As Copenhagen Fashion Week (CPHFW) marks its 20th anniversary, the CPHFW NEWTALENT programme stands as one of its quiet power sources: a proving ground for emerging designers, and a steady force in ushering Scandinavian fashion onto the global stage. This season, that engine turns a page. Bonnetje, one of the scheme’s most distinctive voices, is set to present its final show under the CPHFW NEWTALENT banner.
Bonnetje’s distinction isn’t just that they upcycle, nor is it their singular focus on the suit. It is the way in which they treat every element of their source material with such unparalleled reverence. Linings are dragged into daylight, pockets gape open, seams trace the body where they were never meant to be seen.
In Bonnetje’s hands, the suit stops being a symbol of respectability and becomes something closer to a diary. There’s an intimacy to imagining the life once lived in a garment that translates into collections that feel deeply personal.
As they head into their final season with the CPHFW NEWTALENT programme their demeanour signals readiness – not to smooth out their edges, but to sharpen them. The brand has proven it can evolve its core obsession without abandoning it, expanding from tailoring while keeping the suit as its beating heart. For CPHFW, Bonnetje’s run underscores what CPHFW NEWTALENT does when it works best: nurturing designers to interrogate the event’s focus on sustainability, bringing it to life for all the world to see.
That this is their last supported show stands as a challenge to the industry – can the system make room for brands that are this idiosyncratic now that they have proven themselves on the biggest stage?
Looking back on their time within the Copenhagen schedule, the designers, Anna and Yoko, describe a fashion week that has subtly but decisively outgrown its early regional boundaries. “It feels much more international now than it did a few years ago. There’s a sense that CPHFW has grown beyond the region and really entered the global fashion conversation. We’ve been in contact with people in China, for example, and there’s a lot of excitement there around CPHFW.”
And yet, for all its global reach, the week has retained something rare: a sense of heart and community. Anna and Yoko speak of how, despite the increased attention on CPHFW, their relationships with the team and the support they receive has changed very little. This consistency was also noted by fellow CPHFW regular Rolf Ekroth, who described the event as, “a lot calmer, less competitive and less cool than other fashion weeks, but in a good way.” Growth, in this case, has not come at the expense of intimacy.
As they finish speaking on the event’s growth, Anna and Yoko explain how their relationship with the Fashion Week team “still feels very close and intimate. In that sense, it doesn’t feel dramatically different for us as a brand, but the overall buzz and global attention have definitely increased.”
All the new eyes on CPHFW, and by extension the brand, have had a tangible impact – visibility translating into clear opportunity. “There’s no doubt that the increased attention has led to more opportunities and greater visibility for designers from the region.”
For Bonnetje, the CPHFW NEWTALENT programme has been a catalyst. Now completing their third and final season within the scheme, the designers speak candidly about the role it has played in shaping the brand’s trajectory.
“It has helped us enormously. It’s been quite a journey – this spring marks our third season on the schedule as part of the New Talent programme. Being involved has brought significantly more PR than we would have had otherwise, and that exposure has played a major role in our development and visibility.”
On the runway, Bonnetje’s identity has crystallised around a precise and thoughtful design language. As mentioned, early on, one garment emerged as a kind of anchor.
“In the beginning, when we were defining the brand, we experimented with different garment archetypes. The suit stood out as the most ‘giving’ piece.”
What draws them back to the suit is not only its construction, but its cultural weight, its ability to hold history and invite transformation.
“We’re very drawn to the craftsmanship behind tailoring – a suit contains so much material and construction: layers of padding, lining, shoulder pads. There’s a real depth to it.
“Beyond the physical construction, there’s also the symbolism. The suit is a classic masculine uniform, and we’re interested in transforming that into something feminine and contemporary.
“Preserving elements of the original garment is very important to us. We love keeping details like pockets and existing structures.”
As the brand look ahead, ambition is tempered. Growth is not about speed or scale for its own sake, but about sustainability and a desire to remain creative, practical, and ethical.
“We hope the momentum continues. For us as a brand, the future is about progressing while maintaining a manageable scale.
“We’d like to expand thoughtfully across Europe and potentially beyond, while still maintaining a small production scale.”
As they come to the end of their time with the CPHFW NEWTALENT programme, and prepare for their final show, Bonnetje closes a transformational chapter. Their growth within the scheme has coincided with the explosion of CPHFW on to the world stage. Whilst the platform offered them visibility and structure, their work – alongside that of many others – has helped propel CPHFW to heights that would have been unimaginable just a decade ago.
Moving beyond the scaffolding that the CPHFW NEWTALENT programme represents offers the brand a chance to continue their evolution at their own speed. It opens space for them to rethink when, where, and how they present their work. It opens them up to scaling selectively, experimenting with alternative formats, and allowing their collections to land outside the constraints of the frantic fashion week calendar. It opens them up to growth, not in terms of scale but in terms of scope and freedom.
It is independence, a chance to define their own benchmarks and consolidate what they have built during their time with the CPHFW NEWTALENT programme. For CPHFW it is a fresh start, a chance to champion yet another cohort of great Scandinavian designers, and to truly establish themselves as a leading light in the industry.