With Copenhagen Fashion Week the only fashion week with sustainability requirements it was refreshing not to have to worry if the brands were responsible but instead choose ones that caught our eye. We narrowed down our coverage to 10 brands that felt like they had No Kill vibes. (PART 2 HERE)
A. Roege Hove
For experimental knitwear label A. Roege Hove, effortless flair and extravagance are always in sync.
Reject tradition and embrace knitwear. A. Roege Hove is a conceptual knitwear brand challenging fashion conventions by looking to the future. Interpreting space age for the digital era, the SS24 collection offers a charmingly technical update to today’s soft wear. You can only expect the unexpected from founder Amalie Røge Hove, and these trend coded pieces always manage to surprise.
Founded in 2019, the label is a proponent of literal transparency in sweaters, skirts and dresses. Pieces weren’t black or white, knit or sheer but both simultaneously. The graphic mesh top has been around the block and everyone, from irritating influencers to to your mother has worn them. While we are not shaming or advocating a clean break from this sartorial preference, it is clearly time for the change epitomized by this brand, to see more skin in a new light.
Come on, dance with me; I’m fabricating. Stripes, overlapping appliqués and strikingly contrasting fabric densities unwind one’s conception of knitwear. Something old is rendered something new –and covetable. It is no wonder the label won The Wessel & Vett Prize, Scandinavia’s most prestigious award for fashion design.
Notes on Sustainability
No waste, no problem. All A. Roege Hove designs are knitted directly into shape, having therefore very little waste. Clearly, the label intends to take full advantage of the craft of knitting. It can be difficult not to have any waste in terms of leftover yarn, but each A. Roege Hove piece produced in Italy is created through a “no waste” production model. This model has a material waste close to zero by having a +/- 10% tolerance in terms of delivered quantities – a tolerance the brand is willing to take to ensure less production waste.
Henrik Vibskov
Henrik Vibskov’s theme of boxes and boxing and unexpected deliveries led to unconstrained creativity. Garments play with the shape of handles and bubble wrap referring to the box as a vessel that inhabits and protects precious items for limited time. The uncertainty of sending a package to the curiosity it engenders, gives rise to garments with fronts in the back that can be worn in both ways. This collection is full of touchable textured knits and intarsia sweaters like the playful “out for delivery”
Notes on Sustainability
Team Vibs (as they call themselves) take their responsibilities seriously. For SS24 Studio collection, 83% of their garments consist of certified fabrics. Certifications include GOTS Organic, GOTS Made with Organic, GRS Global Recycled Standard and nontoxic dyes and prints.
Additionally they always makes sure their garments are ecologically conscious by standing by seven codes of conduct. These range from respect for all races, sexualities and religions to making sure 90% of his production is made in Europe and having suppliers read, sign and return this Code of Conduct.
The Garment
The Garment was founded in 2020 by Sophia Roe and Charlotte Eskildsen, who both function as co-founders and co-creative directors. A blend of minimalist design, muted colors, and organic textures, hand sewn and meticulously tailored, offer both impeccable knitwear with timeless silhouettes. I could quote from their press release about this collection but I find it unnecessary: the clothes speak for themselves. And though they’re based in Copenhagen, these clothes have me feeling California. Casual yet sophisticated.
Sustainability Notes:
The Garment care for quality, sustainable natural sourced, and recycled materials. The brand calculates the Co2 impact of each garment it produces throughout its production process and by offsetting the equivalent amount, each garment represents a tangible way of combating climate change.
The Garment shares a passion for minimalism and quality, for them, sustainability is about owning less by buying right. They care for quality and sustainably sourced natural and recycled fabrics. Also, their collections are Co2 compensated in partnership with Norwegian climate company Choose.
As a proud member of the 1% for the planet community, The Garment is committed each year to contribute 1% of our annual revenue to non-profit organizations that are dedicated to protecting our beautiful planet, its ecosystems and its wildlife.
Rolf Ekroth
Rolf Ekroth launched his namesake label during the pandemic and after short lived explorations into social work and online poker.
For Spring Summer 2024, he embarked on an introspective journey guided by the notion of ‘missing.’ Inspired by the myriad interpretations of the word, he employed meticulously draped ankle-grazing aprons, oversized silhouettes and delicately hand-painted patterns to both connect to his cultural heritage and capture an ever-present nostalgia that echoes through generations. The collection’s prints bloom with three distinct hand-painted rose patterns that borrow their visual language from traditional paintings of rose gardens.
Notes on Sustainability:
Rolf Ekroth is a sustainable fashion brand that creates gender neutral clothing designed to fit various body types, promoting inclusivity while reducing waste. The brand prioritizes using sustainable materials, with 80% sourced from deadstock or recycled sources like recycled bottles. All garments are made in Finland and the Baltic countries, where ethical working conditions and fair pay are ensured. Rolf Ekroth also incorporates some zero waste designs into the collections, seeking to minimize waste at every stage of production. Rolf Ekroth values sustainability in collaborations, such as launching Bio2X, a straw-based textile made from biomass surplus, and creating a collection from waste resources with Blue Sky Lab. Rolf Ekroth ensures that all the fabrics are of high quality, long-lasting, and easy to use.
Vain
Make it any color…as long as it’s black! Looking at the images we chose you might think that was the directive –there was a little color in the collection but our favorite pieces happened to be black!
“When I started designing the VAIN SS24 collection, I was in a knot with my thoughts, it felt like everything was chaos. A pandemic, war, inflation, energy crisis and depression raged outside. The safe world the naive child was born into had changed”, designer Jimi Vain says. “When the whole world goes into overdrive, I go with it. Because everything else felt like chaos, I started to live more and more in my own world and forget everything else. To be able to live with it, I had to adapt to it and find those beautiful things in the heart of chaos.”
Sustainability Notes
Vain approaches sustainability from three perspectives: social, ecological, and economic responsibility, considering each equally important. By 2026, Vain aims to have over 50% of sales as made-to-order to achieve a minimal inventory. Vain’s design philosophy emphasizes the longevity of a product’s lifecycle and incorporates design thinking to reconsider the purpose and versatility of each item. The brand is also working with recycled materials and upcycling, experimenting with managing the entire lifecycle of a product from repurposing to reselling and renting services.
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