Copenhagen Fashion Week Challenges the Conventional Fashion Week System

In the present day, conventional elements of the worldwide style trade proceed to perpetuate legacy methods and seasonal consumption patterns. As fashion weeks obtain even larger consideration from international audiences, the tradition of consumption that underpins them should be repeatedly examined — notably as these targets are more and more at odds with the objectives of international regulators, most prominently within the European Union.

Whereas operating as a bi-annual style showcase like its counterparts, Copenhagen Fashion Week (CPHFW) is an organisation ready to disrupt what style weeks appear like, who they serve and what their lasting affect might grow to be. Because the Autumn/Winter 2023 season, the occasion — spearheaded by CEO Cecilie Thorsmark — has enforced 18 minimal sustainability necessities for displaying manufacturers, which span six key areas throughout the style worth chain: strategic design, materials selections, working situations throughout the availability chain, client engagement, set design and present manufacturing.

To enhance this framework, the organisation has invested in a chat programme of panels and discussions to a dwell viewers, operating alongside its showcase and aiming to handle and unpack among the style trade’s most pertinent points, from provide chain complexities to championing subsequent era expertise.

To additional its efforts on this house and amplify the cultural affect of style weeks, CPHFW partnered with BoF to host an government roundtable for its Autumn/Winter 2024 season. It gathered style leaders, insiders and consultants to ask how style weeks can’t solely future-proof themselves as pressures mount from each regulators and shoppers, but additionally propel the style trade towards a future benefitting manufacturers and shoppers, whereas respecting planetary boundaries.

“Whereas style weeks captivate and encourage, the tradition of consumption that they implement should be addressed,” mentioned Thorsmark, in her opening assertion on the occasion. “It’s our accountability to foster dialog round how we rejoice style in new methods and encourage trade motion to do higher.”

Held at Soho Home Copenhagen, and moderated by BoF’s Robin Mellery-Pratt and Alice Gividen, the occasion assembled trade leaders, designers, strategists and cultural change-makers from throughout the trade, together with: Omoyemi Akerele, founder and CEO of Lagos Trend Week and Type Recordsdata; Ana Andjelic, international chief model officer of Esprit; pattern advisor, Sam Trotman; designer and founding father of Mom of Pearl, Amy Powney; writer and sustainability strategist, Alec Leach; founder and 1 Granary editor-in-chief, Olya Kuryshchuk; designer Henrik Vibskov; and chair of the Danish arts committee for craft and design, Anni Nørskov Mørch.

Carried out underneath the Chatham Home rule, under we share condensed, anonymised insights with the BoF neighborhood and wider trade.

Optimising the Digitisation of Trend Week

“In the present day, shoppers actually benefit from the peer-to-peer engagement that new channels convey. That is markedly completely different from studying critiques on Vogue. Trend weeks have extra accountability right this moment to be far more democratic — talking to an viewers in a approach that’s far more comprehensible and digestible,” mentioned one visitor.

“We now have to ask, ‘what’s the precise which means behind what we’re doing? What’s the cultural context?’ Youthful audiences right this moment have such a thirst for data, particularly in the event that they haven’t come from a style background. Let’s make it accessible for them.”

One other visitor highlighted the style and luxurious trade had been specializing in digital channels, however alternatives exist to optimise the affect of style week activations.

It’s not about merely these 10 minutes of a present, or these three hours of a celebration. It’s about content material and the way that endures.

“To make use of the instance of Louis Vuitton. [I believe] they measured the success of the present in YouTube views and in impressions, not in what number of consumers had been there, or how many individuals really purchased that assortment after we simply hit the shops. […] Even with hundreds of thousands spent, it will possibly excite tradition for one second. What [the next generation of hybrid community culture is] is the precise reverse of that: creating lots of indicators that synchronise and create one thing significant that may be heard. It’s the alternative of getting one huge second if you spend some huge cash.”

“In the present day, virality and cut-through on the web is achievable, however constructing neighborhood and lasting cultural moments that dwell on is extra necessary,” mentioned one other attendee. “Content material ought to seize the ambiance of the occasion, the second — no matter you’ve created — to contain a a lot larger viewers. Give them one thing to attach with.”

Increasing the Dialogue

Main manufacturers should now be current on a mess of digital channels, which in flip has elevated buyer expectations round each the cadence of channel-specific content material from manufacturers and the way genuine it’s. “Due to the digital extensions manufacturers can make use of right this moment, storytelling must be the central focus,” mentioned one participant. “It’s not about merely these 10 minutes of a present, or these three hours of a celebration. It’s about content material and the way that [endures]. What’s the narrative? Why are we doing this?”

Different friends recommended that model storytelling may very well be used as a software to coach end-consumers. “We now have a accountability to ship a message out to wider viewers that style weeks and, by extension, the style trade, isn’t merely about glamour, exhibits, affect and entrance row tradition, however a whole, numerous set of aesthetic-based issues and conversation-based issues.”

The entire system has grow to be tremendous squeezed — timelines, supplies and logistics are extraordinarily compressed. It’s nearly unattainable to provide a set, at scale, inside a six-month timeframe.

“Take into consideration what Coco Chanel was doing within the Twenties. Sure, she had her present, however her prospects had been so conscious of her craft. Her exhibits — which had been, in impact, buying occasions — had every little thing to do with the standard and craftsmanship of her work. The dialog was one. Why are we separating them right this moment? It’s a divide that can simply proceed to perpetuate a disconnect between craft and exhibits.”

“There’s a lot that style might be taught from materials-based artists. Take ceramics or furnishings — the entire manufacturing course of kinds a part of the model storytelling. It’s not a further layer of context that comes later, or an add-on to assist market the product. It’s really core to its id and is commonly an actual level of distinction for shoppers.”

Certainly, different attendees argued that the completely different mediums out there right this moment meant that storytelling needed to grow to be a permanent focus.

Rethinking Seasonality

Attendees pressured the significance of difficult the seasonal churn of product. Globally, style waste is estimated to be roughly 100 million tonnes yearly, with the equal of a truck full of garments ending up on landfill websites each second, in line with the Ellen MacArthur basis.

“The entire system has grow to be tremendous squeezed — timelines, supplies and logistics are extraordinarily compressed. It’s nearly unattainable to provide a set, at scale, inside a six-month timeframe. I imagine designers want an extended runway. It’s unusual to have a present if the consumers sitting there can’t purchase it. Designers might solely have a two-month window — in the event that they’re fortunate — to get their merchandise in-store at full worth earlier than it goes on sale.”

“Think about artists in different disciplines — they don’t have exhibits each six months. When one thing captivates them, once they really feel as if they’ve one thing to say, solely then will they placed on an exhibition,” added one attendee.

“Maybe, one season, designers might present, then the subsequent they arrive again to host an necessary dialog or inform a narrative another way. We have to give designers an opportunity to interrupt perpetual cycles. Lacking a present mustn’t sign to the trade and to shoppers that their enterprise is failing.”

Providing Better Assist to Rising Expertise

“The Trend Week system ought to evolve additional to create house for rising expertise, nearly like a graduate programme. There needs to be a approach for younger designers to achieve expertise and construct momentum with out the pressures of churning out collections,” recommended one attendee. “We needs to be asking, ‘is there a option to stroll them into the style system, fairly than throw them in and hope it sticks?’”

“The present system is like musicians being instructed they’ve a great voice, then having to go and instantly carry out at Wembley,” added one other visitor. “However I feel younger designers really feel as if they haven’t any selection however to point out up, in the event that they need to create long-lasting affect. Sometimes, there isn’t one other apparent path to turning into a recognised designer.”

“Numerous younger designers really feel that’s the one option to do it, and it’s fairly a poisonous tradition. You spend a lot time simply wanting round at all people else, ‘What’s that designer doing? What’s that designer doing?’ You’ve really not spent any time specializing in what you do, what you imagine, what’s genuine to you.”

Outdoors of exhibits, it’s necessary to contemplate how we preserve the dialog going and maintain folks’s consideration.

Nevertheless, one attendee countered with the concept that designers had been pressured into displaying every season to drive affect. “I feel we infantilise designers and make them the sufferer of another person’s actions. It’s a privilege to begin a model, to attach with prospects, to construct a neighborhood. Trend weeks, of their present format, launch careers and companies. This platform shouldn’t be underestimated.”

Constructing Presence in ‘Off’ Weeks

The dialogue turned to the function of style weeks outdoors of their bi-annual showcases.

“Trend weeks have the potential to foster actual communities round our trade, to have collaborative conversations and encourage displaying manufacturers, editors and even shoppers to take motion to foster constructive change,” mentioned one attendee. “Outdoors of exhibits, it’s necessary to contemplate how we preserve the dialog going and maintain folks’s consideration.”

“As an alternative of enthusiastic about Trend Week due to consumer-facing moments, how can we get collectively to speak about how we really create [products] higher? I used to be talking to a model simply this week who mentioned, ‘We preserve it old skool. We simply ring up retailers and say, “Do you want extra denims?” We’ll ship them ten extra pairs, if they’re wanted,’” added one other attendee. “The unbiased manufacturers are struggling, the unbiased retailers are struggling, so why don’t we use Trend Week as a approach of fixing that?”

Nevertheless, one visitor countered that the cultural affect of style exhibits remained essentially the most compelling draw of style week for each the displaying manufacturers and their viewers. “Exhibits are the celebration of many months of arduous work. It’s about celebrating creativity, craftsmanship, creating an area for a model’s imaginative and prescient to be dropped at life.”

“Trend Week — and the press — carry a year-round accountability. Everybody who broadcasts, who critiques, who has that energy and holds a level of affect — how they behave and what they are saying — has affect.”

“It’s continuity that we must always all be working in the direction of, not simply remoted occasions,” concluded one other visitor.

This can be a sponsored function paid for by Copenhagen Trend Week as a part of a BoF partnership.