“Today you don’t start something new without being aware of sustainability,” says Anna Myntekær. Together with Yoko Maja Hansen, she founded Bonnetje in 2021. This season at Copenhagen Fashion Week, the pair presented their first collection of bold pieces made by deconstructing the businessman’s uniform.
“In the beginning it was very unclear what we wanted to do, we just had this idea of creating on our own,” says Hansen. “Because we were critical of the industry and the working hours, we decided to try to do it our own way. We started working with a lot of different vintage garments and pieces we had at home; we just really liked to collage things together, and then slowly we worked only with men’s suits. We have worked on all the layers: inside, outside, upside-down—just investigated it all the way in.”
These thirty-something friends studied at Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam before moving to Paris. There, Hansen worked at Maison Margiela with John Galliano and Myntekær interned with a couturiere before taking a job with Cecilie Bahnsen. While in the process of creating their own business they found a drycleaning receipt in the pocket of a suit and decided to use the Dutch word for receipt as the brand name.
“It’s an interesting object, it’s a symbol of consumerism,” says Hansen. “But also of the previous owner, and of a certain date and time,” adds Myntekær. Indeed, in some cases, the way the designers have worked with suit material is quite revealing of the wearer. See: a waistband breast band, or a bias-cut black dress made of lining fabric and deadstock on which a label was used as a decorative element. “The beauty about working in this kind of way is that you never know what the future will bring and you just have to be creative; it’s a challenge,” notes Myntekær.
Shirting is also in the mix, used for separates or details. A charming bodysuit with a romantic circus air is made using suit and shirt scraps into flowers. “I think we need the likes of Bonnetje to push the envelope on the Copenhagen fashion scene. Their attention to detail and their knack for fun, surprises, and suiting really stands out to me,” says the stylist Maya Soul Paustian, who has collaborated with them on images. A pieced coat has a sharp sophistication, while skirts made using a similar technique exude sex appeal. “We like taking something masculine and very formal and then transforming it into something feminine and a bit odd,” says Hansen. A good example of this is Bonnetje’s trouser boots, which are made so that they can be buttoned together like pants.
