A Thousand Fashion Leaders Gathered in Copenhagen to Push Forward Sustainability

The closing remarks have just been spoken on stage at the Copenhagen Opera House marking the end of the 2014 Copenhagen Fashion Summit. The Summit, which assembled more than 1,100 people from 34 countries, kicked off in the morning with the official welcome speech by the patron of the Summit, Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, who called the summit "the most important event on sustainable fashion".

The day contained an eight-hour dense program with a total of 23 speakers and panelists. Among these were Livia Firth from Eco-Age Ltd., Alan Roberts from the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, Vanessa Friedman, fashion editor of the Financial Times and Helena Helmersson, Head of Sustainability of H&M.

Industry leaders were gathered with the mission of discussing solutions that can come to terms with the fact that the fashion industry is one of the world's most polluting industries.

Among the outcomes was the launch of Clevercare.info, a care label aiming to educate consumers to care for their clothes in a more sustainable way. Another solution presented was the project Restart Fashion: Five Easy Steps to Sustainability; an online platform helping designers make more sustainable choices in the design and production process.

Today also marked the one-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse. Copenhagen Fashion Summit commemorated the more than 1,100 victims with one minute of silence and a speech by the Bangladesh Accord's executive director of international operations, Alan Roberts.

Copenhagen Fashion Summit is a biennial event organized by Danish Fashion Institute on behalf of Nordic Fashion Association.