Late on a Tuesday night this August, the opening night of the Nordic Fashion Week, Spring/Summer 2024 season, there was no usual line at the counter of Pico, an accessory store in Copenhagen. There was a small crowd.

Women speaking English, Spanish, and Danish gazed lovingly at the trays of rhinestone-studded hairpins, one by one, as if they were pastries in a bakery window. They thrust their hands into glass jars that looked like they were made to hold Willy Wonka bonbons or chocolate bars, but instead contained satin rosette hair clips the size of oversized fists. Shoppers stood shoulder to shoulder, squinting at the antique wooden pharmacy cases, ribbon chokers with golden ribbon charms hung on hangers, glistening.

As they chatted and tried on the baroque hand mirrors, one shopper asked a sales associate, "What do you think of this?

The exact answer is "no." Bedazzle nail clips and rosette scrunchies are as much a permanent part of Scandinavian fashion (all worn while riding a bike) as pants over a skirt or a bouncy puff-sleeved dress with trendy sneakers. Several designers on the official Copenhagen Fashion Week calendar sell their own versions. But eavesdroppers like myself, a fashion editor and Copenhagen Fashion Week veteran with even a vague familiarity with the city's fashion scene, can hardly blame shoppers for thinking that Pico is the birthplace of over-the-top hair accessories. It's where everyone in town goes to buy.

Since founder Anne-Marie Pico opened the first of four stores in 2004, her eponymous accessory store has steadily gained an international following, from Spain to Sweden to the United States. For locals, it is a convenient spot to pick up useful accessories that reflect their personal style. For editors, especially those visiting Japan during Fashion Week, it is a place to shop for souvenirs that can be used for street style photo shoots. On three of my four trips to the city's markets, I returned home with a bag full of Pico earrings, rhinestone-studded hair clips, and oversized scrunchies. So did the editors sitting next to me at the show.

Pico is as much about pure shopping as it is about the mindset of harnessing one's inner child and her box of hair accessories. 'It's a feeling. It reminds me of visiting Claire's as a child," Linda Cui Chang, associate fashion director at Nordstrom, tells me. 'This space is a feast for the eyes.' So much so that she visited Copenhagen Fashion Week twice and enjoyed every minute of it. And to buy a versatile satin flower pin.

Even those who have never set foot in the store or in Copenhagen City dream of pinning a striped pico barrette to their hair, like Elizabeth Cardinal Tamkin, personal stylist and founder of the newsletter The Corner Booth "I was first attracted to the brand," she says. She says, "I was first drawn to the brand because it was a romantic hair accessory in bright, bold colors." She says. I continue to be a follower of the brand because I love the way their pages showcase accessories styled in an original way. It's 'two rosettes on a ponytail' cool. When I visit Copenhagen, they should be at the top of my list."

Beauty editor Daiz Bedra doesn't remember how she first heard about Pico, but once she did, she tapped the "follow" button on Instagram one time and requested a new clip every time a friend visited Copenhagen! ...

"If you're a beauty fan like me or someone who simply loves hair, you'll feel like a kid frolicking in a candy store," Bedra told me. With a decor that resembles a vintage candy store and an assortment of ribbons, flowers, and pins in every color of the rainbow, "you can't help but go overboard. Literally, when people I know go there, I send them screenshots of my favorite things to see if they're in the store. Sometimes they bring me what I ask for, sometimes they surprise me with something new."

Bedora and Cardinal's story sounds familiar to Anne-Marie Pico, who has led her eponymous accessories empire for 20 years. She tells me via e-mail, "It's not uncommon to have foreign customers listing items that their friends have told them to come buy in our store."

Pico's 50,000 Instagram followers and her network of international fans would not have recognized the brand in its early stages. Initially, it did not even sell hair accessories. Anne-Marie actually began designing jewelry, and it was earrings, rings, and bracelets that filled the first retail stores in 2004. Later, customers began asking for hair clips to go with their gold jewelry.

Her first hair-centric design was a small star hairpin available in three colors. To say this was a huge success is an understatement: "To meet the demand, we soon had to create glitter hairpins in 20 different colors," says Pico. Then came headbands, scrunchies, and hair claws, which sold so well that they had to take over the store next door to make room for all the products.

Today, Pico has four retail stores in Denmark, several wholesale partners in Europe and Japan, and an online store that sells a fraction of the entire collection in stores. Jewelry is still handmade in a workshop above one of the stores, and fresh takes on decadent clips and headbands arrive seasonally (and at prices so affordable that they never go on sale). While you don't need a passport, the store has a charm that online shopping just can't replicate.

Bedolla is also notable for its variety: there are clip sizes for all hair types, and jewelry that ranges from dainty and light to oversized and over-the-top. But the overall appeal is in the experience. When you're tired of shopping online, it's really fun to go to a place where you can discover something new."

On my most recent visit to Pico, I left with five new clips in my hands and a feeling that the international interest was going nowhere. A few minutes later, I ran into an American and a British colleague who were heading out to shop for earrings and ribbons.

As word spread, online sales grew, with 25% of orders going to international addresses. And on the other side of the computer, some are planning to visit the store in person, or send a friend on their behalf.