Unveiling the World of Cecilie Bahnsen

Danish designer Cecilie Bahnsen is not a new name in the fashion scene, she has first launched her brand in 2015 and has managed to establish a name for herself during Copenhagen Fashion Week and now Paris Fashion week. The designer has carefully crafted her signature aesthetic from sculptural silhouettes and feminine styles with effortless chic flair.

Cecilie Bahnsen speaks to 3oud.com about her namesake brand, the effects of the pandemic on her business, and her comfortable feminine designs.

1. Could you tell us about your brand and how it started and developed?

When I graduated from the Royal College of Art in London in 2010. I knew that I wanted to create my own brand.

I fell in love with designing not just the fabrics and garments in the collection but also the whole universe and story that surrounded it.

I spent time in Paris working with John Galliano learning so much from the atelier which helped build foundations for techniques I now incorporate each season. I founded the label in 2015 in Copenhagen where I have the opportunity to focus and develop my own style without being influenced by the hectic tempo and high expectations of the bigger fashion cities. 

2. How does Scandinavian design influence your approach?

Notions of Scandinavian design are woven throughout the design language in the brand. The minimalism, core colours of black and white, comfort and ease are taken and then juxtaposed with the romanticism and femininity from my time spent in London and Paris. 

3. Has your experience working with French couture houses shaped you?

I was coming out of a very minimal Scandinavian environment and suddenly I arrived in Paris with the decadence and romanticism which was quite a contrast.

I was seeing how you can keep developing and building the decadence found within the designs, building up the details and finding new focus.

Looking at John Galliano and Dior, Galliano was a massive contrast to my own aesthetic. But I admired the passion and the craft in the atelier. How the people working in the atelier really poured their heart into the work they did, which really spoke with me. 

4. How do you continue to incorporate new inspiration while staying true to the unique aesthetic you’ve created for yourself?

The collection is always an evolution of the season beforehand. We’re always working on pushing ourselves to be better, where we bring new inspiration, new colours, and new takes on silhouettes.

Lately it's growing the universe from just being dresses to evolving the universe with suiting, outerwear, separates, shoes and bags. It is constantly evolving.

5. Your brand is famed for its voluminous and comfortable silhouettes, and you have managed to re-invent your designs season after season, giving them a new fresh take. Do you find it challenging? And what made you choose the voluminous dress as the focal point of every season?

Sometimes it can be challenging to constantly redevelop collections. Once we decided to develop two collections instead of four, we had the chance to really focus on what we were creating. The voluminous and sculptural approach to the silhouette we have really makes sense with our textiles.

It helps emphasize the lightness and sheerness. When we have the fabric and we’re draping it on the stand the voluminous dress comes quite naturally. It acts almost as a canvas for the textiles. It also reflects the comfort and ease found in Scandinavian minimalism, which is important to me in my designs.

6. You’re known for textile experimentation, tell us about this process and how do you approach it every season? 

Textile experimentation we approach in two ways. We have the one, where we design fully from scratch in the studio. With sketches or swatches, we draw and develop in house and then send out to be developed at a mill.

The second is working with our suppliers in Italy and Switzerland. Diving through their archives and looking at old techniques and fabrics allows us to bring it all back to life. Make it modern and make it ours.

There is so much love and inspiration from those archives that can really inform the collection. 

7. What sustainability practices are you using for your brand?

We have our Encore collection, where we fully up cycle our materials, bring the history of the brand and nothing goes out of value. Certain silhouettes come back stronger seasons later. With the Edition collection, we’ve focused on silhouettes that we always want in a collection, to protect and look after them in a new way.

Largely taking these two approaches and inform the main collection. Fabric developed by our we can develop, we don’t start from a blank canvas and adding to that. Most sustainable is the timeless and everlasting and creating something that you fall in love with and cherish for the rest of your life and you get to pass on and people also want to take care of it and treat it well. 

8. The fashion industry has suffered during the pandemic, it was very challenging times and probably still is. How has the pandemic affected the process of your business and what helped you to manage the stress and challenges of this crisis?

As every other business it’s very complicated especially in the beginning of the pandemic where we had to design remotely, because for us being together and working together is so important.

But the pandemic gave us an opportunity to reflect and focus on the reason why we started the business. We decided to come down to two seasons a year, launch our encore and edition collections, but most importantly create things that we love without the pressure of creating newness. Especially looking at the fabric development aspect and seeing that it is a slower process and it takes time to create a beautiful piece of clothing. 

9. How does it feel to be back at a physical presentations and runway shows?

I think both I and everyone at the company have really missed the runway shows. It's this moment where you are present with the team pulling the collection together, placing final touches and then sending it out, seeing the dresses brush past the audience.

Its something that’s real and cannot be captured on film. In creating a film you create a different vision and a different beauty. But its quite different showing these pieces in the historical and traditional way, with the music and atmosphere. Its a moment in time that’s quite special. 

10. You’ve collaborated with brands like Mackintosh and Mytheresa.com in the past. What would be your dream collaboration?

Whenever we do a collaboration, it's because we have an opportunity to learn something from each other. Mackintosh was an incredible starting point, where we learned to develop a perfect raincoat to protect our dresses. And now we have our own outerwear.

So, we learned from the collaboration and implemented it as a permanent part, where we’ve been working together for 6 to 7 seasons now.

It’s not focused on trends or hype. I feel it would be exciting to collaborate with someone on a different level, where we’re not focused on product but maybe in a digital sense. In communicating our story better and being able to push our universe to a different space.

11. What advice would you give young designers looking to start their own brand?

Keep believing in yourself and be incredibly stubborn even when you are meeting difficulties. Remain humble and eager to learn and do better. Challenge the traditional way of doing things. Do better. 

12. Describe the getaway for Cecilie Bahnsen. 

I think for me an ideal getaway is the countryside or seaside. Nature in general. Even if its a walk after work with my son. Precious moments like a family weekend, where I’m connecting with loved ones and nature.