For her first show in Paris, Cecilie Bahnsen or the Danish woman who knows the most about dresses in the world placed a poem by her compatriot Tove Ditlevsen in the guests’ seats that gave the title to her collection, the first presented outside of Fashion Week in Copenhagen: “I wanted to bring a little piece of home with me”, explained the designer who thus strengthened the connection between the two European capitals of fashion, depending on whether you ask in the most traditional or avant-garde sector of the industry, respectively. Their bulky silhouettes They could hardly have gone unnoticed among so much Scandinavian minimalism, so it was a matter of time before they invited her to sit (and parade) with the elders.
And that was how hethe woman who invented, not only the Princess dress millennialbut the way to combine it with velcro strappy sandals she made her way to the city where trends are made and experts stamp their approval on them.
For his second performance there, Bahnsen drew inspiration from home again. Specifically in a Yoko Ono exhibition at the Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen that she attended years ago and in which a row of glass bottles filled with water was exhibited, each one labeled with famous names: David Bowie, Sylvia Plath, Cindy Sherman …. “I found that message of unity so significant,” explained the designer behind the scenes. “We are different, but the same.”
“We are water”, as the title and message of the collection that she paraded in the middle of an installation of 250 hand-blown bottles by the artist Nina Nørgaard, placed on a kind of pedestals, between which her ethereal hoop skirts, her tulle overdresses and her merengue skirts moved fluidly. As if wanting to sharpen the sensation of dynamism, the models had changed hiker’s sandals –which were one runway away from becoming a hallmark of the house– due to equally sporty sneakers, but even more romantic. Almost as much as her dancers, the padded and the puckered.