Small talks – big conversations: SS25 Talk Program with Vogue Business

Our SS25 talk series with Vogue Business as media partner make up a vital element of the official schedule each season, representing an opportunity to dig deeper into wider issues facing fashion.

Once again, this SS25 Copenhagen Fashion Week will bring the talk program to a live audience, with a dedicated talk being held each day. The Polestar space will host the talks on Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th August, and from Wednesday 7th August - Friday 9th August at the CPHFW official space during the SS25 edition in the Copenhagen Fashion Week Talk hub.

Attendance to the talk program is open to the public and will be on a first come first served basis and will include a 30-minute panel talk followed by a 15-minute Q&A. The talk will activate the global network of Copenhagen Fashion Week, inviting industry leaders from a variety of organisations and practices to speak across the topics at hand.

Furthermore, Copenhagen Fashion Week is excited to announce Vogue Business as an official media partner, who will use their global audience to amplify the reach of the talks that will be launched as podcasts post release.

Vogue Business — Exclusive CPHFW discount

Vogue Business offers a truly global perspective on the fashion industry, exploring how cultural trends and global patterns will impact luxury and creative businesses. Harnessing insights from technologists, trend forecasters, futurists, and innovators, Vogue Business goes beyond the headlines to connect you with the fast-moving fashion and beauty industries. Become a Member today and save 20% on the usual rate with the promo code CPHFW20.

Creating spaces for expansion - the power of community

For a truly equitable fashion industry that can remain relevant in the future, community is essential in facilitating authentic connections and collaborations. By cultivating spaces for support, underrepresented voices, creators, and artists can not only begin to thrive, but also further the potential of inspiration, innovation, and cross-pollination across multiple industries.

5 August / 11:00 – 11:45 CEST / Polestar space, Kristen Bernikows Gade 3, 1105 Copenhagen K

Moderator:

Amelia Hoy, Actor & Activist

Amelia Hoy is an American-Danish actor who works passionately to promote representation, while developing Scandinavian performing arts and fashion narratives through expansion and inclusivity.

Panelists:

Claudia Cifu, Stylist & Creative Brand Consultant

Claudia Cifu is a Creative Brand Consultant and Stylist with over 20 years of experience in the apparel, fashion, and media. She built her career in New York by working for companies such as Madewell (J.Crew) and Anthropologie and publications such as Interview and The Fader Magazine. Since 2019, she has been based in her native Finland, focusing on expanding her work as a diversity and inclusivity consultant in media, advertising, and fashion. Claudia is a Co-founder of S2 magazine, an independent online publication dedicated to fashion, art, and culture, created and documented by and of ethnic and sexual minorities in Finland.

Dio Kurazawa, Co-founder, The Bear Scouts

Dio Kurazawa, a leading force against fashion waste, strives to reduce excess stock and promote responsible innovation throughout apparel, accessories and home goods production. As co-founder of The Bear Scouts, Dio aids manufacturers, brands, retailers in their adoption of responsible practices, dedicating extensive time to research and innovation within the supply chain.

Selma Kaci, Creative

Selma Kaci Sebbagh is a multifaceted content creator, creative director and passionate fashion enthusiast. She is French, raised in Paris with a Arabic heritage, and lived for three years in Copenhagen. Selma has made a name for herself in the fashion industry by merging functionality with style, and advocating for multiple causes through her platforms to her community.

George Gorg, Model & Actor

George Gorg is a trans model. She has advocated for LGBTQ+ rights and engaged in humanitarian work since the start of her career. George strives for unity, fostering loving connections and understanding between communities.

What is a magazine today?

The role of a magazine has entered into a state of flux, with the purpose, medium and output being analysed, provoked and subverted into different formats, focusses and desires. How has the role of the magazine changed so far, what is its potential and what opportunities has it unlocked for its future responsibility?

6 August / 14:00 – 14:45 CEST / Polestar space, Kristen Bernikows Gade 3, 1105 Copenhagen K

Moderator:

Lucy Maguire, Senior Trends Editor, Vogue Business

Lucy Maguire is senior trends editor at Vogue Business. Alongside her focus on fashion consumer trends, digital strategies, and youth culture, Lucy leads the Vogue Business Next-Gen Edit, spotlighting emerging brands and startups across the fashion and beauty industries. She has previously worked with the Vogue Global Network, Suzy Menkes and British Vogue.

Panelists:

Olya Kuryshchuk, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, 1 Granary

Olya Kuryshchuk is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of 1 Granary, a leading global fashion education platform and creative network. With a focus on fashion design, 1 Granary uses its print, digital content, events, recruitment and brand development program to drive positive change in the fashion industry and provide practical resources for the next generation of creative minds. Through the unique designer network built through 1 Granary, Olya is one of the industry’s leading experts in talent acquisition and development, scouting design talent and building holistic brand strategy, ranging from design and production to communication and marketing.

Tina Wetshi, Co-founder, Colèchi

Tina Wetshi is a co-founder at Colèchi, a research agency based in London with a mission to humanise fashion. Colèchi launched Clean Fashion in 2020 and grew the campaign into three initiatives to educate and reimagine the supply chain through community and collaboration. Clean Fashion includes an annual summit, print journal and research in action through our knit club YKWU.

Steff Yotka, Director of Content, Ssense

Steff Yotka is an editor, fashion critic, and reporter. Currently, she holds the position of Director of Content at SSENSE, where the leads SSENSE's editorial, social, and newsletter storytelling with an international team of writers, editors, videographers and content creators. Previously, she was reported on fashion news, wrote features, and reviewed fashion shows for Vogue, and advised on Vogue Runway's special projects IRL and online. Her writing has appeared in Vogue, Business of Fashion, i-D, Harper's Bazaar, and more.

Navi Ahluwalia, Fashion Editor, Hypebae

Navi Ahluwalia is a writer, trend reporter and editor at Hypebae. She's passionate about covering diversity and inclusion within fashion, using her platform to share stories of creatives from different backgrounds and abilities. A regular attendee at fashion weeks across Europe, she's become a prominent voice within the emerging fashion and trend space.

Unpacking the Sustainability Requirements

A discussion about fashion week’s role in accelerating change in the industry and how the Sustainability Requirements framework enables a shared vision and language.

Launching the Sustainability Requirements framework in 2020, Copenhagen Fashion Week was the first fashion week to review sustainability efforts and implement minimum standards for the brands showcasing at CPHFW. Since Copenhagen Fashion Week have joint forces with Norwegian Fashion Hub, Oslo Runway and Berlin Fashion Week, to align their efforts in accelerate the industry’s sustainability actions across their respective fashion markets.

In March 2024 Copenhagen Fashion Week launched revisions of the Sustainability Requirements based on industry developments and learnings from the past years as well as close observations and mapping of the EU policy landscape. While the industry and legislative efforts have seen progress, hear from panelists how the Sustainability Requirements continue to support industry change and how the framework creates a shared vision and language for industry peers and brands alike!

7 August / 14:00 – 14:45 CEST / Official Copenhagen Fashion Week Hub, Landemærket 8-10, 1119 Copenhagen K

Moderator:

Emily Chan, Senior Sustainability & Features Editor, British Vogue

Emily Chan is the Senior Sustainability & Features Editor at British Vogue and covers all things related to sustainability in fashion and beyond, from the designers pushing for change to the climate activists we should be paying attention to.

Panelists:

Cecilie Thorsmark, CEO, Copenhagen Fashion Week

Following Thorsmark’s appointment as CEO of Copenhagen Fashion Week in 2018 came her announcement to transition the event into a pioneering industry platform and organisation with the capacity to further the industry’s sustainability potential. In January 2020, Thorsmark launched the ambitious three-year action plan “Reinventing Copenhagen Fashion Week” presenting an innovative system of minimum sustainability requirements for all brands on the official show schedule. The system successfully came into effect in 2023, making Copenhagen Fashion Week the first and only fashion week worldwide to introduce a mandatory set of sustainability requirements. In 2022, Thorsmark was inaugurated into The BoF 500, the definitive professional index of the people shaping the $2.4 trillion fashion industry. Marked in the Catalyst category, the accolade recognised Thorsmark’s role in evolving Copenhagen Fashion Week from a regional event into a global leader of sustainability within fashion. Copenhagen Fashion Week has furthermore been highlighted as a frontrunner in its field by international publications such as the New York Times, Forbes, the Guardian and Vogue Business. Parallel to her role at Copenhagen FashionWeek, Thorsmark is the Deputy Chair of the European FashionAlliance, a membership-based alliance founded in 2022 with the aim to drive change within the global fashion industry. Prior to joining Copenhagen Fashion Week, Thorsmark held the position of Global Fashion Agenda’s Communication Director for two years, following a six-year tenure at the Danish Fashion Institute.

Frederik Larsen, Co-founder, In futurum

Frederik Larsen (PhD) is the co-founder of In futurum, a change agency. Frederik acts as an adviser to companies, organisations and institutions on ecology and climate justice. He works to create paths to thriving futures by engaging with actors across the political, economic, and cultural sector through queer and anti-racist practices. He publishes research on fashion, circular economy, and thrift, and has developed the CFW sustainability framework together with the Copenhagen Fashion Week.

Scott Lipinski, CEO, Fashion Council Germany / Chairman, European Fashion Alliance

Scott Lipinski, CEO at Fashion Council Germany (FCG), engages himself as a representative of fashion "Made & Designed in Germany". He aims to establish German fashion as a cultural and economic asset and to generate more recognition and attention for the industry, both politically and culturally. As one of the founders of the European Fashion Alliance (EFA), he is committed to establishing an international network within the fashion industry. The 29 member organisations of the association represent more than 10,000 companies in the fashion sector from all over Europe.

Marie Busck, Chief Sustainability Officer, Dansk Fashion & Textile

Marie Busck is a sustainability leader with 20 years of experience from leading roles in human rights institutions and international consumer-facing businesses. She has extensive experience across the sustainability agenda and in driving organisational change. In her current role she is responsible for driving the sustainability and public affairs work at Dansk Fashion & Textile (DM&T) with the ambition to mobilise the Danish fashion and textile industry to become leading in a sustainability and circularity.

Sanna-Kaisa Niikko, CMO, Marimekko

Chief Marketing Officer Sanna-Kaisa Niikko has a long career at Marimekko. Before her current position, she served as Global Creative Brand Marketing Director leading Marimekko’s visual communications, social media and community engagement, public relations and brand collaborations. She originally joined Marimekko in 2005 and has held numerous positions in Marimekko’s marketing and sales organisations both in Finland and internationally. Sanna-Kaisa Niikko is also a Member of the Board of Finnish Textile and Fashion.

What does personal style mean In the Nordics?

An investigation of how individual style and philosophies of dress have shaped an understanding of what this can signal in the Nordics and to a global stage.

A region once known for its uniform sense of fashion has become one of the world’s greatest exporters of groundbreaking, unique styles. In the past few decades, a storm of innovations in design, literature, and technology have radically reshaped the pillars of Nordic dress. How have the exceptionally stylish people of the Nordics challenged what the term ‘personal style’ means within their own countries and worldwide? What caused this break from tradition (and from janteloven)? And after the rise of Nordic signatures like airy minimalism, pattern-clashing maximalism, and nature-forward utilitarianism, who should we look towards to dictate what might come next?

8 August / 14:00 – 14:45 CEST / Official Copenhagen Fashion Week Hub, Landemærket 8-10, 1119 Copenhagen K

Moderator:

Ruby Redstone, Fashion Historian

Ruby Redstone is a fashion historian and contemporary fashion writer. Her work has been featured in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and New York Magazine, and she created a column on the history of runway fashion for an audience of over two million readers on the now- shuttered style-and-culture website Man Repeller. She holds an MA in Fashion History from the Courtauld Institute of Art and an MA in the History of Art from the University of Saint Andrews. Her monthly newsletter, Old Fashioned, examines the intersection of fashion history, contemporary fashion design, and personal style.

Panelists:

Sally Javadi, Content Creator, Psychology Major

Sally Javadi is an Iranian born Danish woman, holding a major in psychology. Sally's career has led her to be a full time content creator after starting her instagram account @sallyssneakers in 2019. With a sneaker collection surpassing 350 pairs, Sally is a certified sneaker head whose enigmatic content has seen her grow a global community.

Laird Borrelli-Persson, Senior Archive Editor, Vogue

Laird Borrelli-Persson is the Senior Archive Editor at Vogue.com. She studied at Boston College and Oxford University before getting her masters at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is the author of Fashion Illustration Now, Fashion Illustration Next, Net Mode: Web Fashion Now, Fashion Drawings by Fashion Designers, Bags: A Lexicon of Style, which she coauthored with Valerie Steele, and Marimekko: The Art of Printmaking.

Richard Ntege, Fashion Stylist & Jewellery Designer

Renowned for his sophisticated and visionary styling, Richard Ntege has made a significant impact on the Scandinavian fashion world. As the bridge between Rolf Ekroth and Puma, he styled two remarkable seasons of their show. Richard has collaborated with brands like Très Bien, Nike, and Puma, and designed exclusive collections for Aplace and Stiksen. His award-winning work continues to define and elevate contemporary fashion.

Nicklas Skovgaard, Founder, Nicklas Skovgaard

Nicklas Skovgaard founded their eponymous brand that is a considered a luxury womenswear brand, with a strong elocution intending to delight through unexpected parallels. Founded in 2020, the Copenhagen-based brand aims to explore the relationship textiles can hold in expressing narrative through the marriage of unexpected material and classical form. Constructing two collections a year, each body of work for Nicklas Skovgaard builds upon the last, acting with an evolutionary purpose and building an ever-evolving vocabulary. Orchestrating theses classical and strange symphonies within his eponymous textiles and recognisable design, Nicklas Skovgaard is a brand cultivated on the edge of romanticism and realism.

ALPHA Talks: Danish fashion

To drive conversations about the cultures of fashion, Alpha has launched a series of conversations on fashion culture across the Nordics. This talk focuses on the past, present and future shape of Danish fashion culture.

Elaborating on the international recognition of Danish fashion and how the past, present and future shape Danish fashion culture.

Danish fashion is evolving. Designers, brands and organisations have gained recognition within, and beyond, Denmark. Danish fashion may be known internationally for its wearable functionality, green ambitions and bourgeoning talent scene, but what are the links between the past, present and future shape of Danish fashion culture? And which institutions and people have been instrumental to its developments?

The talk is the second in a talk series on Nordic fashion, moderated by Ane Lynge-Jorlén, director at Alpha, and it brings together fashion scholar Marie Riegels Melchior, designer and retailer Mads Nørgaard and designer and artistic director Louise Lyngh Bjerregaard.

Alpha is a non-profit organisation that empowers emerging fashion designers from the Nordics. Through international collaborations, exhibitions at Nordic museums, films and talks, Alpha supports fashion designers who show high levels of originality, creativity, progressiveness, craftsmanship and responsibility. Alpha believes in the cultural value of fashion and the craft and criticality of its creators.

9 August / 11:00 – 12:00 CEST / Official Copenhagen Fashion Week Hub, Landemærket 8-10, 1119 Copenhagen K

Moderator:

Ane Lynge-Jorlén, Director, Alpha

Ane Lynge-Jorlén is the director of Alpha, an organisation that empowers emerging Nordic fashion designers internationally. Lynge-Jorlén is special advisor on fashion talents for Copenhagen Fashion Week. She holds a PhD in Fashion Studies from University of the Arts London, and she has published her research internationally, including Fashion Stylists (Bloomsbury 2020) and Niche Fashion Magazines (Bloomsbury 2017) and she has curated several exhibitions on contemporary, experimental fashion across, and beyond, the Nordics, most recently Liminal Objects. Contemporary Critical Fashion at Le Bicolore in Paris and Beautiful Repair. Mending in Art and Fashion at Copenhagen Contemporary.

Panelists:

Marie Riegels Melchior, Associate Professor in European Ethnology, University of Copenhagen

Marie Riegels Melchior is an Associate Professor in European Ethnology at the University of Copenhagen. Her research focuses on fashion, dress and design culture, cultural history from the 19th century and onwards, heritage and museum studies. She has written extensively on particularly Danish fashion and design history in the 20th and 21st century, as well as on the museological issues of fashion. She has published the critically acclaimed, two volume book Moden i Danmark gennem 400 år [Fashion in Denmark through 400 years, 2022] together with Mikkel Venborg Pedersen. Marie is on the editorial board of the journals Ethnologia Scandinavica Journal of Scandinavian Ethnology, Fashion Studies alongside Critical Studies of Fashion & Beauty.

Louise Lyngh Bjerregaard, Founder and Creative Director

Louise Lyngh Bjerregaard is an avant-garde innovator known for continuously blurring the boundaries between couture and artisanal ready-to-wear and for having created a new language in knitwear. The Paris-based brand is defined as a sustainable artisanal force, distinguished and recognised for its aesthetics, savoir-faire, credibility, inclusivity, and cross-season timelessness. Working with ateliers and artisans in Paris the brand pushes for longevity and transparency while actively engaging in knowledge sharing across the educational system fostering a gap between tradition and new generations demonstrating being a brand for the future.

Mads Nørgaard, CEO and Creative Director

Mads Nørgaard is an avid supporter of art, fashion and culture in Denmark. He is the third generation of a family of retailers and designers of the iconic Danish multi-brand store Nørgaard på Strøget. Mads' grandfather founded the shop back in the 1940s, selling clothes for mourning, which Mads' father transformed into a cutting-edge fashion boutique in sync with the spirit of the 60s. Alongside their own designs, the shop was one of the first in Denmark to sell the latest fashions from London and Paris. Mads owns and runs the multiple shops, alongside designing their menswear and womenswear collections. Mads is a Copenhagen culture icon: He is the editor of the Danish fashion encyclopedia, the brain behind Nørgaard på Strøget’s experimental window exhibitions and live performances and a supporter of artists, art fairs and museum exhibitions.

The importance of cross-pollinating in the creative industries for the future of fashion

In order to drive crucial growth in the creative industries, what lessons and opportunities can emerge from collaborations between different industries across music, fashion, food, sport and art?

As constant shifts in the creative industry sees more fluid models, more obstacles but also more opportunities arise across the landscape, is collaboration in the creative fields the most impactful path for industries to take? How can knowledge sharing, curated activations and support schemes foster exciting new ideas and models to cultivate an impactful and inspiring creative future?

9 August / 13:00 – 13:45 CEST / Official Copenhagen Fashion Week Hub, Landemærket 8-10, 1119 Copenhagen K

Moderator:

Ayamé, Content Creator, Presenter & Podcast Host

Ayamé is a content creator, presenter, and podcast host with a global following of 4 million. Known for her viral TikTok videos and hilarious skits, Ayamé has a highly-engaged audience across all platforms. She has collaborated with major brands such as Netflix, Warner Brothers, Sky TV, Spotify, and many more.

In 2023, Ayamé launched her podcast ‘In Ayamé We Trust,’ which quickly rose to success with over 400k listeners in its first season.

In 2024 Ayamé hosted the Red Carpet for the Ivor Awards with Amazon Music and the UK premiere of Mad Max. In June, Ayamé was cast in Audible’s global digital campaign alongside creator Brittany Broski.

Panelists:

Rosa Lois Balle Yahiya, Founder & Head of Secretariat at Another Life and Model

Rosa Lois Balle Yahiya is the founder and Head of Secretariat at the award-winning non-profit association Another Life, which works with representation, mental health, discrimination and work environment in Danish music and cultural life. Another Life does reports, workshops, consultations, festivals and other activities to share knowledge and push for a more equal cultural sector and society. Since 2022 Rosa Lois has been working as a model signed at the Swedish agency Fiiri.

Kristian Kirk, Creative Director and Curator

Kristian Kirk (b.1993) is the co-founder and creative director of creative studio inter.agcy and exhibition space inter.pblc. Kristian started his work in art, fashion, music, and production in New York and is now based in Copenhagen. He has also been a part of the Copenhagen Fashion Week Show Committee and has been working closely with CPHFW on the NEWTALENT platform and with the talent. In the Danish fashion industry Kristian is known for multiple runway shows and production for brands such as Masculina, Jade Cropper and P.L.N.

David Zilber, Chef, Food Scientist, New York Times Bestselling Author

David Zilber is a Canadian chef, food scientist, and the New York Times bestselling author of The Noma Guide to Fermentation. Over the past 20 years he’s worked in some of the world’s top kitchens–most notably serving as the director of the Fermentation Lab at Restaurant Noma, where he employed microbes to transform familiar foods into bold new ingredients. He continues to cook, write, and rot from his adopted home of Copenhagen, Denmark.