Ganni’s Paris debut was 15 years in the making. In 2009 Ditte and Nicolaj Reffstrup took the reins of the Danish contemporary brand and, with a small local team, started building the company into the household name it is today. The Ganni Girl concept, which is centered on a colorful and fun-loving approach to fashion (rather than gender) captured the world’s imagination; as the business has expanded globally, the team has become increasingly international. Ganni now operates between Copenhagen and Paris, where its new CEO, Balenciaga alum Laura du Rusquec, is based. When Ganni, once the anchor of Fashion Week in Copenhagen, stepped back from shows two seasons ago, the rumor mill had it that this move was imminent, and so it was.
Why Ganni in Paris is news is less to do with location than with market placement. The French capital is ground zero for luxury, it’s the birthplace of the great maisons (which for so long were resistant to ready-to-wear). Ganni is not a luxury brand: “we are not trying to be someone, we are not trying to play a luxury game,” Ditte Reffstrup stated on a walk through and the show proved she meant what she said. Danes are famously home-loving, and it felt as if the upbeat, welcoming Ganni spirit had been imported to France, especially when the models came out smiling and holding hands at the end of the show.
The thing is, Reffstrup explained, brands evolve, just like people do. “It felt like we were ready to do something new, and because we’re expanding globally, it kind of made sense. Of course it’s a dream for everyone to come to Paris, it is like the mother of fashion, it is the big scene, and it’s obviously super scary,” she continued. “We are used to being one of the bigger fish and now we are just a tiny one; it’s a different energy, it’s almost going back to a startup energy.” Being a proven success, Ganni is in the place to help others become big fish. In the two seasons it stepped away from the runway, the company has supported local talent back home. Building on that, for spring, Ganni invited Nicklas Skovgaard, a Dane known for his ebullient bubble silhouettes, and Claire Sullivan, a New York-designer with a penchant for tulle an tutu-like volumes, based in New York, to participate in a creative consultancy. Their task was to design garments, using materials from Ganni’s Fabrics of the Future sustainability initiative, that will go into limited production. Skovgaard and Sullivan watched from the front row as their creations. These included a mocha-colored party dress of OleatexTM, a material made using Biotex, which is derived from olive oil production waste in Turkey (his); and cleverly patterned pieces featuring sport jerseys of Cycora, a polyester material made directly from textile waste (hers). These designer consultancy looks were fully integrated into the collection, rather than set apart, eliminating any sense of virtue signaling.
What message was the silver cauldron (handmade from recycled aluminum) that bubbled away at the center of Ganni’s set sending? One way to read it was as the most literal interpretation of Reffstrup’s starting point of witches. She wasn’t thinking of the green-skinned movie or Halloween versions, but rather a symbol of “strong female empowerment.” The theme, Reffstrup explained, “actually started out as something fun, but then when you dive into it, you really get to understand that community that was around witchery, that sisterhood… they were standing for something they really believed in.” There seemed to be a connection between science and alchemy here: To a lay person the science behind some of the innovative materials seen on the runway could feel like they were magicked into the world.
Design-wise, Reffstrup’s focus was largely on tailoring this season as evidenced by the opening, a cream colored shorts suit with a miniskirt layered over it. Trench coats with melon-cut sleeves had double belts; a rhinestone-studded brat-green denim jacket had a shapely hourglass silhouette. There were leopard and floral prints, house staples, but this time the latter were paired with an oversize sweater hand knit from strips of fabric. The use of sheers for shirts and over dresses and skirts felt trend-driven and saccharine; but the defining details of the collection, ruffled scarves and removable Peter Pan collars, hit the sweet spot. These first appeared in a 2017 collection. “We love them again,” said Reffstrup. This, really, is the essence of Ganni-style alchemy; bringing delicious little touches of a la carte magic to an everyday wardrobe at prices that might allow you to come back for second helpings.
