Beyoncé and Lady Gaga are fans of Saks Potts, Danish fashion label that uses real fur and is a hit from Paris to New York
- The brand, founded in 2014 by two then-19-year-olds, has an international audience that includes online retailer Net-a-Porter, and Bergdorf Goodman in New York
- Founders don’t overthink their use of fur, including on the signature Foxy coat worn by Kendall Jenner, seeing it as ‘just a material like any other’
When Cathrine Saks and Barbara Potts established outerwear brand Saks Potts in 2014 at the tender age of 19, they were two ambitious young women who had a simple – yet clever – idea.
Their goal was to create a feminine, comfortable, timeless and fun range of coats that reflected their Danish heritage – the two were born and raised in Copenhagen and have known each other since kindergarten – while also serving a wide array of women of different backgrounds and ages.
With little to no prior experience in fashion or manufacturing, and while attending the University of Copenhagen to complete degrees in fashion design and tailoring, and art history respectively, Saks and Potts had the unabashed bravado typical of fresh-out-of-high-school millennials.
“Our parents are self-employed and always pushed us to follow our ideas and not be afraid to start something,” says Saks.
“When you’re young and 19, you don’t have anything that ties you [down] like an expensive flat or a family to take care of so you’re more willing to take chances.”
The first coat they made, a simple, colour-blocked model called the Febbe, quickly became a hit with industry players and models based in Copenhagen.
“From the beginning we’ve been very lucky to have friends and supporters like Emily Weiss from [beauty brand] Glossier and lots of different girls who just loved it,” says Potts. “It was very organic.”
The rise of the brand coincided with the popularisation of the “Danish girl look”, which in recent years has become as copied and admired as the nonchalant vibe associated with Parisian women.
“We were part of that movement along with other Danish brands like Ganni and Cecilie Bahnsen,” says Potts. “It’s so natural for us to embrace Copenhagen and the community we built in Copenhagen, and it was very good timing also with the food scene. In the past, it was mainly design and furniture but now it’s also food and fashion. There’s more and more attention [on Denmark].”
“The style and the fashion scene in Denmark when we launched six years ago were very minimalist and white or grey, and clean,” adds Potts. “So we decided to make these fun and colourful jackets.”
Thanks to celebrities like Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Bella Hadid and the ultimate Instagirl, Kendall Jenner – whose photograph of her riding a bicycle in New York clad in the label’s signature Foxy coat in green went viral – Saks Potts has gained huge exposure and is now available at top retailers including Net-a-Porter and My Theresa online, Bergdorf Goodman in New York and Boon the Shop in Seoul, South Korea.
“It’s hard for us to answer questions about the fur debate,” says Potts, referring to the recent decision by top brands such as Gucci and Prada to ban fur from their collections. “We know what we stand for and we know how sustainable real fur can be, but for us fur is just a material like any other material – leather for instance – so it’s not something that we overthink.”
“As long as you have very high standards for all materials you use and where you’re sourcing them from, down to which farm, it’s the same as any other material,” adds Saks. “It’s sustainable like any other natural material.”
The two work with Kopenhagen Furs, the world’s largest mink auction house, and explain that Denmark is the country with the highest standards of animal welfare in the world.
Regardless of where you stand on the fur issue, you cannot deny the visual and tactile appeal of the bestselling Foxy coat, which comes in a wide range of colours and reflects the way Saks Potts has been able to make a garment long associated with matronly and dowdy style into something fun and accessible.
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“Our coats are timeless and ageless. We don’t want to cater to a specific age group, or only women in their 20s or 30s,” says Saks.
“We want to make pieces that we would wear ourselves and that feel classic, elegant and fun, so we design something that still stands out but is also easy to wear and appeals to many different women, especially those who want to wear something different from the ordinary and have a strong style.”
“When people see our Instagram account and our celebrity images, they think we are a big company based in the US,” says Potts. “They have no idea that we’re a small Danish brand.”
“But our ambitions are big and we really want to take on as many different challenges as we can,” adds Saks, showing the same grit and drive that have propelled their rise since those student days.
