How Cecilie Bahnsen Makes Couture Level Dresses For Every Day

Both the collection itself and staging of Cecilie Bahnsen’s intimate Spring ‘24 show at Paris Fashion Week were a response to the paradox of a couture dress. According to the notes, this amounts to the fact that while said dress is “filled with so much intricacy,” it appears completely effortless from a distance. They added that “a runway show tends to create an illusion of ease.”

Bahnsen has always described her brand as “everyday couture,” or, as she said backstage today, “something you wear on a Monday.” She means that, intricacies of the making process notwithstanding, it is designed to be worn everyday. With ease. No illusions.

“Comfort and how you can mix what we make into your everyday activities has always been so important,” she said, noting that the unofficial uniform for the girls in her Copenhagen studio involves the dresses being worn over jeans, or leggings for that matter if they have a yoga class on a particular day.

They’d wear them with sneakers even before Bahnsen began her ongoing footwear collaboration with the sportswear label Asics which she acknowledges has “turned into such a good way for us to really get across the message of how we want the collection to be worn.” On her Paris runway, all the looks were grounded by black sneakers and socks.

For the last few seasons, Bahnsen has transported said team to Paris to take up temporary residence at a gallery in the city’s Marais area so press and buyers can both live the process and see the clothes in action.

Bahnsen’s everyday ethos was drawn into even sharper focus following an extensive feature about US label Thom Browne that ran in the New Yorker just last week. It opened with a description of a highly prescriptive 11 page manual detailing how employees must wear their ‘uniform’ — the “starter kit” of the brand’s clothing they receive on joining the company.

“Top buttons must remain undone. Shirts are not to be ironed. Neckties, a required accessory, should be tucked tightly into waistbands. Suit pants may be swapped out for a pleated skirt, regardless of one’s gender.” It continues, “the color navy is permitted Friday through Sunday but discouraged during the week; seersucker can be worn in the summer months, and white sneakers only on weekends.”

But back to Bahnsen. While the designer acknowledges that her label — on course to hit $10 million in sales this year — is known predominantly as a dress brand, she’s also keen to expand its repertoire and make her “everyday couture” even more everyday, giving her customer further options to mix and match and “make it her own.”

To this end, she’s recently added denim and more separates to the line-up — the Bahnsen way — taking shape via cropped jackets and gathered skirts in indigo with pops of red underlay peeping out from beneath. Likewise a pantsuit, its utilitarian look softened by a pastel pink colorway and a peplum silhouette. Likewise the knitwear, elevating the winter staple via fine jacquard and near transparent renderings because, she said, “I wanted to show that knitwear can be so much more.”

The show’s soundscape by Danish composer August Rosenbaum consisted of light rhythmic breathing which although it did slightly recall an AMSR session, it owed more to the ‘breath of fire’ executed on one of those ‘dress over leggings’ yoga days.