Author name: Saskia Clarke

An Interview with Frederik Berner Kühl: Wessel & Vett Fashion Prize Winner 2026 BERNER KÜHL received the Wessel & Vett Fashion Prize 2026. For the first time, the winner was announced at Copenhagen Fashion Week SS27, underscoring the Prize’s support for emerging Danish designers and their international recognition. To honour Magasin du Nord’s legacy, the jury observed the menswear label’s creative process during a live studio session in April. Founder Frederik Berner Kühl shared his refined approach to contemporary clothing with us. Sandra Myhrberg: The new format puts the jury inside your studio for a live working session on April 9th, not just reviewing a finished collection. What are you most nervous or excited about them seeing up close?  Frederik Berner Kühl: I think what I was most excited about was that they saw the process rather than just the outcome. Our collections don’t begin with a mood board or a trend. They begin with materials, conversations, fittings, and countless small decisions. We’re a relatively small team, so everyone is involved in shaping the collection. Hopefully they’ll see that every garment is the result of care, patience, and iteration. If I’m nervous about anything, it’s probably that the process can look slower or less spectacular than people expect. But that’s also exactly the point. We believe good products take time. SM: Each of you balances a strong aesthetic signature with a need to scale commercially. Where do you personally draw the line between staying true to your original vision and building a business that can grow internationally?  FBK: For me, growth should never come at the expense of identity. I’d rather build something that grows steadily over many years than expand quickly and lose what makes the brand distinctive. We’ve always tried to create products people will wear for a long time rather than for a single season. If we stay focused on quality, materials, and consistency, I actually think those values become an advantage internationally rather than a limitation. The challenge isn’t changing the vision; it’s finding better ways to communicate it and make it visible to more people.  SM: Sustainability and circularity show up differently across your practices, from deadstock and durability to reconstructed vintage, to limited runs, to archival referencing. What do you think about the tension between responsible production and the pressure to keep producing more?  FBK: I don’t think sustainability can be reduced to one material choice or one initiative. For us it’s about creating fewer, better products that remain relevant over time. Fashion will always involve making new things, so the question becomes whether those products genuinely deserve to exist. We try to make garments that people return to season after season, rather than replacing after a few months. Durability, both physically and aesthetically, is probably the most sustainable thing we can contribute. Of course there’s always pressure to produce more, introduce more styles and move faster. We try to resist that where we can. We’d rather refine than constantly reinvent. SM: If you win, the prize includes mentoring in sales, production, PR, and business development. Which of those areas do you most need help with right now, and why?  FBK: Probably business development. We’re confident in our creative direction, but we’re entering a stage where the biggest challenge isn’t designing the collection; it’s building the right structure around it. How do we grow internationally without compromising the values we’ve built the brand on? How do we make smart decisions about distribution, partnerships, and long-term strategy? Having experienced people challenge our thinking and share their perspective would be incredibly valuable. SM: A look from your collection will sit in Magasin du Nord’s windows during Copenhagen Fashion Week, tying your work to over a century of Danish retail history. How does that legacy sit alongside the story you’re trying to tell with your own brand?  FBK: I like the idea that fashion exists in a longer continuum rather than only in the present moment. Magasin represents a long history of Danish craftsmanship, retail and culture, and I think our brand shares that respect for longevity. At the same time, we’re not interested in nostalgia. We want to build on that tradition while speaking to how people live today. If someone looks at the window and sees clothing that feels contemporary but also timeless, something they can imagine wearing for many years, that would feel like a meaningful connection between the two. images courtesy Berner Kühl photography Oscar Meyer and Kasper Søholm

An Interview with Oscar Jardorf: Wessel & Vett Fashion Prize Nominee 2026 O. FILES stood among the nominees for the Wessel & Vett Fashion Prize 2026. For the first time, the winner was announced at Copenhagen Fashion Week SS27, underscoring the Prize’s support for emerging Danish designers and their international recognition. To honour Magasin du Nord’s legacy, the jury observed the label’s creative process during a live studio session in April. Oscar Jardorf shared with us his aim to create a clear, meaningful link between clothing and the person wearing it.   Sandra Myhrberg: The new format puts the jury inside your studio for a live working session on April 9th, not just reviewing a finished collection. What are you most nervous or excited about them seeing up close?  Oscar Jardorf: Compared to showcasing a finished collection, it was both interesting and a great exercise to have to present and convey raw ideas from the midst of an idea-/conceptual phase to an audience with such extensive experience. A lot of ideas normally just float around and rarely materialise in an easily presentable form before a relatively late point in the process; however, we tried to really condense and concretise some of the concepts and tenets behind the upcoming collection for the jury’s careful review. SM: Each of you balances a strong aesthetic signature with a need to scale commercially. Where do you personally draw the line between staying true to your original vision and building a business that can grow internationally?  OJ: At O. FILES, the vision is principal to everything, and it’s a vital part of our proposition to the consumer. We don’t want to compromise and let the foundation on which the brand was built deteriorate, primarily because said foundation is the thing that sets us apart. In terms of international commercial growth, such an approach may be somewhat troublesome in the fast-paced, complex environment of the fashion industry, yet we genuinely believe it’s the best and most optimal long-term strategy and that the users will ultimately cherish a non-diluted version of the brand. As also emphasized during our meeting with the jury, for guarding the vision, knowing exactly what not to do is a key capacity for us. SM: Sustainability and circularity show up differently across your practices, from deadstock and durability to reconstructed vintage, to limited runs, to archival referencing. What do you think about the tension between responsible production and the pressure to keep producing more?  OJ: This is somewhat of a paradox, so there are multiple perspectives needed for answering this question. Up close, we believe and thus create items that are intended to transcend the singular season, things that are distinctively purposeful and generally have a high utility value in the long run. If we simply wanted to scale and sell more at a consistently rapid rate, the character of our designs and fabric choices would be vastly different. As such, our configuration comes with an intrinsic limitation for mindless production. On the other hand, in the bigger picture, we want more people to choose products with a proposition similar to the one described above, whether from O. FILES or from other mindful brands like our co-finalists for the prize. This implies that, consequently, someone has to produce more; it just has to be someone with the right approach. SM: If you win, the prize includes mentoring in sales, production, PR, and business development. Which of those areas do you most need help with right now, and why?  OJ: To be honest, we would gladly welcome mentoring in each of the areas. We are always open to listening and learning how to further develop the operation from someone with more extensive experience, especially if the respective mentor can integrate the principles of our vision in the mentoring. SM: A look from your collection will sit in Magasin du Nord’s windows during Copenhagen Fashion Week, tying your work to over a century of Danish retail history. How does that legacy sit alongside the story you’re trying to tell with your own brand?  OJ: The story of Magasin du Nord is one of retail mastery. To us, it’s inspiring from many different facets, ranging from the capacity for sustained cultural relevance to exceptional general business acumen within the retail space. It shows how a strong identity can remain relevant across generations.   images courtesy O. FILES photography Paw Lysemose

An Interview with Anna Myntekær and Yoko Maja Rahbek: Wessel & Vett Fashion Prize Nominees 2026 BONNETJE stood among the nominees for the Wessel & Vett Fashion Prize 2026. For the first time, the winner was announced at Copenhagen Fashion Week SS27, underscoring the Prize’s support for emerging Danish designers and their international recognition. To honour Magasin du Nord’s legacy, the jury observed the label’s creative process during a live studio session in April. Anna Myntekær and Yoko Maja Rahbek shared their ideas about the new circular fashion movement with us. Sandra Myhrberg: The new format puts the jury inside your studio for a live working session on April 9th, not just reviewing a finished collection. What are you most nervous or excited about them seeing up close?  Anna Myntekær and Yoko Maja Rahbek: We were actually most excited that the jury got to experience the process rather than only seeing the finished outcome. Bonnetje has always been built around making, experimenting, and responding to what already exists, so the studio is where our creative work really takes shape. It’s not a linear process — it involves countless fittings, conversations, unexpected decisions and constant refinement. What made us most nervous wasn’t the creative work itself — we have a lot of confidence in that. It was whether our way of working could be seen as something that can scale, be produced and succeed commercially without losing what makes Bonnetje, Bonnetje. When you work with reconstructed garments and an unconventional production model, questions around scalability, production, and sales naturally arise. That was the part we were most excited to discuss and to show that we’ve been thinking carefully about.  SM: Each of you balances a strong aesthetic signature with a need to scale commercially. Where do you personally draw the line between staying true to your original vision and building a business that can grow internationally?  AM & YMR: For us, growth should never mean designing differently just to reach a bigger audience. The identity of Bonnetje comes from working with tailoring, existing garments, and a certain playfulness, and that’s something we don’t see as negotiable. The challenge is finding ways to scale the system rather than changing the creative vision. That means improving production, developing partnerships, and becoming more efficient while keeping the same design philosophy. We’d rather grow a little slower than lose the reason people connected with the brand in the first place. SM: Sustainability and circularity show up differently across your practices, from deadstock and durability to reconstructed vintage, to limited runs, to archival referencing. How do you think about the tension between responsible production and the pressure to keep producing more?  AM & YMR: It’s a tension we think about constantly. Fashion is built around newness, but our starting point has always been that there’s already an enormous amount of value in what exists. Working with vintage garments and existing materials isn’t just an aesthetic choice for us; it’s a design methodology. At the same time, we’re building a business, so we also have to be realistic about production and demand. We don’t believe sustainability is about claiming to have all the answers. It’s about making thoughtful decisions every day, producing with intention, creating pieces that people want to wear for a long time, and continuing to challenge ourselves to find better ways of working as we grow. SM: If you win, the prize includes mentoring in sales, production, PR, and business development. Which of those areas do you most need help with right now, and why?  AM & YMR: Production, sale, and business development would probably have the biggest impact for us right now. Although many of our garments are unique and partially upcycled, we’ve spent the last few years developing systems that allow us to grade, reproduce, and produce our styles in a structured way. Proving that this kind of practice can be scalable has always been important to us. What we would value most now is guidance on how to take those systems to the next level — growing internationally, strengthening production, and building a business that stays true to our way of working.   SM: A look from your collection will sit in Magasin du Nord’s windows during Copenhagen Fashion  Week, tying your work to over a century of Danish retail history. How does that legacy sit alongside the story you’re trying to tell with your own brand?  AM & YMR: We like the contrast. Bonnetje is rooted in rethinking existing garments and questioning traditional ideas of fashion, while Magasin represents a long-standing retail institution. Bringing those two worlds together feels like a reminder that fashion is always evolving. There’s also something symbolic about presenting garments that are built from existing pieces in a space associated with heritage and craftsmanship. We see it as a conversation between past and present rather than a contradiction. Our work is about giving garments another life, and in a way that also reflects the idea of heritage — not as something fixed, but as something that keeps being reinterpreted. images courtesy Bonnetje photography Nynne Henriksen and Kresten Julian Sommer

An Interview with Caroline Bille Brahe: Wessel & Vett Fashion Prize Nominee 2026 CARO EDITIONS stood among the nominees for the Wessel & Vett Fashion Prize 2026. For the first time, the winner was announced at Copenhagen Fashion Week SS27, underscoring the Prize’s support for emerging Danish designers and their international recognition. To honour Magasin du Nord’s legacy, the jury observed the label’s creative process during a live studio session in April. Caroline Bille Brahe shared with us how she achieves a balance between standout design and wearability. Sandra Myhrberg: The new format puts the jury inside your studio for a live working session on April 9th, not just reviewing a finished collection. What are you most nervous or excited about them seeing up close?   Caroline Bille Brahe: I’m excited for them to experience the atmosphere of the studio. So much of Caro Editions happens through conversation, fittings, small adjustments, and intuition. It isn’t a polished process, and I think that’s the beauty of it. I hope they leave with a sense of the care and craftsmanship behind every piece.  SM: Each of you balances a strong aesthetic signature with a need to scale commercially. Where do you personally draw the line between staying true to your original vision and building a business that can grow internationally?   CBB: For me, growth should never come at the expense of identity. I believe you can build a business by becoming more yourself, not less. We think carefully about how we grow, making sure every new category and every decision still feels unmistakably Caro Editions. I want the brand to evolve organically and remain personal, even as it reaches more people. SM: Sustainability and circularity show up differently across your practices, from deadstock and durability to reconstructed vintage, to limited runs, to archival referencing. How do you think about the tension between responsible production and the pressure to keep producing more?   CBB: I don’t think more is always better. I believe in creating clothes that people truly connect with and want to keep for many years. Working with deadstock fabrics, reimagining vintage pieces, and producing in small quantities naturally encourages a more thoughtful pace. Growth is important, but it has to happen responsibly and without compromising the values the brand is built on.  SM: If you win, the prize includes mentoring in sales, production, PR, and business development. Which of those areas do you most need help with right now, and why?   CBB: Business development would be incredibly valuable. We have built a strong creative foundation, and now the exciting challenge is scaling the company in a thoughtful way while protecting the spirit of the brand. Learning from people who have done that before would be invaluable at this stage.  SM: A look from your collection will sit in Magasin du Nord’s windows during Copenhagen Fashion  Week, tying your work to over a century of Danish retail history. How does that legacy sit alongside the story you’re trying to tell with your own brand?  CBB: I love the idea of placing a young brand like Caro Editions within that history. While our expression feels contemporary and personal, we share a belief in quality, craftsmanship, and clothes that have lasting value. Being part of that conversation feels both special and inspiring. images courtesy Caro Editions photography Nikolaj Møller