Copenhagen Fashion Week CEO Cecilie Thorsmark Demands Sustainability For 'Scandi Girls' And Boys
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK - JANUARY 29: Cecilie Thorsmark seen wearing brown bag, beige suit outside Mfpen during Copenhagen Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2020 Day 2 on January 29, 2020 in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Photo by Christian Vierig/Getty Images)
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Written by Cassell Ferere originally published on Forbes.com
Around the world, Fashion Week is known throughout as the purveyor of fashion events. A time of year when the precedent is set on fashion trends and styling. Physical, digital, and "Phygital" fashion weeks are happening globally and there is a virtue of the in-person experience of fashion shows and trade events that the buyers and editors are familiar with. Conditions have changed the fashion industry dramatically and standards are being raised to meet environmental and health expectations.
This is why Cecilie Thorsmark, CEO of Copenhagen Fashion Week, has decided to put in place a three-year action plan for sustainability and a checklist that would require brands to increase their ethical and environmental practices and processes. This idea was first introduced in January 2020 but the minimum standards that make up a considerable part of the action plan won't become mandatory until 2023. For now, brands are starting to implement these requirements as much as possible.
Copenhagen has created a 17 point checklist of "Sustainability Requirements" for their fashion week participants as well as a points system demanding a minimum level of sustainability across all aspects of the value chain. This would also include the companies that create staging for shows as well as the surrounding events and trade shows that are traditionally there for buyer's markets.
Danish Crown Princess Mary, center, visits the Copenhagen International Fashion Fair during Copenhagen Fashion Week, Thursday Aug. 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Anthon Unger) DENMARK OUT
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This concept is not yet a thorough filtration of brands that disregard sustainable progress for their brand aesthetic. Instead, CPHFW is initiating and establishing a platform for fashion to have less of an environmental impact than before. Fashion brands are being encouraged to cultivate ideas and practices throughout their design process that are reciprocal to the environment. These brands will indubitably support the circularity of the fashion industry.
Cecilie Thorsmark had this idea as her trademark reason in applying for the CEO role of Copenhagen Fashion Week back in 2018. The lack of responsibility from the fashion industry and consumer culture demanding new fashion at rates that harm the environment and eco-systems is what initially informed Thorsmark. She was working at the Global Fashion Agenda at the time, a sustainability advocacy forum.
Taking the helm, Thorsmark has employed the consulting companies Ramboll and In futurum which are helping with the technical implementation of the requirements revealed a season ago.
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK - AUGUST 08: Happy models walking and dancing in the rain at the final walk during the GANNI show during the Copenhagen Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2020 on August 08, 2019 in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Photo by Yuliya Christensen/Getty Images)
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As the Scandinavian fashion haven, Copenhagen is already a pinnacle for a sustainable style where acceptable design consists of minimal aesthetics, suited into simplistic silhouettes that are inherently functional. It is a smart design for an efficient sense of style associated with what has been referred to as the "Scandi Girl." Brands like GANNI, Stine Goya, and Saks Pott are familiar members of this style trend and have some of the most prominent shows to look forward to during CPHFW.
This is what is intended to be translated as CPHFW will be requiring fashion week participants to meet their standard. But brands won't have to meet all 17 points until the year 2023.
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK - JANUARY 29: A model walks the runway at the Henrik Vibskov show during the Copenhagen Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2020 on January 29, 2020 in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Photo by Yuliya Christensen/Getty Images)
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Taking the traditional fashion week experience and adding this futurist proverb, CPHFW is setting criteria for sustainability in ways that France and the City of Lights [Paris] have set precedent for fashion for years. Cecilie still wants to present the best in fashion and well as the innovation of sustainability. Where Haute Couture purely exists, Copenhagen is conceiving a lane for "Haute" sustainability.
There is no means to dilute fashion according to CEO, Cecilie Thorsmark. She is challenging fashion brands and the fashion industry to take the fantasy of fashion and improve on the ideas of the process of conception to the runway. In these trail years, the plan for Thorsmark and CPHFW is to find a bare minimum in the sustainable applications already occurring within the show brands and create guidelines and a scoring system for the 2023 deadline.
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK - JANUARY 28: Cecilie Thorsmark, CEO Copenhagen Fashion Week on the stage speaking during The Copenhagen Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2020 Opening Reception at Boersen The Old Stock Exchange on January 28, 2020 in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Photo by Lars Ronbog/Getty Images for Copenhagen Fashion Week)
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Thorsmark is "fashion first" in her tact and is not trying to compete with the already established sustainable organizations, trade shows, and events that exist to promote sustainability. The three-year plan is a growth mechanism that brands can use to improve carbon neutrality, reduce resource consumption and enhance the stories of their brand. Extending the requirements to its efforts, Copenhagen Fashion Week will also be applying similar demands of transparency for themselves and their partners as they move closer to the deadline.
The world is rapidly changing and fashion is adapting simultaneously. Innovators are bound to take us beyond this current pandemic and doing so with a focus on circularity. I asked Cecilie Thorsmark to further describe her three-year plan. She explains her views of Copenhagen Fashion Week and the future on the horizon for the fashion industry.
What major changes would you like to see early-on with the sustainable initiative and the three-year plan in place for CPHFW?
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK - JANUARY 31: Cecilie Thorsmark is seen outside By Malene Birger during the Copenhagen Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2019 - Day 3 on January 31, 2019 in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Photo by Christian Vierig/Getty Images)
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I'm excited that we'll soon be able to track the sustainability progress of brands on our official schedule and of course hoping that we'll be seeing change happening at an uplifting pace.
We are currently working with Ramboll to technically implement the 2023 Sustainability Requirements that we launched last season. This means that soon we'll be ready to roll out a pilot test of the Sustainability Requirements system which will allow us to establish the current baseline of show brands and more importantly allow us to start tracking every season. Which means we'll be able to see how the brands' sustainability efforts develop (and hopefully progress) season by season and up until 2023 where brands will have to comply fully with 17 ambitious minimum standards and obtain the needed overall score to be eligible to apply for a show on the official schedule.
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COPENHAGEN, DENMARK - AUGUST 08: Cecilie Thorsmark is seen outside By Malene Birger during Copenhagen Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2020 on August 08, 2019 in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Photo by Christian Vierig/Getty Images)
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