discovered in Norway in the 1770s.

Cecilie Bahnsen pieces from Spring 2020 at an installation at Dover St Market.

COMPETITION can be good, as long as bullying is absent. We all know there are plenty of situations where interns get treated like crap in big fancy fashion places, so there’s certainly an element of luck. While interning at Galliano before starting her own brand, Cecilie was lucky enough to be taken under the wing of some of the master tailors and drapers there.

Building the right TEAM is essential to growing a business. Says Cecilie: “If you want advice [how to do so] then [it’s about] finding people who are better at certain things than you, and also accepting that they are better!”

NONA SOURCE is a Paris-based deadstock platform giving LVMH fabrics new life. In 2023, the company appointed four new young ambassador designers - including Cecilie - as part of its “Mindful Creatives” initiative to promote its model of reselling spare fabrics. More here.