Late on a Tuesday morning in August, at the start of Fashion Week’s spring/summer 2024 season, there was no usual line at the counter of Copenhagen accessories store Pico. There was only a small crowd.
Women speaking English, Spanish and Danish pored over trays of rhinestone-studded hair clips lined up lovingly like pastries in a bakery window. Hands reached into glass jars that looked like they were made for Willy Wonka candies and chocolate bars – but instead they contained satin rosette barrettes the size of extra-large fists. Shoppers stood shoulder to shoulder, squinting into antique wooden apothecary cases where necklaces encrusted with gold bow pendants glittered on hangers.
During the chatting and fitting sessions with baroque hand mirrors, a buyer asked a salesperson, “So, did you all kind of invent the hair clip?”
The correct answer is no, not even close. Rhinestone-encrusted barrettes and rosette scrunchies are as much a perennial part of the Scandinavian fashion landscape as tunics over jeans and voluminous puff-sleeved dresses paired with trendy sneakers (all worn while riding a bike). Several designers on the official Copenhagen Fashion Week calendar sell their own versions; so do regional retailers and companies like Amazon. But eavesdroppers even vaguely familiar with the city’s fashion scene—like me, a fashion editor and Copenhagen Fashion Week veteran—can’t blame shoppers for assuming Pico is the birthplace of the extravagant hair accessory. It’s the place everyone goes to buy them when they’re in town.
Rosette hair clips and oversized hair ties are a staple of Copenhagen Fashion Week street style, with some of them being inspired by Pico, a store that only exists in Denmark.
(Image credit: Launchmetrics)
Pico opened its doors in 2004, but initially only sold jewelry. Demand from buyers convinced founder Anne-Marie Pico to start designing hair accessories.
(Image credit: Courtesy of Pico)
Since founder Anne-Marie Pico opened her first of four stores in 2004, her eponymous accessories department store has steadily gained an international following, from Spain to Sweden to the United States. For locals, it’s a convenient place to pick up a practical accessory that also reflects their personal style. For out-of-town visitors—especially editors who fly in during fashion week—it’s a destination for a souvenir that also doubles as a street-style photoshoot.
Beauty editor Daise Bedolla can’t remember how she first heard about Pico, but after that, one visit was enough to make her ask for new clips every time a friend visited Copenhagen.
“If you’re a beauty fanatic like me, or just enjoy hair, it feels a little like you’re a kid running around a candy store,” Bedolla tells me. Between the vintage candy store decor and the rainbow-colored selection of bows, flowers and pins, “I think it’s very easy to go overboard there. When someone I know goes there, I send them screenshots of what I like and see if they have anything. Sometimes they bring me what I ordered; sometimes they surprise me with something new.”
Bedolla’s story sounds familiar to Anne-Marie Pico, who has run the eponymous accessories kingdom for twenty years. “It’s not unusual for our foreign customers to receive whole lists from their friends of things they should buy in our store,” she tells me in an email.
Linda Zhang, assistant fashion director at Nordstrom, says Pico is like Claire’s for adults. Last season, she bought a rosette that can be worn as a choker, brooch or hair tie.
(Photo credit: Linda Zhang)
Pico doesn’t just sell hair clips and claws. The accessories department store also offers cosmetic bags, fine jewelry and socks.
(Image credit: Courtesy of Pico Store)
Even people who have never set foot in the store or the city limits of Copenhagen dream of putting a striped Pico hair clip in their hair, like Elizabeth Cardinal Tamkin, personal stylist and founder of The Corner Booth newsletter. “I was initially drawn to the brand because of its romantic hair accessories in bright, bold colors,” she says. “I’ve remained a loyal follower because I like how they show off original styled accessories on their page. Two rosettes in a ponytail? Cool! Those would be at the top of my list if I were to visit Copenhagen.”
Pico’s 50,000 Instagram followers and his network of international fans wouldn’t recognize the brand in its earliest version. At the beginning, it didn’t even sell hair accessories. Anne-Marie actually started designing jewelry, and it was earrings, rings and bracelets that filled her first store in 2004. Then customers started asking for hair clips to go with her gold jewelry; Pico (the person) couldn’t find anything on the market that already existed and was good enough to sell.
Their first hair-centric design was a small star-shaped hairpin that came in three colors. To say it was a huge success would be an understatement: “To keep up with demand, we soon had to make them in 20 different colors with glitter,” says Pico. Then came headbands, scrunchies and bobby pins, which sold so well that the brand had to take over the neighboring store to have room for all the accessories.
Within a day of arriving for Copenhagen Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2024, I purchased this oversized bow hair clip from Pico.
(Photo credit: Karolina Zaworska)
Today, Pico has four retail stores in Denmark, some wholesale accounts in Europe and Japan, and an online store that sells part of the entire store collection. The jewelry is still made by hand in a workshop above one of the stores; new variations of the decadent clips and headbands are released seasonally (and are so inexpensive they’re never on sale). Although a passport isn’t required to visit, there’s something magical about going to the store that can’t quite be replicated when shopping online.
“It’s the feeling! It reminds me of my visits to Claire’s as a child,” Linda Zhang, assistant fashion director at Nordstrom, tells me. “The store is full of eye-catchers.” So much so that during a trip to Copenhagen Fashion Week, she went there twice to see everything. And to buy a versatile satin flower brooch.
Bedolla also notes the wide variety: There are clip sizes for every hair type and jewelry, from dainty and light to oversized and exaggerated. But it’s the experience that’s the attraction. “At a time when I’m really bored with online shopping, it’s really fun to go somewhere where you feel like you’re discovering something new, and yes, it looks pretty.”
Scrunchies with a cloud-like texture and oversized proportions are a Danish speciality. Pico’s versions are available in satin and a micro-pleated fabric.
(Photo credit: Heidi Jones)
The day I visited Pico, I left with five new clips and the feeling that interest from abroad shows no sign of waning. Minutes later, I met a group of American and British colleagues who were on their way to their own shopping spree for earrings and bands.
Word is getting out that online sales are on the rise. 25 percent of orders are going to international addresses. And on the other end of the computer sits someone who is planning to visit the store in person – or send a friend on their behalf.
