Words by Smiley Team
Alongside effortless street style and It Girl looks, the environment hit the catwalks at Copenhagen Fashion Week last week. The event spotlighted the most eco-minded designers through a sustainability award, and the event’s organisers pledged to achieve zero waste in a recent report.
In partnership with online fashion platform Zalando, the event hosts brought sustainability to the fore by awarding designers for the most environmentally-considerate collections. After whittling the candidates down to two frontrunners, the judges handed the prize to House of Dagmar, a brand which has upheld sustainable fashion since its launch. For their winning collection they created 90 per cent of products from at least 50 per cent sustainable fabrics.
In addition to the award, the fashion week laid out in it’s 2020-2022 plan how it will transition to becoming more sustainable. This green roadmap includes reducing its climate impact by 50 per cent and becoming zero waste by 2022.
The event’s CEO Cecilie Thorsmark explained: “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. As a trendsetting fashion week, we need to help make sustainability attractive. We have a voice and an ethical obligation to use it.”
Copenhagen is certainly ensuring sustainability comes into fashion, with initiatives that they hope will spread throughout the industry.
“All industry players – including fashion weeks – have to be accountable for their actions and be willing to change the way business is done. The timeframe for averting the devastating effects of climate change on the planet and people is less than a decade, and we’re already witnessing its catastrophic impacts today. Put simply, there can be no status quo,” urged Thorsmark.
To promote green production and consumption, the Copenhagen team banned single-use plastic bottles, cutlery and straws across all their venues.
In terms of CO2 emissions, they reduced their footprint with efforts ranging from a climate-neutral website, to planting trees to offset emissions from air travel. Event snacks were locally sourced and they opted for only the most environmentally-friendly buses and electric cars.
