In a mirrored room with reflections expanding and multiplying, we reunite with REMAIN for its Spring Summer 2024 collection. Gazing into the mirror, REMAIN prompts its viewers to reach deeper past the surface reflections of the models gracing its runway and into the notion of identity.

What makes each of us original?

It seems this is what Denise Christensen pondered this season. Christensen, the mind behind the Copenhagen-based brand, is synonymous with the effortlessly cool Scandi mode—but that’s not all that’s woven into her design ethos. Where clean minimalism gets spliced with unexpected gasps of bold details, REMAIN aims to crank things up a notch in the realm of understated Scandi sophistication.

This season, gasps are materialized in wasp-waisted tailoring framed by expansive lapels and languorous sleeves. Classic? At first glance, it would appear merely so. However, in the business of power dressing, it’s not all work and no play.

A closer inspection reveals playful twists that lure the eye with an almost magnetic pull. Note the taupe, tailored set. Pairing said wasp-waisted jacket with an asymmetrical skirt, REMAIN revitalized corporate-core. Swaying with a subversive spirit, this skirt was a hallmark of its tasteful toying with gender. With a flap pocket adorning the hips, it’s evident the overlap between masculine power dressing and fluid, feminine silhouettes held a sacred spot in Christensen’s mood board.

Homage was paid generously to the female form, with the hourglass figure at the core of its design elements. Feminine ferocity echoed throughout the collection with ruched waists and built-in boning. All the while, wide shoulders, exaggerated collars, and cocoon sleeves remained true to corporatecore’s foundational masculinity.

The aesthetic, once donned by corporate moguls as a uniform of unspoken austerity, was recontextualized in the spirit of the matriarchy. Unprecedented in its construction, REMAIN’s latest spin on tailoring is equally empowering as it is inviting.

In a collection swallowed by a surfeit of off-black hues and steely grays, glimmers of shimmering fabrics wooed every so often. Sparkling and ethereal, they offered relief from the rather somber spectrum. Akin to the game of peekaboo REMAIN played with its shimmering fabrics, denim, too, steeped the collection’s tailoring in a brew of youthful energy. Either in blazers with whittled waists or expansive trousers, denim heightened the sculptural quality of the collection’s tailoring while allowing for everyday use.

Unexpected, too, were skirts this season—except they weren’t really skirts. A pleated maxi skirt repurposed as a strapless dress appeared with belt loops adorning the bust. Shortly thereafter followed a strapless dress, née pencil skirt, with pockets framing the bust.

The skirt, a recurring motif in REMAIN’s presentation, could be viewed as a symbol of femininity; The froufrou of its former model, while still serving as a rough blueprint, is outdated—archaic even in the eyes of some. And so, we find the skirt and the female experience reimagined and adapted. After all, the skirt is likely the most acute signifier of social change, and what more progressive an arena to present its evolution than that of Copenhagen Fashion Week?

“Balance is found in opposition, creating a level of consistency against the chaos of the everyday,” stated REMAIN’s team in its show notes—and rightly so.

Chaos and comfort. Dynamism and tradition. Tipping the scales between the established and the experimental, REMAIN sets its sights on disintegrating the border between gender and the boundaries of occasion-specific attire as it zooms into the Spring 2024 season. While the axe breaking down these barriers may not be in full swing, for now, the swanky tailoring and cocoon sleeves will do.