Copenhagen Fashion Week…What a trip!
Yes, I did actually see a model trip on the runway during the Copenhagen Fashion Week. She was wearing a gorgeous bright yellow silk dress with a super long train. The dress flowed and whirled behind her like rays of dancing sunshine as she walked down the catwalk. Just as I leaned over to comment, “nice,” nod my head up and down, and shoot a look of being impressed to the person standing next to me, the model slipped and had a runway casualty. She did a great job of gracefully picking herself up again and received an honorary round of applause from the audience. This occurred during the glorious Rützou (Danish) show held at Copenhagen’s City Hall. I was lucky enough to stand right next to the catwalk and stood literally a meter (a few feet) or so from the models as they stepped on to the mirrored glass platform and nearly got whisked away from the fan blasting air through their lovely locks and shiny outfits.
The fashion week kicked off with a seminar about upcoming trends for summer 2009, which included the themes, “Tomorrowland, In Process, Power Full & Elctrochok.” Some concepts included things like real and virtual life mixing together, techno-organic textures, modern romantic with pastels and black tights, shoulder pads (like Grace Jones & American football uniforms), “long bling” – subtle and discreet bling that is-, wind breaking silky finishes, metallic and shine, techno-retro, nylon windbreakers and ethno-electric (think African pattern in neon colors).
A press conference at City Hall presented information about a new Nordic Fashion Association that combines efforts of the Swedish Fashion Council, Oslo Fashion Week, Icelandic Fashion Council, Helsinki Design Week and Danish Fashion Institute. It’s aim is to raise the profile of the Nordic region and lead the Nordic fashion industry towards a stronger focus on ethical and sustainable production. It will operate this initiative under a project by the name of NICE = Nordic Initiative Clean & Ethical, and provide a code of conduct for doing business focusing on ethical labor and greener production practices. In addition, the “Nordic Look,” a fashion event to take place in Riga (Latvia) later this year, aims to create “a new Nordic-Baltic dialog on responsible fashion and regional cooperation. These codes are expected to be “published” next year in 2009 during the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen.
To make a notion of goodwill towards this collaboration, Copenhagen Fashion Week opened with a show featuring a Swedish designer, AnnSophieBack, after the opening remarks were made by Bendt Bendtsen, Denmark’s Deputy Prime Minister and Eva Kruse, the director of the Danish Fashion Institute.
I also attended a few other shows including Danish designers Wackerhaus and Rutzou, and Finnish designer Marimekko. Here are a few shots:
AnnSophiBack
Wackerhaus
Rutzou
Marimekko
As part of the Fashion Week, there were a number of buyer exhibitions taking place around the city that showcased Scandinavian and international brands. Among those that caught my eye included:
Piet Breinholm – The last bag from Denmark
Andersen & Lauth from Iceland
Wood Wood from Denmark
Desigual from Spain
Fly from London
Numph – Denmark
*Minna Hanilla – Finnish designer from Norway
Ti-Mo – Norway
I also met Alexis Holm, designer of the Swedish brand gram. They make super retro, ultra-stylish and very modern yet nostalgic clothes and shoes that I absolutely loved. Maybe it’s because it reminded me of the 80s!
Alexis Holm
gram shoes
All in all, Copenhagen Fashion Week was pretty much what I expected except for the representation of the wide array of the international brands. It’s nice to see the Nordics coming together and combining forces so that they can build a stronger position in the world of fashion. My only dissapointment was not being able to attend the Odd Molly and the Henrik Vibskov shows.
Click on Flickr to see more pictures.
Laura Stadler Consulting 
Good info thank-you
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