Rotate Birger Christensen, the rising Scandinavian label that was featured in ‘Emily in Paris’, is showing the world that daring style, retail success and sustainability can co-exist
No one could have foreseen that an influencer-led capsule collection would become one of the fastest-growing brands globally, especially when the whole industry was up against the pandemic and parties were on pause. Scandinavian influencers, stylists and former fashion editors Thora Valdimars and Jeanette Madsen were approached by Danish retailer Birger Christensen in 2018 to work on a collaboration that was meant to last one year. Five years on, Rotate Birger Christensen is available in 40 countries and stocked at 450 retailers including Net-a-Porter, Mytheresa, Printemps and Lane Crawford; global sales increased by 75 per cent from 2021 to 2022, according to Vogue Business.
“We first launched the brand in the tiniest venue with the tiniest audience, and progressively our show has grown,” Valdimars and Madsen tell Tatler by email. “Our past two shows have taken place at the Bella Arena, Copenhagen’s largest event space, where we hosted up to 600 guests at the show. It’s really exciting and humbling to see this journey.”
As editors at fashion magazine Costume Denmark, Valdimars and Madsen were frequently captured by street photographers during fashion weeks. People paid attention. “It was through our own use of social media that we were noticed by the Birger Christensen Collective, and how we started to gain recognition in the industry,” the duo explain. At the time of writing, a trio of Instagram accounts represents Rotate’s look-good, feel-good ethos: Madsen and Valdimars have 341,000 and 122,000 followers respectively, while 297,000 follow the brand’s account. As digital natives, their online presence is a crucial part of their approach. For the spring-summer 2023 runway show, Rotate debuted an AR try-on filter via Snapchat, followed by the release of its first series of NFTs on digital fashion marketplace The Dematerialised. Next, the brand plans to expand its community on platforms including TikTok and South Korean metaverse Ifland.
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