In recent years, the fashion industry has strived to push for “green fashion,” or sustainable fashion, but no one has made as massive a statement as Copenhagen, Denmark.
When it comes to Fashion Week’s impact on trends, Copenhagen Fashion Week organizers recognized the responsibility of putting a green footprint on the runway.
“We are in the middle of a climate crisis. We have to act now and act urgently,” Cecilie Thorsmark, CEO of Copenhagen Fashion Week, told Vogue.
In 2020, Copenhagen Fashion Week launched an action plan towards sustainability to encourage the industry to make conscious decisions. The project has given brands three years to meet a set of requirements to participate in next season’s fashion show.
The action plan strives to make an array of commitments that include reducing at least 50% of the industry’s climate impact and rethinking green innovative ways, to lower waste systems from production to sourcing with an ambitious goal of reaching zero waste by 2023.
This year, the Copenhagen Fashion Week organizers have partnered with another environmentally cautious brand, Zalando, to launch the “Zalando Sustainability Award.”
After various submissions and looking at different brands’ sustainability strategies, judges from Zalando and Copenhagen Fashion Week chose House of Dagmar as the winner last Thursday.
House of Dagmar is a brand that strives to create designs sustainably and ethically. In their Fall 2021 collection, 90% of their products were made with sustainable fabrics.
According to award judges, the Swedish brand showed clear evidence of committing to a green future. The brand removed unsustainable materials from the collection, and used recycled materials, alongside less water and chemicals during production.
Noting its inability to influence all brands to go green, Copenhagen Fashion Week is determined to continue to utilize its voice and role in the fashion realm, to make the glitz and glam of the runway a bit greener and more sustainable by doing its part to help lower fashion’s ecological footprint all while creating a positive change in the business.