Copenhagen Fashion Week has a duty to be sustainable, says its CEO, who has just established an advisory board comprising politicians and key players from Denmark and abroad that will work together to advance the green transformation that’s underway.
At the top of Copenhagen Fashion Week’s to-do list is making the event more sustainable, according to CEO Cecilie Thorsmark, who will be in charge of Copenhagen Fashion Week for the first time as its director. “It’s not an issue that can be solved with a simple flick of the wrist, but I believe that it’s our duty as a leading player in the fashion ecosystem to take a thorough look at how Copenhagen Fashion Week can serve to benefit the fashion industry’s sustainability agenda to the greatest extent possible” explains Thorsmark.
“In the industry, more and more companies are moving in a sustainable direction, working with their supply chains, hiring CSR consultants and employing sustainability managers. As a trendsetting fashion week, we need to help make sustainability attractive. We have a voice and an ethical obligation to use it. The same moral duty rests on influencers and the press.”
The advisory board is the first step towards Copenhagen Fashion Week’s ambitious goal to become the most sustainable international fashion week. The first step in that process has involved establishing a board consisting of both Danish and international industry experts, which includes, for example Ganni’s founder Nicolaj Reffstrup, VOGUE Australia’s sustainability editor Clare Press, Global Fashion Agenda’s CEO Eva Kruse and Copenhagen’s Mayor of Culture and Leisure Franciska Rosenkilde.
“To achieve greening, all parts of society must take responsibility for the transition. That’s why it’s an obvious choice to see how Copenhagen Fashion Week can be made more sustainable and push the rest of the fashion world in a greener direction. Copenhagen Fashion Week is internationally recognised and gathers the world press, providing an ideal platform that I look forward to using to support a sustainable agenda,” affirms the City of Copenhagen’s Mayor of Culture and Leisure.
Discussions on sustainability at all levels Copenhagen Fashion Week’s newly established advisory board will serve as a sounding board to determine how fashion week can succeed at becoming even greener in the future and to create a preeminent platform for brands that already work with sustainability but also to motivate those who have yet to get started. There’s any number of things that can be done at event level, points out Thorsmark, for example, by looking at ways to minimize the environmental impact.
At system level, specific guidelines such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals can be used to provide direction. Copenhagen Fashion Week and the new advisory board will approach this task jointly to brainstorm and share knowledge to set in motion concrete measures that will benefit the entire industry. Copenhagen Fashion Week’s goal is to present preliminary initiatives in August of this year.
