Copenhagen Fashion Week kicked off its spring/summer 2025 season on Monday 5 August, with plenty of fashion editors, buyers and social media stars jetting off to the Danish city to find out what’s in store for next year’s summer season. And while Scandi style is being shown in abundance, with key brands including as Remain, Rotate and Baum und Pferdgarten garnering a lot of attention, it’s the fashion week’s sustainability focus that makes it stand out.

“Copenhagen Fashion Week has been proactive in its commitment to sustainability and has implemented several initiatives to promote and accelerate sustainability in the fashion industry,” shared Cecilie Thorsmark, CEO of Copenhagen Fashion Week, who sat down with Stylist to discuss the reality of a planet-friendly fashion week. This season, prompted even further by the new EU textiles strategy – which aims to increase the number of durable, repairable and recyclable garments in the market to make them less likely to end up in landfill – this focus is even sharper.

“For brands on our official schedule, we introduced sustainability requirements that brands are expected to meet to be part of the event, covering areas such as material sourcing, production, design processes or working conditions, to name just a few,” explains Thorsmark. These have recently been revised by a panel of experts, including Professor Dilys Williams, director of the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at University of the Arts London; Professor Katherine Richardson, leader of the Sustainability Science Centre at the University of Copenhagen; and Orsola de Castro, founder and creative director of fashion activist platform Fashion Revolution.

This season, all brands on the schedule must comply with 19 requirements including showcasing a collection that:

• must be free from virgin fur, wild animal skins and feathers
• has criteria in place to ensure the quality and longevity of products (while informing customers about the value of longevity)
• offsets unavoidable carbon emissions
• is at least 60% crafted from either certified, preferred materials or deadstock fabric, an increase of 10% from last year

Plus, on top of the minimum standards, all brands must answer an additional scored survey, which is hoped to encourage further positive practices. But is this enough to declare the event as truly sustainable?

As we’re all now aware, the fashion industry as a whole has devastating effects on the planet. The industry is responsible for 20% of the world’s wastewater, 35% of microplastics in oceans, 92 million tonnes of clothing end up discarded in landfills a year and around 897 million metric tons of CO2 equivalents into the atmosphere, according to State of Matter. So, the fashion industry as a whole does cause real concerns and raises the question of whether more clothes are needed.

On top of this, of course, comes the issue of thousands of guests flying in to see the shows (Copenhagen Fashion Week attracts over 30,000 visitors from around the globe each year with air travel being big polluter, accounting for 2% of global energy-related CO2 emissions), transport around the city and the fast fashion stores that will go on to produce cheaper and often much poorer quality versions of ‘trending’ pieces showcased at the event, which only adds to the unsustainable nature of the industry. 

Noting the industry’s failings, Thorsmark adds: “Ultimately, sustainable fashion is a contradiction in itself as long as we don’t address the culture of fashion consumption and the vast speed of collections.” It’s this culture that Copenhagen Fashion Week is working to shift while still working within a traditional fashion showcase setting. “As a fashion week, we are in a unique position in the fashion ecosystem, and it’s important for us to use our platform as a voice for change,” she adds.

Regular revision of the minimum entry requirements, an impressive panel of sustainability experts and a strong awareness of the industry’s downfalls is only a step in the right direction to shaping a more planet-positive industry. We hope that with the event’s emphasis (even acknowledging that it’s not flawless) on the importance of sustainable practices and only rewarding those who show that they have positive principles in place with a show slot, the wider industry will follow suit and conversations around these issues will continue. However, the big four – London, New York, Paris and Milan – have much to learn. 

Images: Stine Goya; Forza Collective; Operasport; Copenhagen Fashion Week