UNIQLO × Cecilie Bahnsen: Shapes of Poetry, Worn Every Day
In Cecilie Bahnsen’s world, flowers aren’t just motifs, they’re a symbol of personal memories spent pressing blooms with her sister at their seaside house and childhood afternoons with her grandmother. The symbolistic motif has now moved into textiles; Utilising the juxtaposition of the personal with the universal, she has transformed a collection that both feels as intimate as a keepsake and as easy as a T‑shirt. That’s the paradox Bahnsen has long pursued: couture-level emotion with everyday wearability. Now, in collaboration with UNIQLO, that idea of “everyday couture,” as Uniqlo’s Yukihiro Katsuta puts it – meets LifeWear’s clarity of purpose.
The seed for the collaboration was planted seven years ago, when a chance seating at the opening of Uniqlo’s first Copenhagen store brought Bahnsen and Yukihiro together. Katsuta remembers her saying she’d started her label just a few years earlier and he kept watching. What took time to mature wasn’t a moodboard match but a deeper alignment and a shared belief that clothes should serve the person, not the other way around. “Clothes shouldn’t have an attitude, so that the person creates individuality,” Katsuta says. “Different price point, different design, but the philosophy is the same.”
Bahnsen’s studio is known for sculptural volume, soft light, and a devotion to craft that sits between couture and ready-to-wear. Translating that into LifeWear demanded both restraint and invention. “We chose to make everything in jersey,” she explains. “It drapes more than we normally use, but we still wanted ruffles, ruching, and movement.” The teams co-engineered fabrics like a gingham jersey with matelassé texture 3D to the eye, soft and stretching in motion preserving structure without losing ease. For Bahnsen, those “small codes” matter. Detail becomes identity: a precise flower, a line of shirring, a sleeve that lifts air. “It doesn’t take more than two small flowers on a T‑shirt, and a good jersey to make it feel personal,” she says. Working within constraints sharpened that sense of authorship: “Making a runway collection lets you do everything. Here, restraint made me more aware of what makes a piece feel Cecilie and how to carry that DNA, intact, into this Uniqlo collection.”
New Collection- Shapes of Poetry and Everyday Couture, For All Ages
The collection’s theme, “Shapes of Poetry,” is both a method and a statement about how the pieces are meant to live on the body and evolve over time. It’s about ideas coming together until everything feels right “It’s like when it clicks and suddenly everything makes sense,” Bahnsen says. At its core, the collection is designed for longevity and versatility: pieces are meant to be worn, restyled, and reinterpreted across different seasons rather than tied to a single moment. In the campaign, this spirit is reflected in a shared, collaborative approach with teammates layering denim under airy dresses and moving garments fluidly between looks. The campaign, shot by twin photographers Louise and Maria Thornfeldt on Shodoshima, captures this same sensibility, where the shifting sea light gives the fabrics a sense of rhythm and continuity, like punctuation across changing scenes.
If Copenhagen gives Bahnsen movement- “as a Scandinavian woman, you want to live in your clothes, not be owned by them”- Japan gives continuity. It is one of her label’s largest markets; she has visited nine times since founding the brand. She admires how Uniqlo customers recombine pieces across seasons, building personal uniforms from modular parts. Here, the Venn diagram overlaps: Scandinavian ease, Japanese simplicity, and a shared dedication to craft in textiles, ceramics, furniture, and fashion.
The collection normally centers around womenswear but for the first time, a children’s line has been introduced. The same signatures are featured, volume, florals, introducing a new playfulness, inspired by childlike wonder and inviting rituals of mother daughter dressing . That matters to Bahnsen, now a mother, who talks about holding onto “the joy you have as a kid, the first time you draw, the first time a dress feels like magic.”
Katsuta likens great collaborations to an Iron Chef challenge: you hand the designer a new ingredient – here, jersey and watch their mastery adapt. “Her direction is so detailed and tricky,” he says with admiration, recalling multiple fittings to bring ruching, tension, and comfort into sync. The reward is dual: LifeWear that breathes with emotion, and a gateway for new fans to discover Bahnsen’s world.
Walk into a Uniqlo store and you’ll see the subtle details that shift a staple into something felt: a sleeve that swells like a tide, a floral that reads as a pressed memory, a skirt that moves with Copenhagen’s easy, sunlit pace.“Small things bring big changes,” Katsuta remarked. It could be the collection’s thesis. In the end, what feels most personal becomes the most shareable: a pressed anemone for spring, a tee with two flowers, the quiet moment when, as Bahnsen says, the pin drops and you realise you can wear it every day.
The collection will launch globally on Thursday, 28 May.
COPENHAGEN GUIDE- THE CECILE X UNIQLO WAY
Design & Shopping
Cecilie Bahnsen Boutique
The designer’s poetic universe.
LOUISE ROE Gallery
Scandinavian design in a serene setting.
UNIQLO Stroget
Uniqlo’s Copenhagen Flagship.
Tableau
Sculptural florals and curated design objects.
Culture
Nya Carlsberg Glyptotek
Art Museum set around a lush winter garden.
Kunsthal Charlottenborg
Contemporary art in a historic setting.
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Modern art by the sea, where architecture, landscape, and exhibitions flow together.
Cafe
Atelier September
Calm, sunlit café with seasonal, minimal dishes .
Restaurants
Esmée
Lush, design – led brasserie with a vibrant atmosphere.
Locale 21
Modern European dining with a relaxed, central feel.
Pluto
Refined sharing plates in an intimate setting.
Stay
1 Hotel
Nature-led, sustainable design with Scandinavian calm in the city centre.
Villa Copenhagen
The grand former post office turned into a conscious luxury hotel by Central Station.
