Copenhagen Fashion Week and Zalando announce sustainable partnership

Copenhagen Fashion Week and Zalando have announced a three-year partnership to help “accelerate sustainability in the fashion industry”.

The two fashion players said the tie-up would see them aligning their sustainability targets “in order to leverage impactful change together”.

The partnership will run from 2020-2023 and kicks-off as Copenhagen Fashion Week prepares for its next edition slated for 2-5 February 2021.

“Copenhagen Fashion Week is incredibly pleased to announce our new partnership with a pioneering player like Zalando that shares our level of commitment to sustainability,” the event’s CEO Cecilie Thorsmark said in a statement.

“Together with Zalando, we hope to send a powerful signal to the fashion industry, that it is possible to drive positive change if we dare to demand a high level of sustainability as a prerequisite for working together.”

Zalando and Copenhagen Fashion Week have each set out a number of sustainable initiatives and targets in recent years.

Copenhagen Fashion Week unveiled its Sustainability Action Plan during the opening of its autumn/winter 2020 edition at the start of this year, which included a new requirement for participating brands to comply with 17 minimum standards, such as pledging not to destroy unsold clothes and using at least 50 percent certified, organic, upcycled or recycled textiles in all collections.

Meanwhile, last October Zalando set out a number of new initiatives and targets as part of its do.MORE sustainability strategy, including a commitment to climate neutrality across its own businesses, deliveries and returns, and a target to be single-use plastic-free in its own packaging by 2023.

This October, the German retailer announced it had expanded its assortment in its sustainable category from 27,000 fashion items in 2019 to over 60,000 in order to serve a growing demand from its customers for more environmentally friendly products.

Zalando co-CEO David Schneider commented: “Collaboration is in the DNA of Zalando and with more than 35 million customers in 17 markets across Europe and more than 3,000 brand partners on our platform, we want to use our scale and innovative technology to raise the bar and with Copenhagen Fashion Week, we have a strong partner in the European fashion ecosystem.”

Photo credit: Copenhagen Fashion Week