Denmark : Copenhagen International Fashion Fair bigger than CPD

In August, the Danish fashion exhibition Copenhagen International Fashion Fair will grow by a further 11 percent, outdoing the ‘mother of all fashion fairs’, CPD in Düsseldorf. The 27th Copenhagen International Fashion Fair will be especially memorable when on 10-13 August CIFF can lay claim to being the biggest fashion fair in Europe. In so doing it surpasses its German counterpart, the CPD fashion fair, which describes itself as the ‘mother of all fairs’. In August, CIFF – seeing a positive trend – passes yet another magical barrier and reaches a size of 40,800 square metres of exhibition space. CPD on the other hand – seeing decline – had 40,082 square metres of exhibition space at its last summer fair according to the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry, AUMA. CIFF’s notable success is partly attributable to the fact that CIFF continues to grow, and partly because of uncertainty about the German trade fair market, where Düsseldorf and Berlin are competing for exhibitors. Since the first CIFF in 1993, the available exhibition area has tripled in size. This August, CIFF will be almost 4,000 square metres bigger than the anniversary fair in August 2005. The 11 percent increase is due to a growing influx of foreign fashion companies that want to use Copenhagen as a springboard to the Scandinavian market. At the same time, there is considerable pressure from existing exhibitors for more exhibition space so that these companies’ Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish agents are able to serve national customers in Copenhagen.