La Bagatelle’s Malene Malling landed on a winning formula for her denim launch. On a sunny, blue-sky day during Copenhagen Fashion Week, she assembled hay bales and ponies (a pair of them, Egon and Frede) outside of her dreamy shop, dressed fetching models in her latest collection, and offered libations. “I just wanted it to be super cute,” the designer says. “I wanted it to feel like you’re in the countryside, but you’re in the middle of Copenhagen—I kind of tried to do my own mini ranch. And also I love a touch of humor, and if you see a tiny horse, you can’t help but smile.” (It’s true.)
Malling, a publishing veteran and, yes, a clotheshorse, launched La Bagatelle in 2021. “There’s been so much talk of the Scandinavian girl. I wanted [the label] to be the Scandinavian girl who grew up and traveled quite a bit and was interested in arts and crafts and wanted to buy something and keep it forever instead of throwing it out after a season,” she says. So Malling, who definitely has an editor’s eye, decided to focus on a limited number of styles—wardrobe staples like a ruffled blouse, pull-on velvet pants, and a stand-collar jacket.
These she makes from fabrics she discovers and sources from all over the world. Malling might have only enough vintage ikat fabric to make two jackets, c’est tout. Silhouettes don’t change, the textiles they’re made of do, and that brings a constant sense of newness and exclusivity. “Coming from magazines, where you are always reflecting on what everyone else is doing and everyone else’s processes and what’s going on in society—for once, I just wanted to do something that was deeply personal,” the designer said in 2024. “It wasn’t like I wanted to do a brand; I wanted to do something that felt really good and really true.”
