Stockholm Fashion Week relaunches digitally and fur-free

Stockholm Fashion Week has shifted its focus towards sustainability in recent years and actively sought ways to reduce its carbon footprint. In 2019, the Swedish Fashion Council cancelled Stockholm Fashion Week due to facing major challenges to meet the demands for sustainability and innovation. Maybe as a result of global fashion weeks forced to digitize due to the impact of Covid-19, this week, Stockholm Fashion Week relaunched from August 25 to 27 as a digital event. Along with the campaign efforts of Peta, Swedish Fashion Association-the event’s new organiser-also announced that this year’s virtual fashion week is entirely fur and exotic skins-free.

Virtual fashion week

Swedish fashion brands and designers united for three days on a digital platform to showcase their brands and interact with media, influencers, buyers, followers, and consumers. The new fashion week embraced a 360-degree format, setting the stage for SS21 presentations and shows, live-streamed Q&A sessions with designers, interviews and panel discussions, wholesale showrooms, consumer activities focusing on the current season’s collections.

Fur and exotic skins-free runways

Fashion weeks in Europe and Australia have been spearheading fur-free and eco-friendly runways. Amsterdam, Helsinki, and Oslo fashion weeks as well as Melbourne Fashion Festival have official policies against fur. As well as being fur and exotic skins-free, Helsinki Fashion Week removed leather all together from its catwalks. London Fashion Week hasn’t showcased any fur since 2018.

Covid-19 concerns and closure of fur farms

The impact of fur production causes immense environmental issues – such as the climate crisis, ozone pollution, and water and land use according to Peta and a recent study of mink European farms conducted by scientists and WHO (World Health Organization). Producing 1 kilogram of fur has a carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) factor of about 130 to 140 kilograms, compared to around 6 to 7 kilograms of CO2e for 1 kilogram of faux fur. Fur farms are breeding grounds for disease, and facilities in the Netherlands, Spain, and Denmark have seen immense outbreaks of Covid-19 amongst animals and workers. The situation became so dire that the Dutch Parliament voted to close the nation’s last remaining fur farms this year.

Rob Schoenbaum / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP