Danish Fashion Going Global - Spandet And Partners

DANISH FASHION GOING GLOBAL 36
however, Danish fashion is still not in the absolute elite. In fact, in the innovationdriven
segment, only very few brands have made sustainable, international
breakthroughs.
In the sixties, the first Danish designers entered the international fashion scene, with
Margit Brandt as the first Dane to show her collection at the ready-to-wear shows in
Paris and to sell collections in top fashion cities such as New York. Or it could be
Birger Christensen (on the front cover of this book) and Georg Jensen doing the
same in New York and Tokyo. Since then the Danes in the fashion business have,
inspired by Hans Christian Andersen, communicated a tale to the world in line with
the emperor tale instead of channeling their efforts on what fashion in Denmark is
really about.
The international level of Margit Brandt or Birger Christensen has not been matched
in recent years. If participation in international shows is an indicator of international
breakthroughs in the Danish fashion business, today’s track record is not striking with
just only very few Danish brands showing their collections in London (Designers
Remix showed their signature line in Somerset House in London in February 2011.
NOIR did the same in 2009 before they were recapitalized which included the exit of
the founder Peter Ingwersen in 2010).
Whereas the main strength of Danish fashion is business talent, logistics, and
mercantile intuition bringing the fashion industry to an impressive level of export, we
are acting the emperor to the world promoting a new suit of clothes that are invisible
to businesspeople abroad. Denmark does not need a Prada or a Gucci; there is no
cultural background for such high-end brands in Denmark. What we need to do is to
grow the total level of Danish fashion exports to the level of Prada’s and Gucci’s
revenues with 500 brands; then we have doubled Danish fashion exports. If we could
add Ralph Lauren’s revenues to our export figures, Danish fashion would be the
biggest export industry of Denmark.
When the child in the tale cries out, “But he isn’t wearing anything at all!” we realize
that Denmark only has a trading culture. The proud, old fashioned culture we find it
in Italy and France, where the population has defined them through their fashion
styling (haute couture was even used in France). England, France, Italy, and Japan
all have both a fashion culture and a trading culture.