The roots of Alis, the latest Copenhagen Fashion Week calendar, may be new but deep. In 1996, Alis was started as a skate label out of Freetown, Christiania, and became a local fixture for their bold block letter logo and underground cred. The brand’s momentum had waned over the years 2023 when it was saved by Rains founders Philip Lotko and Daniel Brix Rather than a relaunch, it is the rewiring of Alis into something entirely different from Tobias Birk Nielsen’s creative at the helm and the tagline, ‘comeback culture’.
And no, it is not skatewear.
The opening look of Alis 2.0 set the tone: Jeans, a plaid shirt, a light wash denim jacket, leather boots, and white-rimmed Mod-inspired sunglasses. It was contemporary streetwear, denim core, and was no attempt at recreating the past but interpreting.
A Clean Slate with a Familiar Edge
Pernille Teisbaek waxed her expert styling touch over the pieces, ensuring they felt fresh. Extra-wide jeans with think, grunge infusing plaids and pinstripes reworked into casual sweats. It had a palpable ’90s feeling, not in a throwback way, but as a current transformation. It was black leather, yellow-washed denim, graffiti logos, and fantastically bold block belts, an air of streetwise. Lunar-like prints brought the edge to the collection.
Echoes of division, another CPHFW favorite, were some casting ‘nod and wink’ nods to rebellious youth and effortlessly cool. The front-row crowd took to the brand’s new tracksuits in a more Copenhagen-chic way.
A Tribute to the Past, A Nod to the Future
The show’s closing moment was a nod to Alis’s roots: May Andersen, the Danish supermodel whose face was once inked into a best-selling Alis skateboard, walked in logo tape. This reboot is a nod to the millennials who recall Alis’ original heyday, but it is for the digital generations that make do with the ’90s nostalgia, who dream of the 1990s but did not live.
Nielsen said, “It is a sincere, passionate thing to believe and pass on to a new generation. Alis is a platform for connection, where a new generation can find identity and belonging the same way past skaters.” Can a brand based on nostalgia actually form ongoing cultural bonds?
Alis’ comeback culture is a new fantasy, even if it is a reissue. And for it is working.
Sophia Walker is a fashion journalist who reports on the latest trends, events, and industry news, keeping readers informed about the dynamic world of fashion.
