A critical exploration of Copenhagen Fashion Week’s official website
In August 2021, several brands presented their forthcoming SS22 collection for Copenhagen Fashion Week. A fashion show that pays tribute and celebrates the Nordic region’s leading creativity and captures the trend-setting looks that can be found on the streets for spring and summer next year. But what is there to celebrate, when this so-called leading creativity fails to include diverse people in the fashion industry? Especially given the fashion industry’s call for inclusion, but also due to the lack of understanding the industry has for this, it is hardly a sign of creativity. But what is more interesting is that this inclusion debate is most often only applied to race, religion, size, age, and sexuality, but rarely to human abilities. Unfortunately, this was also confirmed at Fashion Week in Copenhagen this summer. So, what does this say about Denmark? Nevertheless, given the international status of many of the brands and the fact that they represent Denmark to the rest of the world?
The official website of Copenhagen Fashion Week presents the brands that have been selected for the runway, clearly demonstrating how the fashion system still adheres to the inherent norm and standardization of so-called fashionable ideals and fashionable bodies, despite the industry’s constant cries for greater diversity. Indeed, many of the brands represent more body types and genders in fashion shows, and maybe we can talk about some improvement in that regard, but we still do not see people with disabilities on that stage. An indication that many of the brands we admire are unable to comply with a diversity of consumers.
GANNI’s “HIGHER LOVE” collection is mediated as “the next iteration of Scandinavian style – Scandi 2.0” on the website. In addition, GANNI claims to be “inspired by people who wear them” and that “GANNI is a state of mind, an attitude more than a way of dressing – everyone is welcome.” But if everyone is welcome, then why do brands neglect to include all human abilities? This issue was also addressed by Emily Farra in the US edition of VOGUE magazine in August 2021 in connection with New York Fashion Week, under the headline: “This is What’s Missing in Fashion’s Inclusivity Movement.”
A recurring debate that is being discussed time and again, and presents a problem that is fundamental within the system, which has not changed and relates to the same concerns that arose in the use of exclusively representing thin white models that fit a size 0. According to Farra, “Because we rarely see disabled people at Fashion Week – on the runway, in the audience, or in the backstage crush – we don’t consider how the shows and collections might relate to them. And because the shows and collections don’t relate to them… we don’t see disabled people at Fashion Week.”
Of all the mediated brands at CPHFW, only 7 Days Active, a Danish brand that creates modern sportswear, included a man with a leg prosthesis. The status quo of diversity in the fashion industry must be challenged so that new voices can come on stage. We are all responsible for creating a more diverse human image so that consumers are seen represented and able to find recognition in fashion culture. The lack of this testifies to the homogeneous positioning of the fashion industry. Ironically, the industry is recognized for pursuing the new, but historically also remains conservative. It needs more collaborations with activists, researchers, and people of varying abilities to foster a real change in the concept of diversity, not just a trend like so much else in the fashion world, but rather a new way of thinking and mediating.
Sources
Copenhagen Fashion Week. (2021a). COPENHAGEN FASHION WEEK. Retrieved October 2021, from Copenhagen Fashion Week: https://copenhagenfashionweek.com
Copenhagen Fashion Week. (2021b). GANNI. Retrieved October 2021, from Copenhagen Fashion Week: https://copenhagenfashionweek.com/brand/ganni
Copenhagen Fashion Week. (2021c). 7 Days Active. Retrieved October 2021, from Copenhagen Fashion Week: https://copenhagenfashionweek.com/brand/7-days-active
Farra, E. (2021, August 27). This Is What’s Missing in Fashion’s Inclusivity Movement. Retrieved October 2021, from Vogue: https://www.vogue.com/article/whats-missing-in-inclusivity-movement-adaptive-fashion-disabled-community