Danish fashion show CIFF confirms June Paris date

By

Anaïs Lerévérend

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Jan 26, 2019

The CIFF trade show’s plans for Paris are taking some time to hatch, but they have now become clearer. Or at least, they seem to be doing so, according to the organisers of the Danish fashion show, recently in Paris for the Men's Fashion Week. Kristian Andersen, director of CIFF, has in fact announced that his staff is working to launch the show’s Parisian edition in June.

 
During the presentation of a concept blending art and fashion with artist Tavares Strachan at the Crillon Hotel, Andersen provided more details on the new fashion show to be held in Paris.

“It will be June. For us, June and January are the right dates for the fashion industry in the future. I don’t believe in the traditional February and September calendar slots. Buyers are looking for novelties, and they’ll find them in January and June,” said Andersen.

“It won’t be a mega show [CIFF brings together 2,000 exhibitors twice a year in Copenhagen] but a small, hybrid event, designed to be a unique experience. It will feature two or three signature projects by artists and designers we support, with about one hundred exhibitors alongside them,” said Andersen. Specifically, international fashion labels, chiefly menswear, sport and accessories, and some womenswear labels too, despite the later date.
 
The venue hasn’t been revealed yet, but it will be in “central” Paris, an obvious choice during a fashion week. As for the projects which will set the creative tone and inspiration for the event, the work presented in Paris during the recent fashion week gave a feel for them. In the last seven years, CIFF has been active in supporting artists and designers, notably working with Virgil Abloh, and this season the Danish show riffed on the theme, putting its weight behind The Northwind Trilogy project, whose second stage was at the heart of the recent Paris presentation.

Tavares Strachan imagined the creation of a space centre in his country, the Bahamas, and picked the Paris Fashion Week to launch a line of astronaut-style jackets which were showcased to buyers from international concept stores.

“Of course we were keen on the fact that the project resulted in the creation of fashion items, albeit on a small scale, but also in how it asked questions about matters which interest us, notably the fashion industry’s social responsibility, as the jackets are produced in ethical workshops in the Bahamas,” said Andersen.

After a first phase was unveiled in Miami, and the second one at the Paris Fashion Week, the B.A.S.E.C. (Bahamas Air and Sea Exploration Center) project will be one of the main attractions at the research section of CIFF in Copenhagen, scheduled from January 30 to February 1.

The Danish show’s curatorial approach is something to look forward to next June in Paris, and elsewhere too, as Andersen mentioned similar concepts being developed by CIFF for New York in 2020, and Los Angeles too. Before then, a first indication of the show’s international potential outside Copenhagen will come during the next Paris Men’s Fashion Week, scheduled from June 18 to 23 2019.