The Fifth Fashion Week, How Copenhagen Rewrote the Rules

• A reflection on Copenhagen Fashion Week’s evolution from a regional showcase into a global platform with cultural and economic impact over its 20-year history.
  
  
• Insight into how Cecilie Thorsmark redefined the purpose of a fashion week, shifting it from celebration alone to a system that engages with responsibility, progress, and accountability.
  
  
• A candid discussion about implementing binding sustainability requirements, including the real challenges of enforcement, support, and industry resistance.
  
  
• An exploration of why sustainability works best as infrastructure rather than storytelling, and how Copenhagen embedded it into participation itself.
  
  
• A deep dive into CPHFW NEWTALENT and what emerging designers actually need today, beyond visibility, including mentoring, financial literacy, and long-term business support.
  
  
• A reframing of the term “emerging designer,” challenging age-based definitions and highlighting reinvention, experience, and second chapters.
  
  
• A conversation about the advantages of being small, agile, and human, and why Copenhagen’s scale allows for experimentation and intimacy that larger fashion weeks often lose.
  
  
• A thoughtful examination of why brands should be allowed to end, evolve, or transform without stigma, and how creative energy changes form rather than disappears.
  
  
• Cultural insight into why Copenhagen feels different, touching on quality of life, generosity, openness, and the city’s ability to foster genuine connection during fashion week.
  
  
• A closing reflection on what feels contemporary now, distilled into two values that define the platform’s ethos moving forward: responsibility and generosity.

‍

Notable Quotes: 

Cecilie Thorsmark

• “I believed it was possible to take Copenhagen Fashion Week from a showcase into a platform with a deeper purpose, one that could push the industry toward progress.”
  
  
• “Fashion weeks were falling out of sync with the world around us. They were celebrating fashion in a bubble, while everything else was changing.”
  
  
• “Sustainability for us was never meant to be us against the industry. It was meant to guide the industry forward.”
  
  
• “It’s not great when we have to decline brands. It’s sad. Because the goal is to bring everyone on the journey, not leave people behind.”
  
  
• “What feels contemporary now to me is responsibility.”

Isabella Rose Davey

• “Being small is actually a strength. It allows us to stay agile, to respond, and to execute ideas without losing their intention.”
  
  
• “An emerging designer is not always a young designer. Experience and reinvention matter just as much as age.”
  
  
• “We’re asking designers to be five different people at once. That’s the reality of building a brand today.”
  
  
• “Fashion is a human experience. It needs conversation, connection, and imperfection to feel alive.”
  
  
• “What feels contemporary now to me is generosity.”