CIFF director Sofie Dolva: ‘We need to see ourselves as a startup’

Trade show season is well underway, with brands looking to show their latest wares for the SS24 season. Similarly, trade shows also look to develop their offering with each season, a quality that particularly runs true for Copenhagen International Fashion Fair (CIFF), which this year spans August 9 to 11, simultaneous to Copenhagen Fashion Week.

Held in its traditional location of the Bella Center, this edition of CIFF will be the first to have fully integrated its former competitor Revolver into its operations after acquiring the trade show in January this year. It was one of the first substantial moves made under CIFF’s newest director Sofie Dolva, who was appointed to the position in August 2022 and came with a mission of helping the fair turn its head in new directions.

Ahead of the upcoming season, FashionUnited sat down with Dolva to discuss the acquisition itself, what it will mean for the fair and the current status of the Scandinavian market.

The biggest news regarding the upcoming edition is that it will be the first time Revolver will be fully integrated into CIFF. How has that process gone so far?

It exceeded my expectations. It’s always difficult when you merge two cultures and two competitors, but we were quite prepared, both the organisations’ teams have blended in well. We’ve spent some time trying to really get to know each other. This has lots to do with bringing together two different visions and paths. We had to very quickly find a common one while getting to know each other. The markets have also been very dynamic since October last year, but I think overall the merger has gone pretty well, even with all the challenges we anticipated.

What kind of challenges did you face while incorporating the two?

There have, of course, been a lot of practical challenges. Now we have so many brands that we had to rethink the entire concept and the floor plan segmentation of CIFF, which is easier said than done. While it was once spread over three to four different venues, we now gather everything in one. So the challenge was to still make t

What was it about Revolver that attracted you into merging the two events?

The big strength of Revolver that had been CIFF’s weakness was that they have constantly acted as a startup – very agile, good at brand relations and the sales path, especially for Scandinavian brands. The team itself knows the market and the brands very well, they have a deep understanding of their journeys. Meanwhile, we were quite good at supporting the international brands and bringing in international buyers.

More time has also been spent on the educational and inspirational part of the event, because we can make room for talks and panel discussions. When I started at the company, we were in the process of trying to think more like a startup rather than a big corporation. That accelerated alongside the Revolver team, who fuelled that engine.

Some physical aspects of Revolver will also remain. During the pandemic they found a way to build up stands in a more productive and cheaper way for the brands. We are now also facing a new crisis where resources are a little low, so that’s something we will be carrying over. We make sure that when the brand is spending money, it’s on something that creates value and not just something that will be thrown away after the fair. We try to make the brand think in a more sustainable way, using things they can reuse so they can focus more on the collection.

Last year gave a little glimpse into what people could expect. What was the response like from both exhibitors and visitors of the event?

It’s been really positive. What was really important for me to see was that the energy was coming back. There was optimism again. We could also see more international buyers and press coming back after the pandemic, and there was just a sense that people were happy to be together physically.

And what are you expecting from the next edition?

We will have around 700 to 800 different brands, 60 percent of which are Scandinavian brands and the rest will be international. We will also have more guests. The figure is changing everyday, but right now it seems that we’ll have more guests coming from Asia or North America, so that’s positive. It’s particularly nice to see that again with Asia, now that it has opened up more.