Copenhagen Fashion Week has both the privilege and daunting task of being first on the calendar every fashion month, with New York, London, Milan, and Paris following closely behind. For F/W 21, all eyes were on the Danish capital to see what a fully-digital fashion week would look like during COVID-19.
While editors like myself get a huge kick out of traveling to Copenhagen and seeing the clothes up close and personal, most fans of Scandi brands are already used to seeing the clothes through Instagram, so they were no doubt enthusiastic about a fresh crop of ingenious-yet-wearable designs from Baum und Pferdgarten, By Malene Birger, and more.
The new looks probably left you with a miles-long wishlist, but CPHFW’s CEO, Cecilie Thorsmark, reinforced in her opening address that the event is about so much more than cool clothes. “A year ago, we launched our sustainability action plan,” she said in a video. “The plan laid out concrete targets for the next three years to come. But it also revealed our ultimate ambition of introducing minimal sustainability requirements that brands must comply with by 2023 in order to participate in our fashion week.”
The first-of-its-kind list of requirements includes using at least 50% organic, fair trade, or recycled materials; constructing zero waste set designs; banning all single-use plastics, including garment bags and water bottles; committing to not throwing away unsold clothes; only using packaging that is recyclable, repurposable, or biodegradable; and much more.
This week, Copenhagen Fashion Week proved that they intend to walk the walk by releasing their first annual sustainability report to document the event’s progress and be transparent about where they have fallen short. Accountability—now that’s a word I love to hear.
Scroll down to see my breakdown of the top three trends that popped up everywhere during Copenhagen Fashion Week’s fall 2021 season.
Next, these fashion girls have under 10,000 followers but dress like they have over a million.