Copenhagen Fashion Week opens today, partnering with Ukrainian Fashion Week

As Copenhagen Fashion Week kicks off its SS23 season today, August 9th, it is marking an unprecedented partnership to give an “uplift to a fellow fashion organisation in times of war.”

As Ukraine is under siege due to Russia’s invasion, the country is not able to celebrate the 25th anniversary this year of its Ukrainian Fashion Week.  As its fashion industry is fighting to not only survive and mobilize, but also to continue creating collections to tell the world about Ukrainian resilience as well as to show Ukrainian national identity through fashion, is has gained the support of  Copenhagen Fashion Week.

Through the partnership with Ukrainian Fashion Week, Copenhagen Fashion Week is showcasing the Coat label by Katya Silchenko and TG Botanical as part of the official Event & Presentation Schedule. The Coat is releasing a digital fashion film on the CFW  website on Wednesday 10 August 09:00am CET and TG Botanicals is staging a physical presentation on 11 August Thursday 09:00 - 11:00am CET. 

Cecilie Thorsmark
CFW CEO

Cecilie Thorsmark, chief executive of Copenhagen Fashion Week, said in a statement: “In light of the atrocities we have borne witness to on the nation of Ukraine, any support we can present to the Ukrainian fashion industry is vital to the preservation of their own creative ecosystem that has been so cruelly threatened.

According to Iryna Danylevska, founder and chief executive of Ukrainian Fashion Week, there are fashion weeks in 9 countries providing support to Ukrainian designers and Ukrainian Fashion Week, making it on its 25th anniversary an international project.

This SS23 season, Copenhagen Fashion Week is on until August 12 and features 36 designers with a focus on emerging talent, menswear, sustainability and Nordic brands. This includes its new emerging designer incubator ‘CPHFW NewTalent’ showcasing A. Roege Hove, Latimmier and P.L.N., alongside Finnish label Latimmier and OperaSport, who are joining the schedule for the first time.

Berner Kühl

The opening show slot was given to  emerging menswear brand Berner Kühl. With a master's degree from Polimoda in Firenze, designer Frederik Berner Kuhl, founder of the eponymous label is armed with an ambition to create something that is destined to last by approaching the new season with a modular wardrobe concept.

Also showing are such menswear designer brands Sunflower, Soulland, Martin Asbjørn, Schnayderman's and Wood Wood, and last season's Zalando Sustainability Award winner, Iso.Poetism by Tobias Birk Nielsen.

Meanwhile, the new Zalando Sustainability Award winner will be announced on August 11

Christopher Raeburn

Christopher Raeburn SS23

Among the finalists of the Zalando Sustainability Award is British designer Christopher Raeburn, who founded Ræburn in 2009. Ræburn is known for its innovative balance of high concept, accessibility and wearability that is applied to both menswear, womenswear, luggage and accessories with distinctive utilitarian value and purpose.

Other finalists are Parisian-based Mworks, and London/Reykjavík-based design studio Ranra showcasing their latest collections. The winning designer will receive 20,000 euros and the chance to develop an exclusive capsule collection with the e-commerce brand.

Other highlights on the official schedule of CFW include the best of the Nordics, with Ganni, Saks Potts, Helmstedt, Rotate, Skall Studio, Stine Goya, Hope, Baum und Pferdgarten, Lovechild 1979, Gestuz, Munthe, Rabens Saloner, Samsøe Samsøe, Remain and Rotate.

Small talks - big conversations: how to incubate future talent 

To gain new insights on how to incubate emerging design talents, Nora Eslander, Head of Communications at Circulose, Ervin Latimer, Founder of Latimmier, Laird Borrelli-Persson, Archive Editor at Vogue and Bruce Pask, Menswear Fashion Director at Bergdorf Goodman & Neiman Marcus will be sitting down to discuss the importance of effectively building frameworks to support the next generation of talent and how we can provide structure in schemes to protect the emerging brands of the future. Moderated by: Emma Davidson, Fashion Features Director at Dazed