STEM Spring/Summer 2026 at Copenhagen Fashion Week

STEM Spring/Summer 2026 / SS26 at Copenhagen Fashion Week

At Copenhagen Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2026, Copenhagen-based clothing brand STEM presented its fourth edition, Over and Under and Over and Under and Over and Under. The title speaks to the elemental rhythm of weaving, while also reflecting a pressing modern tension: the relentless cycles of overproduction, overstimulation, and overexhaustion. In contrast, STEM poses a radical question—can making less, and making more slowly, be a meaningful answer? Founded by designer Sarah Brunnhuber, the brand is renowned for its zero-waste methodology, crafting garments that reveal their own making while challenging the fast-paced demands of the fashion industry.

The starting point for the STEM Spring/Summer 2026 collection was humble yet deeply symbolic—a woven basket, created in the studio from leftover yarn. This small act of making became both inspiration and method, reminding Brunnhuber of weaving’s most basic principle: over and under. The basket also sparked a collaboration with two local willow basket weavers, bridging textile and basketry through a shared language of rhythm, structure, and care. In the collection, these ideas translate into tactile garments that carry both the memory of their making and the narrative of material reuse.

STEM SS26 / Spring/Summer 2026 builds upon the brand’s signature Pulling Technique—a process that gathers fabric into form through tension and knotting, without cutting or generating waste. New for this season is the introduction of “Stenim,” a zero-waste denim innovation that extends the work STEM began during its earlier collaboration with Ganni. Other standout pieces include patchworked show garments constructed entirely from studio remnants, each one a physical negotiation between creative constraint and sustainable intention. These designs are not just fashion statements, but examples of how fabric itself can hold memory, structure, and meaning.

Unlike a conventional runway show, STEM SS26 / Spring/Summer 2026 was staged as a “moment of making.” As models moved through the space, guests were invited to participate in a willow weaving workshop led by Mai Hvid Jørgensen, using Danish-grown willow. This interactive format allowed attendees to experience the over-and-under rhythm themselves—an embodied connection between basket and cloth, structure and story, fibre and form. In doing so, the presentation blurred the lines between audience and maker, highlighting STEM’s belief in transparency and shared creative processes.

As a Copenhagen-based fashion brand, STEM continues to redefine sustainable design through its innovative zero-waste system, use of certified recycled natural fibres, and commitment to slowness. The brand’s name, derived from “system,” reflects its dual role as both a critique of an extractive industry and a proposal for a better way forward. With Spring/Summer 2026, the brand offers more than a collection—it offers an invitation: to slow down, to understand the making process, and to reweave not only fabric but our relationship with the things we wear.