Episode 10 – Frederik Larsen on Making Copenhagen Fashion Week Sustainable

Chic

The 10th episode was the first one to be recorded remotely because of the corona virus outbreak. Since relocating to Denmark last year, I have been travelling a lot between Copenhagen, Aarhus, Kolding, Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, and other places to build the European Fashion Scholars Network that will allow us to bring together scholarly expertise that enables more effective collaborations, as well as research and knowledge mobilization.

While this time of social distancing and isolation is allowing us all to reflect on how unsustainable and over-loaded all our lives have been, how fragile our social, medical, and economic structures are, and hopefully also giving us opportunities to re-calibrate and recharge, this crisis also made it very clear that we cannot continue operating as mindlessly as before.

So, who better to talk to at a time like this, than a sustainable fashion scholar, researcher, educator, co-founder of a Copenhagen-based consulting company, In Futurum, and one of the architects behind Copenhagen Fashion Week’s ambition sustainability agenda, Frederik Larsen. I’ve been meaning to interview Frederik ever since our first meeting in Copenhagen last summer, just after I moved to Denmark, when we had a get-together with some Danish fashion scholars at the University of Copenhagen. Since then, Copenhagen Fashion Week has made international news last January for setting the bar very high in finally making fashion weeks sustainable. And while we are all contemplating how we can rebuild the world more sustainably after this global crisis, there is no time like the present to talk with Frederik about his work.

We recorded this podcast from the comfort and safety of our homes, acknowledging the privilege we have to be able to work from home at this time, while so many people around the world do not share the same privileges. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the health care professionals, first responders, and essential services providers for their courage, diligence, and hard work. You are literally saving the world right now! Thank you!