Earth-friendly highlights of Copenhagen Fashion Week 2025, from recycled silver to suits

The Earth-conscious event was even more sustainable this year, showcasing upcycling, deadstock fabrics, less wasteful manufacturing and more

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A model walks the runway in the Skall Studio show at Copenhagen Fashion Week, which was packed with eco-conscious looks from Danish designers. Photo: James Cochrane

Published: 5:15pm, 17 Aug 2024

We interact with fabrics every day: through what we wear, the cloths and towels we clean and dry our bodies with, the sheets we sleep on.

But amid headlines about fast fashion, overconsumption and microplastics, we are increasingly aware of the implications of the clothes we buy for our bodies and the environment – and of the fact that ones made from innovative, responsibly sourced fabric are needed more than ever.

At the spring/summer 2025 edition of Copenhagen Fashion Week, which took place in the Danish capital last week, designers rose to that challenge.

Copenhagen’s biggest fashion event is known for its Earth-conscious agenda.

A model walks the runway for Bonnetje during Copenhagen Fashion Week. Photo: James Cochrane

It was the first fashion week to enforce sustainability requirements for brands showing on its schedule, spanning everything from the use of smart material to their production and labour practices, so it not surprising that innovative fabrics formed a common thread at this year’s event.

In one camp were the upcyclers, working to give new life to existing clothes and fabric. There was Bonnetje, a Copenhagen label that specialises in turning men’s suits into womenswear pieces. Models walked the runway in asymmetrical dresses made out of button-downs, with collars jutting out of patchworked seams, while jacket sleeves were knotted and reinterpreted as a tongue-in-cheek, cut-out dress.