Nicklas Skovgaard is the Copenhagen-based designer spearheading a Nineteen Eighties style revival

If anybody was questioning when the Nineteen Eighties style revival was going to ramp up, look in the direction of Copenhagen, the place the town’s breakout design star, Nicklas Skovgaard, is single-handedly reigniting the period that introduced us white stilettos and shoulder pads. 

‘It’s type of bizarre, however I’ve all the time had this obsession with the Nineteen Eighties since I used to be a younger,’ says Skovgaard, who had Melanie Griffith’s Tess McGill from Working Woman, Lecia Jönsson of Danish band Laban, and his aerobics teacher mom, Annie, on his temper board for A/W 2024 (the gathering was proven earlier this month as a part of  Copenhagen Trend Week).

Nicklas Skovgaard: Copenhagen’s designer to look at

‘I used to be born within the mid-Nineteen Nineties so I by no means skilled the Nineteen Eighties myself, however I bear in mind as a baby all the time listening to my mom telling me in regards to the time of her life when she was in her mid-to-late twenties,’ he says. ‘It’s the time of my life that I’m residing proper now so I assume that’s why it appeals to me.’ It seems that the style world additionally desires to embrace the last decade, as interpreted by way of Skovgaard’s eyes, with the identical enthusiasm.

Subsequently, the younger Dane has change into considerably of a nationwide treasure inside simply two seasons of exhibiting collections at Copenhagen Trend Week. Following the success of his debut present in August which noticed the designer collaborate with the efficiency artist Britt Liberg to stage a one-woman present – she modelled each single look within the assortment to rapturous applause and significant acclaim – he was requested to open the five-day occasion for the A/W 2024 season. It’s a trajectory the 29-year-old is dealing with with attribute humility.

‘It was an incredible honour [opening fashion week] but additionally an excessive amount of strain on prime of final season,’ he tells Wallpaper*. ‘From the start, I stored on saying to myself that I needed to create a present identical to we needed it to be, with out pondering an excessive amount of about what we did final season and never having any excessive reward or strain or have an effect on our selections when it comes to creating and making the present.’ For the A/W 2024 assortment, he did simply that, having every of his fashions saunter round a deconsecrated church pulling playful poses that might have jumped off the quilt of an outdated copy of Lady’s Personal, sporting pleated midi skirts, suede-insert leather-based bomber jackets and sequined funnel necks.

Skovgaard’s impartial streak is a recurring theme all through his profession so far. After an early profession in interiors, he diverted his consideration to style in the course of the pandemic after discovering a baby’s loom in a thrift store on vacation. Having taught himself the best way to weave on it by watching YouTube and Instagram tutorials, he started to make his personal supplies. He would then made these supplies into garments, promoting them through Instagram.

To this present day, he nonetheless whips up his personal materials (albeit on a much bigger loom), combining them with extra responsibly sourced materials to satisfy the calls for of his rising enterprise (which he stated doubled in gross sales and manufacturing for S/S 2024). For A/W 2024, which is his eighth assortment so far, there was a continuation of hand-woven brushed wool and alpaca, although right here combined with lambskin leather-based, chiffon, fake fur, vinyl, lycra and mohair to attain the temper of the 80s epoch. ‘I attempt to make my collections as steady as attainable,’ he says. ‘I wish to carry on remodeling and rethinking items of the final assortment into the brand new assortment.’

Being the brand new wunderkind on the block doesn’t come with out its challenges. The style trade has been pulled up these days on selling new expertise, after which dropping off when a designer is someplace in between ‘rising’ and ‘established’. However Skovgaard is all too conscious of what he wants subsequent. ‘The well being of the enterprise is nice on the time being,’ he says. ’I believe for my model, I see myself very a lot as a maker, fairly than as a businessperson [so] I believe the very best help could be working intently with a staff that might be mentoring and guiding the enterprise aspect. However after all [they] would even be somebody that understands the imaginative and prescient of the model.’