Barbara Potts and Catherine Saks have been darlings of the Danish fashion scene since 2014 when they launched with candy-colored fur trimmed coats. They gradually phased these out and started working more with Leather Working Group-certified ethical leather, and in fall 2021 unveiled a new direction. The concept was based on creating a perfect wardrobe, but it somehow depersonalized their offering, which has swung between the extremes of uptown chic and party girl sexiness.
The spring 2023 show was much better balanced, in part because it didn’t anticipate a woman’s needs (as their abstract notion of a wardrobe did) but was connected to real people and the designers themselves. Among the friends of the founders who walked was Pernille Teisbaek in the baggy-pants silhouette she loves wearing with a Saks Potts halter shirt and denim carpenter pants.
The inspiration for this collection was another real woman, Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark, who could be said to be living a real fairy tale. Born in Tasmania, she met her actual prince in a bar in Sydney, and they are living happily ever after. When Mary “moved to Denmark in August 2002 she was an ordinary girl working at Microsoft, from eight to five,” Potts explains. “And there were always these super cool pictures of her on the street wearing minimal clothes, but with a bohemian twist.” That look set the template for this season’s designs.
Saks and Potts know how to put on a show, and staged their biggest outing yet, outside on Kongens Nytorv, which allowed the public to be part of the proceedings. A button-down with a pink sequin skirt had a dressed down elegance; those same sequins, made into a halter top worn under an open button-down and with cargo pants, elevated an everyday look. Fringed crocheted accessories added a bohemian touch to the collection. As for the leathers, the main message was mix-and-match separates. Erin Wasson closed the show in a sheer chiffon blouse and gold leather shorts to a song titled “Step by Step,” which seems to accurately describe Saks and Potts’s new way forward.
