Cecilie Thorsmark is the chief executive of Copenhagen Fashion Week.
When she took on the role in 2018, the city already had a reputation as an exciting emerging fashion hub thanks to the rise of Scandi-chic labels like Ganni.
But Thorsmark saw an opportunity to differentiate the event on a different level, moving early to position it as a hub for sustainable fashion. She was helped by the fact the city’s fashion sector was already well engaged with the topic. Copenhagen is home to the Global Fashion Agenda, an industry group focused on sustainability, where Thorsmark also previously worked as communications director under former Copenhagen Fashion Week CEO Eva Kruse .
From the start, Thorsmark made centring sustainability a core pillar of Copenhagen Fashion Week. In January 2020, Thorsmark launched “Reinventing Copenhagen Fashion Week,” an ambitious three-year action plan detailing cutting-edge sustainability standards and goals, including banning all single-use plastics. Starting next year, every brand that wishes to show at Copenhagen Fashion Week must meet the requirements laid out in the plan. The organisation also now publishes an annual sustainability report that tracks progress on those goals.
Thorsmark also led Copenhagen Fashion Week during the pandemic, transitioning the physical event to a virtual one. Now, in a more open world, the event still retains elements of its pandemic state, operating in a hybrid format.
