If there’s one couple that epitomises Copenhagen’s tight-knit creative community, it’s Caroline and Frederik Bille Brahe. Having walked the catwalks for the likes of Chanel, Valentino and Louis Vuitton since the age of 13, Caroline (née Brasch Nielsen) launched her own fashion brand, Caro Editions, in 2022, and is a familiar presence on the front rows (and occasionally, the runways) at Copenhagen Fashion Week. Meanwhile, Frederik – the chef behind Atelier September and Apollo Bar, and brother of jewellery designer Sophie Bille Brahe – is also a regular face in the fashion world, often playing host to Ganni’s raucous parties, as well as catering for the likes of Tekla, Marimekko and Sea New York.
The pair first met nearly a decade ago at – where else? – Atelier September, when Caroline was just 21. “I’d just bought an apartment in Copenhagen, and it was two minutes away from the old Atelier September,” the former model, who is wearing a Bode T-shirt and brown cord trousers, tells me in Frederik’s high-ceilinged office at Apollo Bar, which is doubling up as Caro Editions’s showroom during fashion week. “You were ordering a coffee and you asked me if you could have my sister’s number,” her husband, sporting his trademark navy cap, continues (the couple has a habit of finishing each other’s sentences). “You [went] totally red and I think at that point we fell in love with each other. I had no clue about who you were.”
At the time, Caroline was at the height of her modelling career, walking 60 shows in the autumn/winter 2013 season, including closing for John Galliano. But beneath the glamorous facade, she was suffering from burnout and an eating disorder. “I wanted to fit into Frederik’s world and be normal, but my reality was that I was super anorexic and really traumatised,” she says, candidly.
Soon after meeting Frederik, she began turning down work. “I came to a point where I didn’t care how big the job is, how much money they’re going to pay, I just didn’t want to do it anymore,” Caroline recalls. “I wanted to stay home.”
Of course, the model didn’t turn her back on the fashion world, championing the work of her friends in Copenhagen. She was one of the OG Ganni girls, as well as taking to the catwalk for the likes of Saks Potts (co-founder Barbara Potts was one of Caroline’s bridesmaids) and Cecilie Bahnsen (the designer created her romantic wedding dress), and starring in campaigns for sister-in-law Sophie Bille Brahe’s eponymous jewellery brand.
A couple of years ago, Caroline decided to start her own fashion brand, Caro Editions, which is now stocked in both Matches and Ssense. “After modelling from such a young age, I was like ‘Who am I? What am I good at?’” she explains. “I wanted to have something to wake up to every day.” Based on her own personal style, the label’s aesthetic straddles the girlish and practical, from vintage-inspired tea dresses to structured jackets designed to make the wearer feel powerful. “I really think about what I would wear,” she says. “It should you make you feel your best when you put it on.”
Despite being busy with showroom appointments, Caroline still makes time for her friends, and attended Saks Potts’s intimate showcase this season. Indeed, the couple share a generosity when it comes to supporting others. “Even though the creative community is growing [in Copenhagen], it’s very, very small – you know everyone,” the chef explains. “Before we had kids, it was natural for us to always host people and have parties here at Apollo.”
It’s no wonder, then, that Apollo Bar – which has recently undergone a facelift – has become a hotspot for the Scandi fashion set. When I come back later in the week to try out the new menu (highlights of which include mussels on toast, grilled redfish sashimi and a very Instagram-friendly blood-orange sorbet with goat’s cheese ice cream), the restaurant – which is housed inside the Kunsthal Charlottenborg, or Charlottenborg Art Gallery – is buzzing with Copenhagen Fashion Week attendees. Within two minutes of arriving, my dinner companion spots Soulland creative director Silas Adler and a well-known PR executive, while Frederik himself is greeting regulars and serving drinks behind the bar.
Juggling this hands-on approach to work must be difficult (Frederik’s Atelier September cookbook also came out in December), I suggest, given that the couple now have three kids: Sonya, four, Axel, three, and six-month-old Ursula, who has accompanied her parents for our conversation. Caroline’s arm is currently in a bright pink cast, after she fell from a table at Apollo while shooting the lookbook for Caro Editions. (Her friend signed her cast “JT”, in reference to Juergen Teller, as a joke.) “I came home late after work the other night, Caroline had just done a shoot, and the house was a mess,” Frederik laughs.
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It’s one of the reasons why the couple are shifting their approach to focus more on their own creative projects, and working together when they can. Trips to New York and Seoul are planned for the coming months, which will see them taking their children along with them, too.
Despite how hectic their schedules are, the couple are among the most laid-back people I’ve ever met – which is no doubt why the creative community in Copenhagen has gravitated towards them over the past decade. What’s their secret? “With all these things that we do, there’s an element of fun,” Frederik says. “We are very lucky. One of the very important [things] you can give yourself is to create happiness for other people.”