Copenhagen with STORY

I think at this point I have a pretty good idea of what my personal style is. I know fully well that I’ll never will be a cool Scandi esque minimalist, pulling off pool flats and oversized Acne with an air of paired back nonchalance. This did not, however, prevent me from doing my damnedest to channel Elin Kling when I made a quick trip to Copenhagen earlier this month. Having never before visited Scandiland, when Danish jewellery brand STORY by Kranz & Ziegler invited me to join them in Copenhagen for their SS15 presentation I thought why the hell not? A chance to check out a city hailed as one of the hippest in Europe, ogle some jewels and stay in a chic hotel; a silly thing like having an entire month of fashion week travels to organise, a new season to plan for and full site design to sign off certainly wasn’t going to put me off. And I don’t regret this slight irresponsibility. Not one bit.

Wearing H&M shirt, Club Monaco jacket c/o, Massimo Dutti culottes c/o, Coach mules c/o, Rebecca Minkoff bag c/o & Cutler and Gross glasses c/o

After spending the weekend living it up at The London EDITION, leaving for Gatwick airport at 5am come Monday morning was a rather painful experience. But just as I was about to inwardly groan at the exhaustion coursing through my body I got a grip, got a Starbucks latte (much to the frustration of my poor driver as we found ourselves caught in the Hammersmith one way system) and reminded myself how bloody lucky I was. The fact that I was also, for the first time ever, wearing my stripy culottes and felt pretty darned pleased with this uncharacteristic coolness didn’t hurt either. Said culottes soon crumpled to the concertinaed to the extent that I looked like I was wearing a nappy by the time we landed. Moral of that story? Don’t even think about wearing crisply tailored, tapered cotton on a plane. But anyway, I digress. We arrived in Copenhagen to be greeted by horizontal rain but luckily the much sunnier greeting offered by the STORY team who came brandishing baskets of delicious Dutch cake made up for that. A short coach ride – can’t beat a “fashion bus” – later we arrived at Hotel SP34 which was absolutely everything you’d expect a trendy, boutique hotel in Copenhagen to be complete with a rooftop bar, tapas restaurant and American eaterie, Cocks & Cows which was said to serve the best burgers in town. That claim was no word of a lie, they seriously did. We all agreed that pretty swiftly as we tucked into lunch and got acquainted with the Swedish journalists also on the trip who were, unsurprisingly, all sickeningly stylish.

Appetites sated and cigarettes smoked we piled back onto the bus (queue more “it’s like a school trip only chicer” jokes, mainly from me) to make for the STORY by Kranz & Ziegler presentation. Our itineraries had promised that this would be taking place in a castle and I was both extremely excited and slightly skeptical about this whole situation. While it didn’t have the traditional grey stone turrets or battlements associated with the abodes of knights and dragons we have back home in Blighty, the palatial, burnt orange building at which we arrived was certainly worthy of royalty. Inside things only got more palatial. We were ushered into a room so abundantly adorned in baroque fabulousness I hardly new what to look at first. From the ornate wall mouldings and intricately painted ceiling to the antique furniture, harp player and vast marble tables groaning under the weight of an afternoon tea that would overpower a glutton of Augustus Gloop proportions, it was the kind of rich visual feast that’s a lot of fun to look at. Then of course there was the main point of the spectacle, STORY by Kranz & Ziegler’s SS15 collection. Displayed both artfully arrayed on the tables and around the necks, arms, wrists, fingers and any other accessible extremity of languid models styled as 80s London punks. It was a delectable juxtaposition of stately home grandeur and anarchic, almost teenage glunge (that’s “glam grunge” lest you forget) and on closer inspection, the chunky mash up of glittering jewels the models were rocking in fact turned out to be fundamentally quite delicate, wearable pieces, layered to within an inch of their lives thanks to the styling flair of Uffe Buchard.

After a thorough inspection of the collection I settled down with Naomi and the rest of the British contingent for champagne, cakes and general gossipy, how-is-this-technically-work fun before heading back to the hotel. There I slung in the swiftest of outfit changes into another wannabe scandi ensemble. Clearly I’ve been working on the assumption that anything black, white, blue or all of the above qualifies as “scandi minimalist cool” and suspect I may be wrong but whatevs, this Tibi outfit is a firm favourite.

Wearing Tibi co-ord, Coach mules & Hobbs clutch all c/o

On these kind of trips I always feel torn between two types of guilt. The former, that I should spend every second of free time attending to my emails and y’know, generally working. The latter, that I should sack off anything work related and embrace the opportunity to explore a new city. The two types of guilt generally tussle for an uncomfortable while and I end up doing an ineffectual amalgamation of the two, i.e aimless wandering while checking emails, instagramming and manically rearranging my to do list. On this occasion I bucked that trend and instead, Naomi and I spent the next hour or two “trying out” both hotel bars which, I’m pleased to report, were both excellent and aside from anything, it was lovely to catch up with someone I adore but hardly ever see thanks to our mutually manic schedules. I’m sure you guys have similar experiences in that respect!

A lot of chatting, gossiping, brain storming (yes I just used that phrase, no I’m not ashamed… almost) and lols later it was time to head to dinner with the rest of our party at über chic restaurant, Höst. Besides never having visited Copenhagen before, I’d never tried any sort of Danish food and my stomach was wholly unprepared (slash slightly full of afternoon tea followed by the olives that I scoffed at the hotel bar) for the seven course bonanza that followed. But while I may have been rendered food coma adjacent afterwards, it was so interesting trying things unlike anything I’d tasted and the rye bread esque loaves and scandi pasties were seriously excellent. The next morning brought another feast, or at least a demi feast, courtesy of the breakfast buffet bursting with ham, cheese, bircher museli and other tasty treats while we were given a full presentation on STORY by Mads Ziegler himself. Then, after a stroll through the hip-as-expected streets, architecture perving session and trip to the STORY by Kranz & Ziegler store it was time to head home to London.

Wearing Claudie Pierlot dress, Club Monaco bag, Alexander McQueen scarf (which I’ve since lost, so devastated), Rebecca Minkoff bag & Hobbs sandals

Big thanks to STORY by Kranz & Ziegler for my first, fabulous trip to Copenhagen. Rest assured, I will be back!

Love Ella. X