Cecilie Bahnsen is among Copenhagen fashion’s biggest new wave success stories. The label — which is on track to hit $10 million in sales this year, according to industry sources — is making aggressive plans to scale its operations internationally.
Bahnsen — who worked as a luxury designer for houses in Paris before moving back to Denmark to start a line in 2015 — has managed to avoid many of the pitfalls often encountered by independent designers.
Her line remains self-funded — partly thanks to numerous grants provided by the Danish government and organizations there — all while weathering the pandemic and delivering to a store roster that exceeds 125 points of sales. Revenues in 2022 were up 20 percent year over year.
A member of a new generation of high-profile Danish labels that have carved out a firm niche in the global sportswear market, Bahnsen became popular alongside brands like Saks Potts, Ganni, Helmstedt and Stine Goya. Her designs are the highest on the luxury scale of the group, and is perhaps only eclipsed in international business by Ganni, which has a stronghold in the contemporary price point.
Bahnsen burst onto the scene with her signature poufy dresses — which still account for 50 percent of her business — that are designed for daily wear and the Copenhagen bike commuter lifestyle, lending them an air of practicality.
Part of the ethereal line’s success is that it’s hard to replicate. Through close collaboration with Italian textile mills to develop her own fabrics — along with a unique outlook on draping, silhouette and embellishment — Bahnsen has centered her label around components that cannot easily be copied by lower-priced brands.
This vision — which transitioned from diaphanous dresses to statement tops during the pandemic Zoom era — is what allows her brand to continue feeling fresh, even despite some repeated motifs and fabrications.
“We keep what’s dear to me. We keep evolving and improving to push this feminine universe forward. What’s exciting to me is being able to have a bigger team to strengthen the product and the service that comes with it,” she said.
The brand, which in 2018 had a staff of around seven employees, has since expanded to a team of around 30. The growth in staff meant the brand had to expand its studio space and last August it moved into a 13,000-square-foot office across two floors in the Østerbro area of Copenhagen.
Each season, Bahnsen and a portion of her team decamp to Paris to show and sell the collection — giving the label a certain global viewpoint that would not come from solely sitting in Copenhagen.
“Living in Denmark allows me to focus on my creative process as a designer. When I’m here, I’m working with a creative network. Showing in Paris and having stores and press see what we are doing and being out to engage with the industry inspires me so much to go back and create. It works. Living here allows me to do things at my own pace and stick with my identity,” said the designer.
Those Paris shows have helped Bahnsen balance her business. Scandinavia now accounts for only 5 percent of the label’s sales. Europe overall represents 31 percent, the wider APAC region is 41 percent with a large portion coming from Japan, while the U.S. is Bahnsen’s largest single country for sales, representing 22 percent.
That makes the U.S. a key focus for the label. Last month, Bahnsen traveled to New York to take private custom-order appointments and make store appearances to further her campaign in the region — something she says she will continue to do more regularly now that pandemic restrictions have eased.
The company, however, will continue to rely on wholesale channels. “We work closely with selected retail partners in the U.S., such as Dover Street Market, Saks and Bergdorf Goodman, to continue growing organically and maintain brand awareness. Despite the success of online channels, it is equally important for us to remain focused on building our network of local brick-and-mortar heroes in an effort to create a strong local presence,” Bahnsen said.
This week she will move two employees from her Copenhagen sales team to New York — marking her first international posts.
“As our largest market and revenue driver, the U.S. continues to be a primary focus for 2023. One of our ambitions is to build an international sales team composed of experts with market-specific knowledge, and the U.S. will be the first region where we experiment with this strategy,” she said.
A few years ago, conversations with Bahnsen would solely focus on design ideology and ambitions, but more recent discussions indicate how she has grown her business acumen. The designer, more ambitious than ever, appears intent on highly strategic growth. A big part of that was introducing accessories to her assortment.
Bahnsen recently hired her first in-house shoe designer in a bid to continue “expanding our universe.” Her first shoe line follow the success of an Asics collaboration that sold out in four minutes.
Cecilie Bahnsen handbags — which are little sachets made in the same delicate fabrics as her dresses, creating something of an auxiliary, very pretty pocket — are now available for sale. Her first sneaker designs — which she described as a “very technical ballerina flat,” that look like dainty water shoes — are also available through wholesale partners as well as her own website.
“Launched in 2021, shoes and bags received a strong reception followed by a successful introduction of denim during spring 2023 market. Over the next couple of years we will invest in core categories including knits and outerwear from a team, development and marketing point of view. We wish to develop categories that complete the silhouette and enforce the brand’s everyday wearability to expand the positioning beyond the occasional dress,” Bahnsen said of her line’s ongoing expansion.
But despite the flush of new product into the marketplace, Bahnsen is rooted in Danish design principles — which include sustainability. For fall 2023, the brand is partnering with Nona Source, which offers surplus textiles from big luxury couture houses.
Soon she will also unveil a Take Back campaign to recirculate her used products. Bahnsen shoppers can submit old products that they no longer wear for a voucher to shop on her site. These items will be repaired by her studio team and put up for sale on the brand’s website — sitting alongside new products.
Bahnsen said the value of each voucher and price of recirculated designs will depend on their rarity and condition.
“We are excited to see where the dresses have been and to have them come back and get cherished in a new life. For me, it was important for them to exist in the website along new dresses as a natural part of our universe. It’s part of our wider effort to extend the life of our precious garments and create a more circular model,” said the designer.
The program is expected to launch in the second half of this year.