Introducing: OpéraSport
With roots in both Copenhagen and Paris, this seasonless brand is setting the industry alight
AWA MALINA STELTER AND STEPHANIE GUNDELACH, THE co-founders of OpéraSport, describe their business as a natural extension of their friendship. The pair had been close for two years before their partners encouraged them to collaborate. ‘Awa and I were having lunch and talking about our dreams,’ says Gundelach. ‘We quickly realised we shared the same ones.’
In 2019, just three months after that initial conversation, OpéraSport was born, and its refined DNA and sustainable edge have since fulfilled the needs of minimalists seeking a timeless wardrobe packed with ample personality. High-profile admirers range from Kourtney Kardashian and the model Jordan Daniels to fashion-world stalwarts including Pernille Teisbaek.
Their previous experiences in the industry have helped boost the profile of the brand: Gundelach was a Paris-based stylist and consultant, and Stelter has spent decades working for retailers in Copenhagen. Speaking to both founders’ backgrounds, the ‘Opéra’ in the name nods to the chic Parisian neighbourhood, while the second half references the sporty edge of the Danish capital. Going against the grain by releasing collections via editions and remaining conscious of excess waste is a vital part of the business model. ‘We’re constantly looking to find new fabrics and sustainable options. Our stock is minimal, so we never overproduce,’ says Gundelach.
A focus on motherhood is also at the heart of the brand. ‘We were sitting by the pool together while on holiday in Majorca last year and thinking about what was missing from our wardrobes as mothers,’ says Stelter. ‘We both have young children, and we wanted to create garments you could wear to chase your kids around in,’ Gundelach adds.
Hard work by the pair (they only hired their first additional member of staff last February, and are now a team of nine) culminated in the brand’s debut show at Copenhagen Fashion Week in August 2021. Their AW23 presentation at Den Frie Centre of Contemporary Art saw them unite with the Bath-born, Berlin-based artist Tom Anholt. ‘The colours we used for this season were based around his paintings, and we included pieces made from past collections,’ Gundelach explains. Growing a creative community is important to the pair, who cite the stylist Veneda Carter and model Alva Claire as part of their trusted network of collaborators.
Appropriately for a label based on a foundation of female friendship, providing clothes that will make women feel good remains the mission. ‘Building up this brand has made us very close,’ says Stelter. ‘We’re always striving to find the right balance between parenthood and work, plus we both value good energy and positive thinking. Strong women everywhere are our inspiration; we want our customers to feel sexy and confident.’
WHEN KATE MOSS MADE A SURPRISE APPEARANCE ON BOTTEGA Veneta’s SS23 catwalk, perhaps the biggest shock was what she was wearing. The icon who launched a thousand Pinterest boards had traded her glam It-girl ensembles for simple, oversize jeans and a Kurt Cobain-worthy flannel-print shirt. The moment turned out to be a trend indicator of sorts, as the season hummed with white undershirts, reimagined denim (rendered in leather at Bottega Veneta or comically blown-up at Vaquera) and quirky dad caps on street-style stars. Welcome to the new era of normcore – and all the 2010s nostalgia that comes with it.
We’ve been living in a period of maximalist fashion during the pandemic, and now that more-is-more approach is starting to rub off on even the humblest of garments for spring. Just look at Miu Miu’s layered T-shirts or Peter Do’s, Alaïa’s or Valentino’s scaled-up, reimagined button-downs: the most classic wardrobe staples are coming back into style with a subversive vengeance.
It all goes back to the early 2010s, when normcore was born. Part of the reason for its sudden return now is that, ‘we’re in a neo-yuppie moment’, says Sean Monahan, founder of trendforecasting group 8Ball and co-founder of the now-defunct collective and trend-forecasting group K-Hole, which brought the term ‘normcore’ to the masses in 2013. The new, more upscale normcore wave isn’t exactly what it was 10 years ago. The blandness has transmuted into something slightly more complex, and underlying it is also a hint of preppiness: think less Jerry Seinfeld and more Carolyn Bessette Kennedy or Princess Diana. Both women were idolised for their minimalist aesthetic, and their old-money style is finding a new audience with those who’ve burned out on dopamine dressing.
‘It has to do with a wider shift from maximalism to minimalism,’ says Monahan. ‘Once you leave the confines of certain neighbourhoods, it’s hard to tell if people are going to the office or the gym or to meet their friends. It’s just a total collapse into casualness.’
What might look ho-hum is actually quite subversive – and driven by irony. Take, for instance, what Monahan calls the, ‘persistence of the meme baseball hat’. But he also cites Instagram-famous brands Praying and Hollywood Gifts as examples of this kind of tongue-incheek dressing. Likewise, the original normcore, ‘was mostly about this acceptance of the emergence of social media’, Monahan notes, ‘and the inability to do the hipster thing and find unGoogleable or unidentifiable treasures in thrift stores or from small labels’.
Normcore’s second coming finds us in the same boat, but this time we’re even more chronically online and glued to TikTok’s ever-changing array of crazes: balletcore, the tennis obsession, the ‘old money’ look, the ‘clean girl’ aesthetic… In an endless cycle of trends, being basic has never felt so good.