Five Years Later, Rotate Is Still Copenhagen’s It Girl Brand

Although Rotate Birger Christensen’s show closed out the Copenhagen Fashion Week Spring 2025 season, the Danish brand’s party is far from ending. “It's just such a great stamp of approval,” Rotate’s cofounder Jeanette Madsen tells Refinery29 about getting the coveted slot on the Copenhagen Fashion Week schedule, which resulted in a runway filled with fringed gowns, capri pants and bubble-hem skirts and a crowd of fashion influencers, international editors and celebrities that included Pamela Anderson. The production, which was staged in collaboration with jewellery brand Pandora and makeup favourite Charlotte Tilbury, wasn’t the only label milestone this week. Days earlier, Rotate opened its first flagship store in Denmark’s capital, doors down from Scandi mainstays like Ganni, Axel Arigato and By Malene Birger.

Rotate, which celebrated its fifth anniversary last year, has made a name for itself with its party-ready clothes and influencer cofounders. In addition to growing a massive social media presence and a strong position at retailers like Net-A-Porter and Mytheresa over the years, Rotate has collaborated with H&M on a quick-to-sell-out collaboration and reportedly made €16 million in 2023 alone. When Madsen and cofounder Thora Valdimars started Rotate in 2018, they didn't anticipate such rapid success. “We started out with seven dresses,” Madsen says. “It has evolved like we never imagined.”

The two met 10 years ago while working at Costume magazine, a Danish fashion publication based in Copenhagen. “We were going to all these events and needed things to wear. But dresses were never short enough or sexy enough. It was a conversation that we had for a long time,” Madsen says. “We were both working mums, and we couldn't afford all these big, beautiful designer dresses… And then we were like, 'Should we just [fill this niche] ourselves?'” Shortly after, they were tapped by Birger Christensen Collective, which also owns Danish brands Remain Birger Christensen and Cannari, to do just that.

Now, Rotate is famous for the type of party dresses that Madsen and Valdimars felt were missing from the market, featuring a range of silhouettes — from low-cut necklines and super-short lengths to puffy sleeves and floor-length fits — in European sizes 32 to 46 (UK 4 to 18), and spanning in price from around £150 to £500. “For women, [what we want to wear] depends on what mood we're in and how we feel about our bodies,” Valdimars says. “We have conversations with our friends, who are all types of body shapes, about what they love and don't love about clothing when they go shopping. It's important for us to incorporate all of that into our collections,” Valdimars says.

Although Madsen and Valdimars don’t subscribe to the typically minimalist aesthetic common to the region — they’re all about maximalism and glam — there are elements of Scandi style running through their collections. “You have the minimalist items that you then mix with something that's super-feminine and maybe a little bit boho, and then something that's a little bit masculine,” Valdimars says. “I think this way of mixing different genres is what makes the style so appealing to many people.”

It also lends itself well to the Scandi lifestyle, which encourages day-to-night versatility. “When you put on a Rotate dress, we want you to feel like you can jump on the bike and go… Maybe with a scarf around your bum,” says Madsen. This ethos has produced mini dresses that can be styled in various ways: with an oversized blazer and heels, layered on top of a white T-shirt with trainers, or with a trench coat and tall boots.

This type of thinking is a new development for the brand. With occasion dresses at the brand’s core, the pandemic took a toll on Rotate. “We had to rethink where we were in the market, because all of a sudden people weren’t partying anymore, and they didn't need dresses to go out,” Valdimars says. That’s when the brand branched out into more casual, everyday clothing. The expansion still drives the brand today: On its spring/summer 2025 runway, Rotate previewed button-up vests and billowing blouses, wide-leg jeans and denim midi dresses — versatile pieces that can be worn to the office and for going out.

While it appears a natural progression for the brand, creating this kind of clothing was a learning curve for the team, according to the cofounders. “Every time we design a collection, it's important for us to have that typical Rotate DNA, whether it be [through] colour, detail or style,” says Valdimars of their mindset when they started developing more casual pieces. “There’s so much everyday wear out there, so it was like, ‘How do we come in when we started off having one idea and then everything else is off the table?’” 

The answer was Rotate Sunday, a loungewear collection launched in December 2020 and consisting of logo-printed tracksuits, casual tops and oversized shirts and trousers. When the pandemic ended and people were allowed to throw wedding ceremonies again, the brand pivoted a second time, launching Rotate Wedding in spring 2022 with statement bridal gowns, bridesmaid and guest dresses. “That was a dream for us,” Madsen says. “I think it's easier for Thora and I to do the wedding collection because it's only dresses and we're so focused on them.”

As Madsen and Valdimars look to the future, they’re excited to have a physical shop that brings customers into the Rotate universe. “Since our clothes are so vibrant, the walls around it are more Scandinavian. They’re subtler and quieter to suit each collection,” Madsen says.

“People have the perception that we would decorate it with everything pink and have a disco ball,” Valdimars adds. “And we just really wanted to move away from that perception. For us, it's always been that the dresses should be the focal point.”