STEM Fall/Winter 2026 at Copenhagen Fashion Week

STEM Fall/Winter 2026 / FW26 at Copenhagen Fashion Week presents EDITION 5 entitled To Wool

With its fifth edition, Stem turns its full attention to wool — framing it as an active, versatile system capable of transformation, elasticity, structure, and surface. This collection marks a significant moment in the brand’s ongoing research: for the first time, Stem’s elastic wool experiments — previously limited to handwoven prototypes — have been partially industrialised. Woven, not knitted, and made from 100% wool without synthetics, the material challenges conventional assumptions around stretch, comfort, and construction. Founder Sarah Brunnhuber approaches wool here as both collaborator and teacher. Through twisting, tension, felting, and pleating, To Wool asks what becomes possible when the fibre’s inherent properties are allowed to lead the design process.

STEM Fall/Winter 2026 Presentation: Making Together. Stem FW26 presentation at Copenhagen Fashion Week continues the workshop-based format introduced last season. More than a runway, the event centres on a shared act of making.

In collaboration with Hedestrik, guests are invited to take part in a needle-felting workshop using Danish raw, undyed wool. Seated around a long communal table, participants work with unprocessed fleece — engaging touch, smell, and sound — while 15 new looks circulate continuously through the space over the course of the presentation. The rhythmic puncture of felting needles is woven into the soundscape, reinforcing the sensory immersion — an intimate contrast to the vast, industrial setting. The format creates a pause: a moment of attention, slowness, and material under-standing.

Local Wool, Local Knowledge. A formative moment in the development of To Wool came through a small but decisive encounter with Danish wool. During the research phase, Brunnhuber was introduced to Berit, a female shepherd based in Denmark who tends a flock of 800 sheep. Her yarn — spun domestically and rarely used in garments due to long-standing assumptions about Danish wool — became a point of departure.

It proved unexpectedly strong and responsive once twisted for Stem’s elastic wool experiments. Its success challenged both technical expectations and prevailing narratives around local wool production, opening up new possibilities for working with fibre closer to home. Woven into a checked vest and pleated skirt, the two subtly different brown tones of raw wool — each originating from a different sheep — form one of the collection’s most distilled expressions: elasticity, structure, and locality converging in a single material gesture. The encounter underscored a broader motivation behind To Wool: to re-examine overlooked fibres, value regional knowledge, and consider how future textile systems might grow from specific places rather than global abstraction.

About Stem, Founded by designer Sarah Brunnhuber, Stem is a Copenhagen-based clothing brand and textile system, built on an innovative methodology that eliminates cutting waste and makes the production process legible through the garment itself. Every Stem piece is constructed from certified (recycled) natural fibres and shaped through a weaving technique that embeds the pattern directly into the fabric.