Fashion week in Copenhagen is an exciting time for all fashion brands, and at VAER, we had an extra busy one this year - being a part of both the more established and “traditional” fashion week AND the more rebellious alternative to fashion week.
We love to be a part of both, because in order to make change, we need to get the big players on board (which is what the traditional fashion week does well), but we also need to shake things up and pave the way for smaller brands that think outside the box to create a more sustainable fashion future - which is what e.g. Alternative Fashion week can do.
So at Fashion Week ‘22, we had the pleasure of being a part of these three shows/exhibitions:
CIFF (Lifestyle and Design Cluster exchibition):
As a part of CIFF (Copenhagen International Fashion Fair), LDC has created their own exhibition called Circular Fashion and Textiles Days. Here they gather the coolest sustainable fashion solutions, and we were so lucky to be a part of this exhibition for the second year in a row, and got to meet so many awesome people and brands! 
Sharedrobes Fashion Show:
Sharedrobes is one of our start-up friends, and is a circular wardrobe app where you can do everything from managing your existing wardrobe, to swapping your clothes and buying new sustainable fashion. As a part of the official Copenhagen Fashion Week, they held a fashion show with some of the sustainable brands that you can find on their app (including yours truly).
Alternative Fashion Week:
And last but not least, the rebel movement against the traditional fashion week - Alternative Fashion Week. As a clear symbol, they choose to have their "fashion week" at the same time as the traditional one, and right next to it as well. And what a fashion week they create! It's warm and weird and inviting, and is filled with small sustainable fashion brands trying to do things differently. There is both a small market, inspiring talks, wine-and-knit sessions, an alternative fashion installation, AND the fashion show that re:wair hosted.
Together with other cool brands such as Bakano and Zeecycled, we were a part of this show, which also featured the amazing re-designs made for our VAERxEuropcar upcycling challenge. 
This fashion show was created by our sister organisation Re:wair, and we have collected some lessons learned from them on doing fashion shows, that we would love to share with you:
Tips and tricks for hosting a fashion show:
- Have many photographers! Having more than one photographer on board is super important. You need pictures and videos, and it is impossible for one photographer to do it all. Ideally, we would have had a photographer, one to film and then one to focus on SoMe.
- Music is key! One thing is to choose the right music, but making sure that it is loud enough is equally important, it can really kill the whole vibe if the music is at a too low volume. If you don’t have a sound system and professional loudspeakers, an idea is to rent a Soundboks at Lej en Soundboks.
- Friends are awesome models! Having enough models is a big stress reliever and great for the show, since it ensures that there is not too much awkward time between the entrances, that the show isn’t too short and that the models don’t have to change in two seconds. But finding many models can be difficult, which is where friends come into the picture. At the show we had many of our friends, amon these, we had Hasan and Elmar, the fonders from TopTutors, a platform for online homework help.
- Make a tagging list: Making sure that everyone tags the right models, designers, photographers etc. is not easy. But if you make sure to include everyone's instagram tags in your entrance table (with all looks and the model wearing it) - you can easily send this out afterwards. In this way you ensure that everyone are happy and that you can spread the word even further, since everyone then can reshare and create even more hype.
That was it from now, we hope you enjoyed our little recap of Fashion week from a VAER perspective. Hopefully we will see you next year at one of these shows/exhibtions!