by Lotus Ladegaard

Elaine Hersby debuted onto Copenhagen Fashion Week with a SS17 collection that was inspired by two of her favorite things; fashion and dance. She is a graduate from Margrethe-skolen with a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic design and has years of experience from all areas of the industry including Acne studios and Danish designer Henrik Vibskov. Elaine Hersby’s designs often play with the body’s proportions which make for a very interesting show although it not always the most flattering silhouettes for the female body. She seldom uses prints, but often create patterns of colour-blocking resembling a print. 

Set in the small and intimate Royal Theatre at Christiansborg’s Riding Court, Elaine Herby presented her AW17 collection. Inspired by the iconic 60’s styling, she has created a more functional collection than her previous ones. Jumpsuits, short maxi dresses, athleisure, and outerwear came down the runway in materials such as silks, satins, boucle, coated cotton and jewel toned pearl embellishments. 

While Elaine Hersby demonstrated an eye for intricate colour-blocking, ruching is not her forte. Unfortunately, her ruched pieces did something very unflattering to the models chest and bottoms. The colour-blocked pieces were intricate and interesting and probably the most successful ones along with the oversized hoodie dress with jewel embellishment as well as the boucle jacket. The collection felt a bit repetitive but modern, wearable and relevant. 

Elaine Hersby’s AW17 collection is another interesting step in the young designer’s evolution.  

Freya Dalsjø is a contemporary luxury ready-to-wear brand founded in 2012. She is a graduate of the prestigious Royal Academy of Art in Antwerp and has been exhibited in Milano, Florence, London and Antwerp. Freya Dalsjø has collaborated with a number of artists across disciplines and proven herself capable of using her aesthetics and intuitive appreciation of fashion and art interchangeably. Over time, she has evolved in style and today aims at creating garments meant for movement and comfort with a focus on detail and craftsmanship.

Freya Dalsjø’s AW17 collection reached that aim. The collection was intriguing, moved beautifully down the runway. The color palette was far from simple and included light olive green, black, dusty lilac, rust, white, blue, gray, orange and purple. Models came down two almost separate runways dressed in luxurious textiles such as silk, cashmere, mink fur, waterproof silk, hand-embroidered canvas, hand knitted metallic yarns and leather. 

With references to the 1980’ies and the wide shoulders, Freya Dalsjø demonstrated great tailoring craftsmanship with a high shoulder and collar, which is interesting, editorial and very fashion forward. It works well on both the trench coat as well as the black dress, which was one of my favorite styles. In general, she delivered on execution especially on the hand-embroidered canvas and the hand knitted pieces. I am not entirely convinced by some of the asymmetrical pieces, but overall Freya Dalsjø delivered a really exciting and elegant AW17 collection.