Cecilie Bahnsen Is Still Key to Nailing the Beloved Scandi Girl Look

Bahnsen’s bows are conversation starters. Amongst fashion fans and anyone who loves to get dressed, they are easy to distinguish from other popular bows, like those by Sandy Liang or Simone Rocha. Bahnsen’s are thin and dainty and used to fasten her tops and dresses onto shoulders and hips. In the Danish capital, her hometown, they can be spotted everywhere, popping against the skin of bike riders in dresses and flip-flops. There is something quite sweet about her look. So sweet that at the Asics breakfast, a handful of fashion editors—many of whom the brand had dressed—described their looks as baby dresses. “It is something I could see my future daughter wearing to her baptism,” one joked to me. “But it’s also something I am wearing right now, and want to wear … forever.” The dress she was describing was long and pale yellow, with pleats and puffed sleeves that jetted out from the shoulders.

Cecilie Bahnsen Fall/Winter 2022

This feminine aesthetic is how Bahnsen has always dressed. “Even as a kid, that’s how I loved to dress up. I’d always wear a big dress with my wellies! I think there’s a strength in embracing femininity. You can be yourself in that, and you can still be a businesswoman, or you can be a mom. You don’t have to be fragile,” she said, before quickly adding, “Or you can even be that! If you want to!”

Cecilie Bahnsen Spring/Summer 2024

Cecilie Bahnsen Spring/Summer 2024

The designer’s favorite thing is to see how different women style her babydoll dresses and diaphanous peplum tops. “It’s more about this rich diversity even within femininity, and how they will wear things differently and put them together in a way that inspires me,” she told me. The signature Bahnsen look is certainly youthful, with an ease often only associated with being young and naive. You can throw on a Bahnsen look without much thought and look instantly cute, which is likely why grown-ups are so drawn to it. There is a bliss to her brand that is hard to bottle, and that most of us age out of when we become teens.

Despite being one of the biggest designers to come out of Copenhagen, Bahnsen hasn’t shown at Copenhagen Fashion Week since 2019. Instead, she has shown in Paris digitally since 2021, and physically since 2022. Bahnsen says it is because the brand found that a huge fraction of its customer base resides in the fashion capital. Regardless, her presence is felt all over Copenhagen Fashion Week, even without a runway.

Outside of the breakfast, Bahnsen told me, “We just had to do something this season!” In the coming weeks, the Cecilie Bahnsen × Asics Gel-Quantum 360 VIII—the brand’s third sneaker collaboration with technical sportswear brand Asics—will be available to shop. The sneaker, which will be the first-ever women’s model of the popular shoe, features silver fastenings in the shape of flowers. It has been reworked into a sandal, with straps across the top and back that allow for effortless styling with a good sock.

When I looked around at the breakfast, which was so highly attended that the crowd spilled onto the streets, I noted that a handful of guests were wearing the new Asics shoes with the expected pair of frilly socks. Everyone was dressed in at least one Cecilie Bahnsen piece, and although some women were wearing the same dress or top or skirt, you could barely even tell, because they were worn so differently. Some styled the babydoll dresses with striped shirts underneath and layers of chunky necklaces over top; others wore them sans anything, with their hair pinned up with a floral clip.

“I think that there’s a system to the community around the brand,” Bahnsen said. “Lots of friends wear it together … and you are inspiring each other and putting it on together and you dress up together!” Her universe is very feminine, of course, but she noted: “It still has a very Scandinavian touch to it! It has this balance between the romantic, the decadent, the feminine, but also something really minimalistic and functional.”

Standing in the middle of it all, amongst a crowd of Cecilie Bahnsen fangirls, I felt like I was part of a club—one that gladly welcomed me and required nothing for entry. And it really does feel like only Bahnsen could manage to create such a universe, one that can sustain itself in the city and its Fashion Week without a formal show.

“I feel like we’re all inside of a fairy tale,” one guest in a sheer bubbly white top said to me as she walked onto the street out of the café. Another, sipping on a coffee nearby, overheard and laughed, saying, “We’re really all just Bahnsen fairies.” Exactly.

Tara Gonzalez is the Senior Fashion Editor at Harper’s Bazaar. Previously, she was the style writer at InStyle, founding commerce editor at Glamour, and fashion editor at Coveteur.