Be more Danish 🇩🇰

Lessons from Copenhagen Fashion Week (and beyond)

Aug 03, 2025

Welcome to BRiMM, the collective, journal and planet-positive shop that’s here to help you live a lower-impact life, without life feeling less

Before we take some inspiration from our Nordic neighbours, here’s what’s happening at BRiMM this week:

Following our Common Ground screening last week (more on that below if you weren’t there), we have two more brilliant events coming soon: a ‘stitch and bitch’ with sustainable fashion pioneer and BRiMM founder member, Orsola de Castro, to hear about the state of the fashion industry, and a day out on one of the UK's leading regenerative farms for a tour hosted by British Pasture Leather. If you (or your like-minded friends) aren’t already, become a member to have first access to more info and tix (just forward them this email).
Did you know that we invest 10% of our net revenue via our Planet Fund as grants in initiatives with the brands we stock to help them lower their impact faster? Check out this section of our site for all the details, and a lovely vid.

Plus, subscribe to this newsletter for free if you haven’t already, to receive new posts, support our work and hear about all the exciting stuff before anyone else.

This week’s theme is… be more Danish 🇩🇰

Copenhagen Fashion Week, which is widely regarded as the most planet-friendly fashion week in the world, kicks off this week. Aside from the fact that attending it is a far more chilled-out affair than rushing around its counterparts in New York, London, Paris or Milan - get to the catwalks by bike! Swim in a harbour bath between shows! - since 2020, it has had a framework in place to ensure that any brand wishing to show there makes as little impact as possible. Environmentally speaking, that is.

This means that in order to show at CPHFW, designers must meet a set of minimum standards, such as using circular design principles, making at least 60% of collections from certified or deadstock materials and even that the shows themselves don’t use single-use props in their presentations. It is built on and added to each year in order to raise standards even further and exponentially. As CPHFW itself officially states:

“By implementing this framework CPHFW is not claiming ourselves nor the brands on our show and presentation schedule to be inherently sustainable or to execute sustainability efforts perfectly. Rather, the framework creates a basis and common language for CPHFW and our brand network and sets the expectations to be met when wishing to be part of our fashion week.”

It serves as an inspiration to do better, and many of the resulting collections show their planet positivity on their sleeves (no pun intended, honest). Stockholm-based brand Deadwood uses nothing but upcycled materials, for example, while Skall Studio - a favourite with the influencer set - focuses on natural mono materials. And the rest of the world is beginning to catch on: earlier this year, London Fashion Week announced that it would be adopting the same sustainability requirements as Copenhagen, with a pilot for its NewGen shows (for emerging designers) throughout 2025 and a view to roll it out further in the future. Many pioneering London-based brands will no doubt welcome this, since they’re already following lower-impact principles. We’re looking at and celebrating you, E.L.V. Denim and Phoebe English.

At a time when fashion has, quite rightly, gained a terrible reputation for contributing to waste and the climate emergency, this offers the opportunity to rediscover some joy in our clothing. The mindset it creates is one of designing clothes with longevity in mind, using waste materials and, at the other end of the chain, treasuring our clothes for longer; repairing and recycling them, rather than seeing them as throwaway items. Quite the relief for those of us that find pleasure in the simple act of getting dressed.

The Danes aren’t just leading the way when it comes to fashion, either. Consistently ranked as one of the happiest countries in the world, it already has a world-class green energy system and aims to be the first country entirely independent of fossil fuels by 2050. It’s known for responsible dining at restaurants like Esmée, ARK and Vækst - little wonder when you consider that Denmark has the highest consumption of organic food in the world per capita according to The World of Organic Agriculture Report (2024). In Copenhagen, you’ll find a whopping 397km of cycle paths, which allows around 43% of its population to take a bike to school or work. Thanks to some forward thinking, low-impact living is a way of life for most in Denmark.

Perhaps the reason for all of this innovation is that Danes are hard-wired to turn negatives into positives. Authors of the book The Danish Way of Parenting Jessica Joelle Alexander and Iben Dissing Sandahl describe their fellow citizens as “realistic optimists”. These are the kinds of minds and attitudes that we need when looking at solutions to the climate crisis. So let’s all try and be a bit more Danish. Pastries optional (but advised).

Team up, tune in and let’s turn the tide,

BRiMM x

BRiMM JOURNAL: NEW IN

Here in the UK, we buy around 95% of our food at the supermarket. But do those mountains of plastic and the convenience of online shopping actually help us to eat any better? This week in our Journal, we’ve tapped into the know-how of butcher and SLOP magazine founder Nicolas Payne-Baader, who has written our feature How To Shop Better Outside The Supermarket. He says:

“In the main, supermarkets are deciding how much you should buy and packaging it up in plenty of plastic. In contrast, local shops operate almost exclusively on a buy-as-much-as-you-want basis.”

From learning your weights (lettuce is a lot lighter than you think!) to buying in season, here are his personal produce-buying insider tips.

→ FIND OUT MORE

our panel from left to right: Mark Shayler, Amy Powney, Sarah Alun Jones and Natalie Williams

Couldn’t make our panel talk? We’ll take you there

Last week, guests including Melanie Rickey from The Enoughness podcast, model and sustainable fashion advocate Brett Staniland and fashion designer Alice Holland-Lu joined the BRiMM collective and descended on Soho’s Curzon cinema for a screening of Common Ground. The film showcases the world of regenerative agriculture with appearances from stars including Laura Dern and Donald Glover. It was inspiring and fascinating, as was our panel talk that followed.

Hosted by Mark Shayler, we heard the viewpoints of fashion designer Amy Powney of AKYN, sustainable garden designer Sarah Alun Jones and Natalie Williams of Citizens of Soil and discussed everything from prison farms to polyester. Couldn’t make it? You can now dive into the full panel discussion Q&A in another of our new Journal articles.

→ READ MORE

The BRiMM Life Questionnaire: Becky Lucas
This week it’s the turn of our editor Becky to answer her own questions. Former digital editor at Condé Nast Traveller, insight and strategy editor at British GQ and editor of Time Out Dubai, Becky is the tone of voice behind BRiMM, from our Journal and site to this newsletter – and she’s also going to Denmark to stay by a lake next week, so is extra on-brand today. Here are a few of her low-impact living tips.

Favourite walking route
“From Hertford (worth a day trip from London by train) to a little country village pub nearby called The Woodman, through fields and woods. It triggers lots of childhood memories and was the first thing I wanted to do when I moved back to the UK after seven years in Dubai. I also found out recently it was one of the reasons my parents moved to Hertford from London in the first place – so it must be good.”

Latest low-impact life reset
“Does giving my kids a bath every other night count? Because that’s a bit of a gamechanger (don’t judge). And we’ve been using bars of soap for a while, too.”

All-time top second-hand find
“I guess my wedding dress was second-hand - it had been a display dress in Charlie Brear’s boutique, then in Fitzrovia (now in Queen’s Park). I added some lace to it from a store off Broadwick Street in Soho. I also bought some sheepskin boots from a Harington Charity Shop that were quite eccentric but I wore them all the time for a few years.”

Song that lights you up
“’Say My Name’, Florence and the Machine: it was the soundtrack to a night spent on Oman’s Telegraph Island, the place said to have inspired the phrase ‘going round the bend’. Watch out for the bioluminescence in the water if you ever catch a dhow there. And, lately, Lady Gaga’s ‘Always Remember Us This Way’, as we’re singing it at my new local choir, R Voices, which is bringing me so much joy each week! We’re on the lookout for more members, especially tenors (ie, men), if you’re in North London or Herts and fancy joining us - no audition necessary.”
The full interview with Becky and last week’s interviewee, Helen Kirkum, will be live on our Journal soon - in the meantime check out our latest full Q&A, with BRiMM’s Sustainability Advisor, Tom Berry

FROM THE COLLECTIVE

Shiraz is planning to order this kit that helps you transform recycled paper into works of art

According to Matt, this is hands down the coolest thing happening in homeware on the planet

Hannah is loving this shipping forecast printed tee from circular fashion brand Rapanui

We love to hear what our collective is finding. Share your links with us in our Substack chat or send us an email

THIS WEEK’S LINK RECCOS

IN THE ROUND
Circularity has always been at the heart of the Copenhagen-founded, now international Mater’s furniture design. They have created unique patented materials made from industrial fibre and plastic waste, as well as e-waste (electronic appliances). These materials are designed to be recycled infinitely, meaning that they can be sent back to Mater at the end of their functional lives, to be reincarnated as a new chair, stool or table.
→ SETTLE DOWN

LAKE HOUSE RULES
Søhøjlandet is often described as the ‘Lake District of Denmark’, and with good reason. With more than 50 freshwater lakes and covered in beautiful woodland, it’s one of the country’s most elevated locations. Denmark as a whole boasts around 120,000 lakes, and if you’d like to stay in one, log-cabin style, Landfolk has an easy search tool to filter properties by lakesides.
→ BOOK A CABIN

NORDIC FEASTS
Authentic Danish food and limited-edition London residencies are the name of the game for chef Anna Søgaard, who grew up between Denmark and the US. You can find her Jomfru pop-up at Godet, the neighbourhood wine bar on London’s Essex Road, until Monday 11 August, featuring Nordic favourites like pickled herring, smoked salmon and plenty of rye bread. Book in advance for a slice of Copenhagen in the heart of Islington.
→ RESERVE A TABLE

THE ULTIMATE GREEK SALAD

Anastasia Miari recently celebrated the launch of new book MEDITERRANEA with a spread of Isle of Wight tomatoes and a splash of oil from Citizens of Soil (both brands are available in our Pantry Essentials Reset Box). The book features recipes from grandmothers of the Mediterranean and when it comes the humble Greek salad, Anastasia has some thoughts! Check out her all-time perfect recipe now - to lettuce, or not to lettuce…?

→ MAKE ME

MUSIC FOR ALL MOODS

From blue jeans to black belts, we’ve put together an alternative playlist of songs that celebrate fashion and clothing. Now get strutting…

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