Ep 154, Cecilie Thorsmark - How to Make Fashion Week Sustainable, Copenhagen-Style
EPISODE 155 FEATURES CECILIE THORSMARK
After two years of fashion weeks globally being more or less on pandemic pause, they're back.
Last week the Paris couture shows drew crowds in the French capital. As we publish, Scandinavia is in the spotlight with Copenhagen's event. The big four are going ahead this month, albeit with a few big names missing and some format changes. London's will be a gender neutral digital-physical event, showing "menswear, womenswear and gender neutral collections" - after London Fashion Week Men's was cancelled in January. New York is planning with physical shows, despite Tom Ford having to cancel due to Omicron disruptions. And while the schedules for Milan and Paris womenswear have yet to be published, they are expected to include some heavy hitters, including Gucci in Milan.
So, we ask – is this the start of everything going back to the way it used to be? Why shouldn’t it be? And what is the alternative? Do need fashion weeks at all? How can we reinvent them? What role could they play in sustainability?
This week's guest is Cecilie Thorsmark, CEO of Copenhagen Fashion Week. Discover how she introduced pioneering new sustainability requirements as a condition of brands showing on the Danish runway, and what it takes to get the carbon footprint of an event like this down.
Cecilie Thorsmark
NOTES
COPENHAGEN FASHION WEEK The AW ‘22 collections are showing Feb 1-4, 2022. Follow it all here.
Discover the BRAND SUSTAINABILITY REQUIREMENTS here.
Follow CPHFW on Instagram, and Cecilie here.
DANISH FASHION The cliche of Danish fashion speaks of restrained, high-quality minimalism in muted tones. And when asked to describe her style by Net-A-Porter Cecilie described her style as “quite masculine and androgynous”. Still, many Danes love colourful dressing and the Copenhagen street style scene tends towards clashing pastels, acid green gingham. Part of that’s down to #gannigirls - check out Episode 119 with Ganni founders Ditte (below) and Nicolaj Reffstrup.
Ditte Reffstrup in her own designs.
This fun, light aesthetic is echoed at brands like Baum und Pferdgarten, and Stine Goya, while Cecile Bahnsen (below) is known for her ligth-as-air volume-pumped, dresses - think a Danish Simone Rocha.
Cecile Bahnsen’s work.
CHANGE-POINT There’s been lots of speculation around whether the pandemic will really spark long-term change in the way we do things, or whether the urge to rush back to the old ways will out. For more on this, listen back to Episodes 144 with J.B. McKinnon “The Day the World Stops Shopping”, and 148 with Anyango Mpinga.
‘WHILE WE APPRECIATE THIS SENSE OF “NORMALITY”, WE DON’T WANT TO FORGET WHAT THE PANDEMIC TAUGHT US – AND IN FACT IS STILL TEACHING US... WE HAVE EXPERIENCED A RISE IN VOICES ADVOCATING FOR RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS PRACTICES AND A MORE MINDFUL WAY OF LIVING IN OUR WESTERN SOCIETIES. NEVERTHELESS, WE HAVE ALSO OBSERVED WHOLE INDUSTRIES FALLING BACK INTO OLD PATTERNS OF FAST CYCLES AND CONSUMPTION.” - Cecilie Thorsmark
The list of ADVISORY BOARD members (including Clare) can be seen here.
SUSTAINABILITY ACTION PLAN The latest report was launched in January 2022. Download it here.
CARBON FOOTPRINT CPHFW measured its baseline at the August 2019 edition, discovering the event emitted 45 tonnes of CO2 emissions. They then set a target to reduce this by 35%, but it has proved harder than expected to get that number down, even with deep cuts across some areas. The reason? International flights. “When we set the target to reduce our emissions, we had hoped to explore other alternatives for traveling and were enthusiastic about technological advancements to lower the impact of flights in general.,” says Cecilie. “But both have proven too optimistic and we will take this into consideration when target-setting for the upcoming three-year period.”
CLIMAIDER is the certified gold standard carbon offset provider CPHFW brought in to measure, reduce and counteract emissions.
CARBON OFFSETTING FEE For the AW22 edition of Copenhagen Fashion Week, the event introduced a carbon offsetting fee to ensure all brands on the official show schedule at least offset their emissions through this climate partner. Brands who independently off-/inset show emissions receive a refund of the carbon offsetting fee.
DO DIGITAL FASHION SHOWS WORK? “On average, digital shows, videos and presentations generated less than one-third as much online engagement.” Via Business of Fashion. Read the rest here.