Copenhagen Fashion Week (CPHFW) is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Over 20 years since its launch, CEO Cecily Thorsmark and her predecessors have succeeded in doing what many smaller fashion councils struggle to achieve: building a 5th Fashion Week that can rival the big four fashion capitals of New York, London, Milan and Paris.
In its 20-year history, CPHFW has grown from Saks Potts to Saks Potts; Cecily Bahnsenand of course the Danish mega-brand Ganni, whose sales will reach DKK 900 million ($130 million) in 2024. It’s closed now While the latter two relocated to Paris, CPHFW has expanded significantly since arriving on the scene nearly a decade ago, defining Scandinavian style as a coveted aesthetic reinforced by Copenhagen street style, and garnering global attention as fashion week began to grow.
But many would agree. CPHFW’s influence extends beyond the runway. It was held for the first time as a fashion week in 2020. Minimum standards of sustainability For all brands on the official schedule. Introduced in 2020 and effective from 2023, these standards maintain strategic direction, design, wise material selection, working conditions, consumer engagement, and accountability across show production. Since then, similar initiatives have been carried out on the Oslo runway, Berlin Fashion Week, and more. london fashion weekas more and more organizers note the positive impact that fashion councils can have on brand accountability. But for Tallsmark and CPHFW, there is still a long way to go before Fashion Week becomes a permanent vehicle.
A few days before the fall/winter 2026 season, I sat down with the CEO of Copenhagen Fashion Week to find out how she expanded and developed a new kind of fashion week, and what the future holds.
fashion: Hi Cecilie, CPHFW FW26 is just a few days away, how are you preparing?
Since it’s an anniversary edition, it’s like organizing a fashion week, and then there’s a fashion week on top of it. We are busy but very excited.
fashion:I would like to return to the beginning. CPHFW is 20 years old. When did you become involved in events?
I actually joined Copenhagen Fashion Week in its very early stages, long before I became CEO. To be precise, I joined the company in 2010 as a personal assistant to former CEO Eva Kruse. Eva Kruse is the founder of Copenhagen Fashion Week. She asked me to apply for an assistant role. Because I had just written my master’s thesis on CPHFW at Copenhagen Business School, and I interviewed her for it. [project]. Working closely under Eva gave me a very hands-on and hands-on understanding of how organizations and events work. So it was incredible to be a part of that journey. It really shaped my understanding of not only the potential of the platform, but also the vulnerabilities and challenges that exist at fashion week.
That’s why I applied for the CEO position to take over from Eva’s successor in 2018. [Camilla Frank]was there for two years.
