High fashion fails to excite in Copenhagen

Copenhagen’s normally vibrant Fashion Week began with a yawn and ended with a whimper as all three of its main shows reported a sharp drop in attendees. But perhaps most telling is that the news of this year’s poor showing was met with responses of dispassionate shrugs.

The Bella Centre’s Copenhagen International Fashion Fair had the worst showing this year, announcing a 14.5 percent decrease in the number of visitors to its 4-day show. The Gallery at Forum suffered a 4 percent drop in attendance, and CPH Vision also experienced a rather weak showing.

The Copenhagen Post reports that CPH Vision organiser Peter Fenger Selchau was not particularly surprised by the poor attendance this year. “We’d expected a downturn and it happened,” Selchau commented. “The big chains came here with far fewer employees than usual and visitor numbers mirrored that cutback.”

Selchau added, however, that sales were pretty good despite the lack of people. “Some companies sold all their lines in one day, while others finished final orders on Sunday. So there were definitely some serious agreements made,” he said.

The organisers of Copenhagen Fashion Week were quick to point out to the media that its shows actually performed better than most other fashion events in Europe this year. They fingered Germany’s Idego Fashion Fair in Dusseldorf as receiving only half the number of visitors as last year, while Berlin’s Bread and Butter fair reported 35 percent fewer attendees.