How Sustainability Standards Changed the Trajectory of Copenhagen Fashion Week

Next week, fashion will take over Copenhagen once again, with shows spanning from the Opera Park to the Statens Museum for Kunst, spilling out into cobbled streets and waterside runways in between. The Spring/Summer 2027 season will be the biggest Copenhagen Fashion Week (CPHFW) yet — marking the 20th anniversary of fashion’s unofficial fifth city.

Nordic talent — including Henrik Vibskov, Baum und Pferdgarten, and Rotate — remains front and center, after a rocky few years that saw heavyweights Ganni and Cecilie Bahnsen decamp to Paris, and industry favorites Saks Potts and (Di)vision close their doors. In response, CPHFW has invited the world in. New York label Collina Strada will show on Thursday, in the first seasonal guest slot, supported by The Climate Pledge, of which it’s a signatory. Then there’s Lagos Fashion Week’s Iamisigo, which will make a guest appearance at CPHFW for the third season running, and Milan-based brand Institution, which is joining as a one-off, on the heels of its Zalando Visionary Award win.

“Over the years, Copenhagen Fashion Week has gone from a regional industry event where the shows were front and center, to an international platform with very clear values and a clear direction for how we see the future of fashion shaping up,” says CPHFW CEO of the week, Cecilie Thorsmark. “Our focus on sustainability seems to have resonated with brands that either haven’t done a show before, or haven’t previously considered Copenhagen. It’s a great opportunity for exchange.”

Lagos Fashion Week’s Iamisigo, which will make a guest appearance at CPHFW for the third season running.

SS27 is due to be a bumper season. Jewelry giant Pandora is supporting the 20th-anniversary gala at Danish Royal Opera, as well as the New Talent program, providing jewelry for Taus and Anne-Sofie Madsen, who are about to graduate from the scheme. Footwear brands are also out in force: Paolina Russo is collaborating with Ecco, and Stem with Camper. Stem is also returning to its hit 2022 collaboration with Ganni, this time reinterpreting Ganni’s deadstock material into new looks — Stem’s first venture into synthetic fabrics, with its signature zero-waste twist. Finnish brand Almada Label will make its CPHFW debut, while Mfpen, Stine Goya and Alectra Rothschild / Masculina return to the show schedule after brief breaks.

The minimum sustainability standards CPHFW introduced in 2020 were ahead of their time, forcing brands to tackle their environmental and social impacts in order to continue showing on schedule. But in 2025, they hit a snag in the road. A greenwashing allegation from greenwashing specialist Tanja Gotthardsen and Danish consumer organization Tænk forced CPHFW to defend its approach to Danish authorities, at the same time as the broader industry started to roll back its sustainability commitments. Where CPHFW hoped to be a leader, it remains a lone wolf, at least among the major fashion capitals. Ahead of the shows, I spoke to Thorsmark about what the process has taught her, and how she plans to evolve CPHFW’s approach for the next 20 years.

Vogue: Firstly, congratulations on 20 years. How would you define this moment for CPHFW?

Thank you. Of course, 20 years is a big milestone in itself, but it’s also an opportunity to reflect on where our industry stands today and how the role of our fashion week is evolving. CPHFW has gone from being a regional industry event to an international platform, which is so much more than just a stage for runway shows; it’s a platform with very clear values. And while we’re still focused on showcasing the best of Nordic talent, we’re equally focused on shaping what future fashion weeks could look like.

Vogue: Will Collina Strada — and future international guests — be subject to the same minimum sustainability standards as domestic brands?

No, but they will fill out the survey [each brand is required to fill out a survey stating its environmental and social impact, to help measure progress]. In general, brands showing at CPHFW are required to fill out the survey from their first season, but they only have to comply with the full framework after two seasons. That’s because it’s a complex framework that requires a lot of work, and some brands need time to take on additional consultancy, so they can really grasp what is required of them.

Mfpen, Stine Goya and Alectra Rothschild/ Masculina return to the show schedule after brief breaks.

Part of Stem’s new collection will be made from Ganni deadstock fabric.

Vogue: Over the past year, I’ve moderated two roundtables organized by CPHFW, first at New York Climate Week in September and then at London Climate Week in June. It’s been interesting to observe how other fashion weeks and stakeholders from across the industry react to your minimum sustainability standards, and to hear more about why they’re reluctant to do the same. How has the broader sustainability movement changed since you started, and has the recent sustainability recession changed things for CPHFW?

Five years ago, there was a lot more excitement around sustainability, and a collective enthusiasm. The general consensus was that we could do it together. In the past few years, everything from geopolitical uncertainty to financial instability has added a lot of complexity to the subject. Sadly, the movement around sustainability has gone in the wrong direction, both on the geopolitical level and also among many corporations and brands.

We’ve seen less priority given to sustainability, which has been super discouraging, but we remain committed. I hope that it makes our industry more aware of the importance and urgency to change now. Certainly, our brands seem willing to continue to embed sustainability in their operations, in spite of the fact that it’s more expensive, more complex, and more risky to talk about.

A lot of players — from fashion councils to brands — are perplexed about what it takes. And it requires a lot of resources. When people joke about sustainability being an accounting task, it’s not far from the truth.

Vogue: Despite that shift, you’ve still managed to get several other fashion weeks on board with the minimum sustainability standards. Berlin, Oslo, and Amsterdam have adopted them as is, and the British Fashion Council is easing in with its Newgen program. Why do you think fashion weeks are such a valuable vehicle for sustainability?

I think what a fashion week or fashion council can do is set a common direction or a common language for fashion. Having a framework helps brands turn their ambition into action. One thing we’ve heard repeatedly is how our sustainability standards became the catalyst for the changes they’ve always wanted to make.

Traditionally, fashion weeks have not set strict requirements for how brands build and operate their supply chains, what their business model looks like, or the kind of materials they use. It makes me proud that we have been able to go beyond the fashion, the creativity, and what you see on the runway.

It’s made me even prouder to see so much willingness in our industry to engage. Brands have accepted the standards and adapted their practices, raising the level of ambition over time. We have only had to decline a handful of brands, which tells me that our standards have an effect, but also that the majority of our brands have been encouraged to make progress in order to still be part of our fashion week. We continue to have a strong show schedule.

Jewelry giant Pandora is supporting the 20th-anniversary gala at Danish Royal Opera, as well as the New Talent program.

Vogue: In February 2025, greenwashing specialist Tanja Gotthardsen and Danish consumer organization Tænk filed a complaint with the Danish Consumer Ombudsman against CPHFW, accusing it of greenwashing. What was going through your mind when that happened?

I wasn’t surprised that someone wanted to question or challenge our framework. Constructive criticism is what pushed our fashion week in this direction in the first place — had there not been criticism of our industry, we probably would have gone on as usual, without the minimum sustainability standards. I was maybe slightly surprised that a case was filed, but I was confident that our framework was extensive and thorough. We have been advised by top international experts in different fields from materials to human rights — you name it — and we knew it was ambitious for the industry, which didn’t have any requirements before, and very little by way of legislation. I was also confident that it was being used in the way it was intended, to screen brands.

Vogue: Seven fashion companies were named in the case — Baum und Pferdgarten, Berner Kühl, Forza Collective, Herskind, OpéraSport, Stine Goya, and Won Hundred. The activists that filed the case were concerned that these brands were not using the framework as intended, but using it to make green claims.

In Denmark, we have very strict guidelines for communicating about sustainability. One of the minimum sustainability standards in our framework is actually that you must communicate about your initiatives, which the brands were doing. The ombudsman dropped the case against us and the seven brands. We haven’t changed anything. Ultimately, it was a good opportunity to have an authority assess our framework, and it has allowed us to continue.