Cecilie Bahnsen Fall 2022 Ready-to-Wear

“Night Wandering,” a 1939 poem by Tove Ditlevsen, was left on the seat of each guest at Cecilie Bahnsen’s debut runway show in Paris. A voiceover of the poem provided the soundtrack to her show, because, the Danish designer said afterwards, “I wanted to bring home with me.” (She plans to continue to show in Paris, after this sweethearted debut.) Crammed onto tiny stools around the Palais de Tokyo, guests were treated to a tour de force of Bahnsen’s strengths. Her dresses, the most recognizable made of starchy cloqué, came in every color and shape, some bobbly short little poufettes, others asymmetrically hemmed as though the wearer had haphazardly hiked then up on one side. (Bahnsen has described the genesis of her askew silhouette to my colleague Laird Borelli-Persson as a reference to how Danish women tuck up their skirts while bicycling.) Tiny textural knits topped off some looks, a new development in her studio, and pansy appliques dripped off shoulders and hemlines.