The Danish Super Influencer, Pernille Teisbaek, Has A New Collaboration Coming Out With Mango

The last time I saw Pernille Teisbaek in person was during Paris Fashion Week at the Nina Ricci show in February 2020. Just weeks into the year and I had already run into her on the fashion week circuit in Copenhagen and New York. But by Paris the temperature had changed, the chatter about this virus going around was becoming louder. We did an awkward should-we-shouldn’t-we hug greeting (we didn’t), but nevertheless I assumed I’d see her somewhere in a few months when the merry-go-round of shows came around again. Back then, Zooming was just what you did between shows. I don’t need to tell you what happened next.

So how did Teisbaek, by this point a front-row fixture, feel when the circus stopped? She was lucky, she says, in that lockdown coincided with a time when she was ready to hibernate ‘like a little bear’. She was pregnant with her third son – Bruce, younger brother to Billy and Bobby, was born in December – and undergoing a renovation of their home in Copenhagen with husband Philip Lotko (founder of outerwear brand Rains). It’s this airy, furniture-porn dream she calls me from now. If you are one of Teisbaek’s million-plus followers on Instagram you’ll already know all that.

Still, since Instagram clout is built on aspirational content, how do you navigate that when there is nowhere to go and no need to dress up? ‘As everything else is right now, things are really tricky to figure out,’ she says. This year she felt compelled to offer more storytelling and ‘to go a little deeper, to share a little more than you wanted to before. A little more personal, more family stuff, more processes, more authentic.’ Of course, her version of authentic is still contained in an impeccably curated, chic package that serves as a sort of mood board for women who want some of that Danish style to rub off on them, all elegant ease and pared-back neutrals (Lotko calls her ‘Mrs Beige’).

Putting more of yourself out there comes with a degree of vulnerability. Teisbaek’s go-to tactic for coping with the noise? ‘Honestly, I don’t think about it at all, which is super-naive but it’s something I learned way back: if I wanted to stay who I am, I needed to distance myself from that,’ she says of the scrutiny that comes with a seven-figure following, adding that she doesn’t feel as attached to Instagram as she once did. ‘I think I’m growing up. I’m my own individual.’ Besides, according to her the Instagram game is a ‘lottery’, so there’s no point getting your validity from likes.

Invested or not, Pernille is part of the original guard of influencers, the big league players who sit on the front rows, star on magazine covers and have the world’s big brands clamouring to work with them. But theirs wasn’t a warm welcome into fashion’s inner sanctum. ‘People hated whatever we did at that time, they thought we were so annoying and couldn’t understand what the heck we were trying to do [grabbing] people’s seats from the runway shows,’ she says, recalling the snootiness that greeted influencers when they first arrived.

But a lot has changed. Today influencers haven’t just infiltrated the zeitgeist, they’re shaping it. The Pernille-generation of influencers started in a more innocent era of blogs, they were born out of a genuine appreciation and enjoyment of fashion. It wasn’t about celebrity. Now, it couldn’t be more different. Google pulls up millions of articles on how to make influencing a career; it is arguably the big picture ambition for most reality TV contestants.

‘I understand that it’s something that people think is an easy way to get a living but it’s not. It takes time. I hope that at some point it’s going to change a bit because it’s such a pressure to put on kids. Looking at a lot of the girls online doing really, really amazingly, they’re so young but so grown up already and have things I’ve been saving up for for so many years. I don’t know what I was doing in the beginning of my twenties but I was definitely not at this place. I was exploring, feeling a little bit more free.’

Part of Teisbaek’s charm is something that money can’t buy – her style, for one – but also the fact that her followers have watched her grow up and evolve, seen her get married and start a family. She thinks that all resonates. ‘People like seeing that you are a person and not just a machine who wears clothes and goes to things but you actually have an opinion.’ Not that she flags that about everything; she steers clear of politics on social media and vehemently disagrees that if you don’t express all your views publicly then ‘you don’t have an opinion and you’re a little bit stupid’.

And, of course, you don’t get to where she’s at by being stupid. Teisbaek is savvy, and has built an offline career. ‘The whole Instagram part for me is so tiny within the universe I work within, I do so many other things creatively.’ That means continuing her work as a stylist, developing her own (currently top secret) projects and turning her hand to design, first with a shoe line for Gia Couture (she is creative consultant) and now with a new capsule for Mango.

A long-term member of the #MangoGirls family, she jumped at the opportunity to create her own collection. A repeat wearer, she believes we’ve moved past the idea that style is about having the newest, ritziest, most expensive item. ‘People think everything I wear is so expensive; perhaps it was at one point but I’ve been using it for two million times so it feels like it costs zero krone.’

For Teisbaek, you can equally shop with longevity in mind on the high street. ‘It’s pieces I’m definitely going to be wearing for years,’ she says of the Mango collection.

True to form, the pieces feel authentic to her. Favourites include the blue co-ords, a curved-shoulder navy coat and – as one would expect – a cream suit. Comfort was paramount when designing and she looked to her own wardrobe for inspiration. Jeans, for instance, are cut loose ‘so that you can dress up with stilettos and a blazer and feel chic but I can also sit on the floor and play with my boys. It needs to go in the washing machine and be used all over again.’

Speaking of her boys, how, with three young children, does she keep her house looking so pristine? ‘Ha! That’s one of the big questions,’ she laughs. ‘We’ve created a little room where all the kids’ stuff is. I felt like creating my dream along with Philip. We did some stuff that was a little bit more childproof and then stuff that was not very childproof. It’s a kind of give and take.’ In other words, on show but not all on show.

Pernille Teisbaek x Mango is available from October 7 at mango.com.

FIRST LOOK: Pernille Teisbaek x Mango

Hair and make-up: Linda Sundqvist at Agent Bauer

Production: Jessica Harrison

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