The second school that participated in the August 2024 edition of Copenhagen Fashion Week (CPHFW) was the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, which presented its graduating master students.
The 2024 graduating class of the fashion, clothing and textile master programme at the Danish institute presented their graduate collections which, according to the school, ‘represent new ideas for the world of tomorrow and propose new alternative narratives for a more responsible future that is deeply rooted in ‘true values’ of clothes.’
The young designers’ creations included ball gowns and battle wear as well as ‘thrifted madness’ and ‘tailored mourning dresses’.
Through their collections, the graduates sought to explore ‘how to propose new sustainable paths for the fashion industry by engaging with individuality and aesthetic resonance,’ the academy’s CPHFW SS25 press release reads.
Copenhagen Fashion Week: graduating master students Royal Danish Academy showcase final projects
The members of this year’s graduating class hail from a range of cultural backgrounds. To create their final projects, they conducted wardrobe studies and other research and they posed questions such as How do we understand local culture, cultural heritage, how do people identify with a garment and can we get people to enjoy a piece of clothing for more than one fashion season?
Using the ‘transformative power of fashion’, they wanted to use fashion as a cultural critique by addressing gender issues and celebrating their diversity, community and the ‘true value of clothing’, as per the release.
This was achieved by playing with embedded power symbols in their designs and deconstructing them so they carry completely different meanings and hold a different power.
In addition, the young designers looked into how local production works and how to reinvent craft skills in Denmark’s alternative as well as traditional crafts, which have been outsourced for decades.
View some of this year’s graduate designs from the Royal Danish Academy below.
