Danish Fashion Going Global - Spandet And Partners

DANISH FASHION GOING GLOBAL 43
The History and Rivalry between the Danish Fashion Fairs
Rivalries between the Danish fairs have taken place in Denmark as soon as business
opportunities justified them. The first fairs were held in the late 1940s in Herning.
In 1966 the fair was extended to include exhibitors from whole Scandinavia and at
the same time changed its name to Scandinavian Textile Fair.
In the early years the fair was still held in Herning in Jutland while Copenhagen had
some years before it started its own fair by the name Scandinavian Fashion Week,
and they too included exhibitors from the whole of Scandinavia.
Already then there was competition and fragmentation in the fashion industry and its
associations which history shows would continue for the next almost 50 years up to
today.
The lack of cooperation and strategic alliances across the borders between two
“countries,” Copenhagen and Jutland, have improved the fashion fairs but has also
served as a hindrance in developing Danish fashion exports.
The Scandinavian Fashion Fair in Copenhagen managed to outplay the fair in
Herning and in 1970 the Scandinavian Textile Fair in Herning closed for good.
The great success of the Copenhagen fair came to an end in the early 1980s. The
competition had grown, and Copenhagen was losing exhibitors mainly to the
Stockholm Fashion Fair.
The downturn emerged in the middle of the 1980s when the fair changed its name to
Future Fashion Scandinavia.
The next turmoil was in the early 1990s caused by the uncertainty in the fashion
industry rooted in the outsourcing dilemma. The markets had changed, and in order
to survive, the fashion manufacturers had to move their production to Asia and East
Europe. Not all players could adapt to the changes, and many fashion manufacturers
had to close down.
The Copenhagen fair changed its name once again in 1993 to what is now known as
Copenhagen Fashion Fair (CIFF).
A thorough description of the Danish fashion fairs today is available in the appendix
of the book.