The Danish fashion fair is counting down the days to its 63rd edition, which will return to the Bella Center in Copenhagen from August 7 to 9. The summer event, spread over a 34,000-square-metre area (25% more than last edition), will present around 1,200 international brands. The fair will include areas dedicated to different experiences, interactive installations, talks and fashion shows. A new addition to the event, which is being held for the third time since the Revolver show was acquired by CIFF last year, is the “Neudeutsch” area, dedicated to the presentation of some thirty innovative German brands from the fashion, jewellery and design categories. In terms of suppliers, the show will also feature the innovative participation of companies such as G-Star, Bestseller, Molebo, New Amsterdam, Complex Minds, Impossible objects, Pompeii, Primeboots, Saucony, Camper, Seidensticker Studio, Denim Project and Stamm.

Likewise, the trade fair and Copenhagen Fashion Week, held in parallel in the capital from August 5 to 9, have extended their partnership with the aim of reinforcing the city’s fashion offer. Prior to CIFF, FashionNetwork.com spoke to its director, Sofie Dolva, to find out more about her strategy and vision for the sector.

FashionNetwork.com: What exactly does the collaboration with Copenhagen Fashion Week involve? What is new about this partnership in this edition and what are the plans and goals for the future?

Sofie Dolva: We’ve been purposely working more closely together to develop Copenhagen as a fashion capital over recent seasons. For the first time with this season, CIFF has been included in the official Copenhagen Fashion Week schedule. We continue to support CPHFW by sharing their show schedule with our buyers and press contacts as well as sponsoring some of the brands showcasing at the event by providing them with a venue. Our vision for ‘One Copenhagen’ is an overarching theme of everything we’ve been doing in recent seasons, and the plan and goal for the future would be to continue collaborating even more closely with all of our partners, including Copenhagen Fashion Week, to create the most efficient environment we can and further develop Copenhagen as a leading destination for the international fashion industry to come together and do business. 

FashionNetwork.com: What is CIFF’s current internationalisation strategy? 

Sofie Dolva: We’ve changed our way of working from being a bi-annual platform to becoming more of a strategic business partner that supports the brands throughout the year where relevant, as we’ve done this year during Milano fashion week with the support of CNMI (Milano Fashion week), Pitti Uomo in Florence and Previous Season in New York with the CFDA.

FashionNetwork.com: What is the outcome of your partnerships with different international events? What has been the feedback of your latest collaborations? What do you expect to do in the future?

Sofie Dolva: We’ll continue our strategic partnership with Pitti as well as CFDA as we’ve experienced tremendous feedback from both brands and buyers. As an industry we’re in changeable times and we’re poised to move with these changes and look into those markets and areas where we’re able to provide the most support to brands and buyers. When you build the infrastructure and pathways that allow brands and buyers to connect efficiently, you become a part of nurturing the wider industry ecosystem, making it more robust, and benefitting business across the industry. 

FashionNetwork.com: What are the profiles of the buyers attending this season? Which are the markets with the highest attendance?

Sofie Dolva: This season we have a more mixed buying landscape as it is based on the markets and retailers most important to the brand’s participating in CIFF. It is a great mix of nationalities, but we’re focusing a lot more on German press and buyers as Europe’s biggest market and our closest neighbour, as well as buyers from Asia. This season we’ll continue to have a strong presence from the UK, US, Nordics as well Southern Europe. 

FashionNetwork.com: What will be new in terms of the fair’s offer and how will it be organised? Any new brands? What is the status of the beauty offer? How will the fair be organised?

Sofie Dolva: We are building on our newest concept of CIFF city with even more offers and creativity. Some of the new highlights are our new ‘Neudeutsch Area’ curated by Julian Daynov, our sporty Foyer with our newcomer G-star, a basketball field by Les Deux, as well as 4000 square metres of Bestseller city.

We’ve continued our beauty offer and this you’ll also see in our Neudeutsch area as well as mixed in between fashion brands in our C-hall.

FashionNetwork.com: How would you describe the current situation of the fashion trade fair industry?

Sofie Dolva: The trade fair industry overall is facing a lot of changes or requests for change as the market has changed as well as travel budgets. If you are not developing or adapting, you are losing momentum fast. That is also why we have strong focus on becoming more than ‘just’ a bi-annual platform. We need to support of brands with more than just a rack and brand logo to help their business grow and attract more buyers.

For me the real question around the trade fair landscape is not so much what is happening, but what more can we be doing and how can we support participating brands in the most comprehensive way possible and give them the tools and platforms they need to succeed.