Step inside Cecilie Bahnsen's new Copenhagen studio

Cecilie Bahnsen, the Danish designer who has made a name for herself with confectionery dresses in macaroon hues, is really going places. She presented her first runway show in Paris last season (and will be back to show her spring 2023 collection there), and she’s moved from the basement of an old brick building a bit outside the city centre to bigger, brighter, and shinier headquarters in an industrial complex in Østerbro.

When it came to the interior space, it was love at first – and second – sight: a delightful déjà vu. In 2019, when the space was raw, Bahnsen had used it as a set for her spring 2020 look book, so when she was looking for new digs, the place seemed almost meant to be. The company now occupies two floors of the building, the top one, where the atelier is located, and the bottom, where there are open offices and a canteen. Vegetarian and organic lunches are served every day, and no one is allowed to eat at their desks. Breaks are encouraged.

As if those weren’t #lifestylegoals, the minimal decoration of the office is magazine-ready, the result of Bahnsen’s work with the Swedish architectural firm Stamuli and creative agency Moon. The expansive space gave Bahnsen the chance to highlight the projects of frequent friends and collaborators. Plush seating is from the Danish brand Paustian, while office tables and lamps were sourced locally at Studio X. Steel furnishings from the Magniberg of Sweden and Finnish Artek stools (used at past fashion shows) sit side by side with Nina Nørgaard’s glassware. The curtains on the ground floor are patchworks of fabrics from past collections.

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In Scandinavia, the links between interiors, lifestyle, and fashion are more often than not symbiotic. When Bahnsen, a graduate of the Royal College of Art, first started showing the extreme prettiness of her work and her colorful palette seemed to connect her to British designers like Simone Rocha or Molly Goddard more than to her fellow Danes. A visit to her studio tells another story. Seeing how the team styled their Bahnsens, with a band T-shirt, or over jeans, was a revelation. Worn for daily life, their preciousness, if not their prettiness, fell away, and the dresses felt like a subversive uniform.

This “everyday couture” idea feels very Scandinavian, in its inherent modesty and implied functionality. Seeing how her dresses take on lives off the runway is influencing Bahnsen’s approach to design at the moment, specifically, her spring 2023 collection, designed in an atelier big and bright enough to provide new perspectives on silhouette and shape. Here, an exclusive look at Bahnsen’s new H.Q., and her thoughts on designing dresses and spaces

What prompted this move?

We’ve known for a while that it was time to move, but I had a lot of memories connected to the old space. It was a crowded but very creative basement, and we’d been there from the first collection; we started with one desk, and then we outgrew it. Now we are a team of 27. We looked for space in Copenhagen for a while, but it had to feel right before I was ready to move.

How did you find the space?

Khristine from my team was out looking at locations, and she sent pictures from this space. At that point, it was really raw, and I was like, ‘Wait a minute, I know this space.’ When we did this very beautiful photo shoot [for spring 2020], I remember saying ‘Wow, this could be an amazing office space.’ At that point, we were five people, so it wasn’t time. [But when I saw Khristine’s pictures], it just had to be here. It felt very natural, and like a home that we had been in before in some way.

Did you have to renovate?

I wanted the space to still stay quite clean so that the collection would be what brings life to the space. Designing it was an amazing opportunity to work with friends of the brand. We’ve done the kitchen with a friend of mine who has built some of our props before; all the glass things that you will see are done by Nina Nørgaard, who blows glass. It’s been nice to bring collaborations that we do when we travel back home.

What’s on the ground floor?

Most exciting, [and something] which I wanted to have for a long time, is an open space for private appointments, so that the customers can come in and try the collection and then are able to also be taken up through the whole space and see how we work and make the collection. I think there’s so much story to tell in the craftsmanship and the touch of the hand. [I wanted to ] make it really open and welcoming and [allow the customer] to see everything that is going on behind the dress and how many hands touch it before it actually is finished. Then you, of course, have the atelier [upstairs]; that is my favorite part and where I spend 90% of my time.

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Tell me more about the canteen.

We made a rule that you don’t eat at your desk; we have lunch together, which is super nice. People mix across teams and you have a good break. The food is made by a kitchen at the building next door, the same one that does all the food for the photo studios in the next block. We also try to work with people who are nearby. The food is all vegetarian and organic.

This airiness that you’ve been talking about—how is it important to you in terms of fashion?

When I design, I need a calmness around me; the fabrics and the constructions we have—a dress might take five meters [of fabric], but it’s always super light and super airy. For me, the biggest difference [in our new location] is having the room to look at the shape in space, to be able to step away from it and really look at it like, where before we were really up close. [Now we can] look at it in a very sculptural way. When you then add movement to it and start trying it on the girls, it really comes to life.

I think everything has a touch of hand with what we do. I love the textiles and the fabrics; that’s really where everything starts, with drawing out the textiles. Actually, it is the team and how they wear the clothes that inspires me, so we’re stepping a little bit away from having a mood board or a certain theme, but [instead] really looking at what have we created the season before, how it was super elevated at the show, and then how we actually wear it, and then trying to create a world in between.

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What’s the meaning of the extreme prettiness of your work?

It’s always easy for me to create beautiful things; it’s natural for me. I’ve not had a longing to rebel or do something that’s more on edge. I really think I fall in love with the pieces as I’m creating them. There’s already beauty in the fabrics [themselves]… And then I think there’s beauty also in simplicity. So, even though our collection is quite complex and super feminine, and I love a bow, there’s still definitely this Scandinavian approach where the design needs to be simple.

Can you trace where this leaning toward beauty stems from?

I’ve always had a romantic or naive idea that this is possible and that I wanted to do it. I remember my first internship was at the design school and falling in love with it all; I think my mom, when she saw me come back from that, [said], “Okay, she’s lost. This is it.’ Creativity has always been a safe place or place of meditation or therapy or whatever. I did it with my grandma from when I was really little: crochet, knitting, all of these crafts. She taught me, and I really enjoyed that space with her. And in the youth club, everybody else was doing dance routines and stuff, and I just wanted to sit and sew pillows. In high school, I loved to make dresses with my friends. I have always loved creating with my hands and been lucky enough that I’ve had full encouragement to do that. Being a mother now, I think my work is feminine in a different way than before my son was around.

Is there anything Danish about your work?

When I started the brand, I moved back to Copenhagen. [It was a time when] the fashion scene was really in the midst of redefining itself and a lot of brands have come out of that with very different approaches. My take on Danish design is very different to Saks Potts’s take on Danish design or Ganni’s, but I think everybody has a playfulness and an effortlessness that runs underneath that’s not too precious. Fashion also needs to be fun and something you really enjoy.