Soft Toys at the Heart of Copenhagen Fashion Week 2025
Copenhagen Fashion Week has always been considered as a platform where experimental looks, progressive silhouettes, and innovative fabrics and materials can be observed. But this year, the most fashionable accessories sashaying on the catwalk have soft faces toys and cuddly surfaces – soft toys are rife at CFW!
The Adorable Invasion
During the first days of the fall 2023 fashion weeks, it was possible to notice that stuffed animals and toys are popular accessories that fashion week attendees cling to. Sneakers are bright pink bears, rabbits with long ears, and baby blue teddy bears have become essential actors outside the shows.
In the case of the shows themselves, children’s toys and stuffed animals were no longer simply used as cute props but became an established part of the actual construction of many collections. This cute invasion has also brought the fun aspect into the fashion show of Copenhagen runways.
The Characteristics of Plush Toys as Applied in the Designs
Some designers placed plush toys into their collections in a rather straightforward, but creative manner. Bibi Russell used them for textural applications, and incorporated the lambs wool in the back lining of his suits and dresses in an array of colors. Other designers made beautiful shifts and body-hugging dresses completely enveloped in a layer of plush, and provided very intriguing contrasts of textures.
Some people went even further and employed stuffed animals as unconventional elements of their garments to make a statement and stand out. Veronique Branquinho designed strapless dresses with bodice made of teddy bear heads joined together, opening wide with their sharp tongues visible creating a post- modern look.
Munthe plus Simonsen’s collection was also awe-inspiring and the highlight of the collection was a ball gown skirt with hundreds of colorful toy monkeys hanging in the twists with their tails trailing behind the model while walking. As remarkable, Henrik Vibskov wore a large stuffed rabbit head as an artwork that functioned as a hat to a slim sequined body-con gown jumpsuit.
A few designers selected certain plush toys and made an entire collection based on the stuffed animal; cuts, fabric, and accessories. Rabbits in a stuffed form were the foundation of ladylike, playful, and flirtatious aesthetics of Cecilie Bahnsen where ear details and pom finales acted as the main points of references. The main concept of Ganni’s show was monkeys; bananas and vines were used on the stage as the background, and monkeys were mentioned in the show in a playful manner.
A Metaphor for Change – Transition to Childlike Happiness
But why are all these soft and luxurious toys popping up on the solemn Copenhagen catwalks? As the soft toy continues to make appearances on the fashion circuit, some insiders think it is due to people’s yearning to return to the ways of a more innocent time.
The last few years of lockdowns, war, financial instability, and unpredictability have taken a toll. It is possible to get a dose of unjaded comfort in bright colors and furry friends.
This connects closely with the Copenhagen Fashion Week’s theme this year, which is ‘Positive Vibes Only. ’ The event’s CEO, Cecilie Thorsmark, has emphasized the importance of creativity and having fun.
She believes that the playful appearance of the plush toys is an attempt to counter the rather grim events that have taken place recently. High-contrast and plush materials support nice thoughts.
Thorsmark also appreciates that cartoon creatures frolicking alongside high fashion helps to keep CFW from becoming overly pompous. Copenhagen has for years been about bending rules and no one wants to know that it is now coming mixed with toys. In combination with power suits with teddy bears, it looks quite provocative yet surprisingly freeing.
Sustainability Messaging
However, it is also important to note that Copenhagen Fashion Week has also declared its stand on sustainable fashion. Featuring secondhand teddy bears used as materials for fancy clothing and accessories is consistent with this environmentalism theme. Designers thrifting for playfully battered bunnies is evidence of being mindful of purchasing secondhand clothing and accessories.
Breathing new life to castoff plush animals being rescued from dusty shelves also complements Copenhagen’s call for circularity in fashion.
Using old toys left idle in closets for other purposes is an effective way of conveying the message in the song about not wasting things. By demonstrating how simple items such as stuffed toys can be customized into luxurious pieces, the broader use of recycled and redesigned products is instigated.
It is always fun to dress up toys.
More profound and significant symbolic reasons like the call for nostalgia, environmentalism, and subversive humor may apply to some designers, some others may be doing it just for the thrill of it!
A lot of Copenhagen creative professionals like to operate in a semi serious manner, at least to some extent. And what could be more gleefully silly than incorporating much loved, batted about stuffed animals into elegant gowns and tailored jackets?
The feeling of contrasting amazes many designers who like to combine philosophies and genres to create moments of surprise. Matching business suits with stuffed rabbits may seem rather fantastical and empowering.
A few designers were discussing their vision backstage involving dressing toys up in formal wear, which can bring up an interesting picture of children’s tea parties with too ‘dressed-up’ teddy bears.
Building High Fashion Plush Characters
This phenomenon of children playrooms and esteemed runways has some brands thinking beyond these questions. The stuffed animal trend may suggest that consumers are getting more interested in accessories that are plush toys that they can wear, particularly by adults who want to add a fun twist in their apparel.
Some of the ready to wear designers interviewed backstage mentioned designing standalone plush pieces of clothing as well as accessories that do not require body support.
Even though it may be easy to anticipate that brands selling items such as warm, fuzzy shoulder bags, backpacks, shoes and hats at retail this year, could be looking to experiment with full body plush costumes in the next seasons.
If neon pink sheep costumes become the new street and Instagram fashion, could we one day expect lanky rabbits and bears at Copenhagen fashion week? The first wave of cute and friendly animals included in garment design has undoubtedly paved the way for what may be expected in the future.
Thanks to the work of contemporary artists, plush toys have become politically imbued objects.
Other designers using stuffed toys also find politics in fluffy masks that hide one’s face and individuality. Anne Sofie Madsen’s new collection included large amorphous hooded robes with smiling plush lamb heads that covered the entire model. Labeled as ‘Selb,’ with her identity concealed behind the innocent childlike masks, her designs appear to pose a challenge to the concept of identity.
Her whimsical, storybook runway tableaus provoke discussions about the difference between reality and illusion. Is beauty really as deep as a soul? Does the evaluation of people based on their physical appearance give a misleading representation of their character?
What Sofie Madsen seems to be doing here is asking us to consider more than what we see or what we think we know. What do you picture when all the models look like immaculate, angels that are cute and harmless and innocent?
Thus, whether it secretly unveiled identity in philosophical statements or merely playfully prancing around in flamboyant fuzzy attire, soft toys have historically impacted this year’s Copenhagen Fashion Week festivity. While some were anticipating a dark, tasteful nose, designers brightened the wardrobe by adding playful elements in the form of soft toys.
Based on the reaction from the audiences and critics, the innocence in the form of colors, the imagination using recycled materials, the humor, and the brave cute characters, it appears that the world needs this concept in today’s overly serious society.
Perhaps, soft toys will become a trend for development in fashion shows around the world in the future. Because, as anyone who has ever embraced a teddy bear friend realizes, huggable warmth is timeless.