娱乐英语新闻:Copenhagen Fashion Week opens with understated elegance, innovative design

"Copenhagen Fashion Week offers a unique selling proposition for our whole economy, our whole industry and a great opportunity to grow Denmark and Danish values," said Brian Mikkelsen, Denmark's Minister for Economic and Business Affairs.

"In fact, one of the trademarks of the Danish fashion industry is the ability to combine creative work with profit," he added.

CFW is happening at a time when sales of fashion and luxury goods are slowly rising, following a slump during the financial crisis that affected developed economies in 2008-2009.

This trend is good for Scandinavian fashion, which is already regarded as both stylish and affordable. "It is accessible and good quality for the price," Kruse remarked describing it as "democratic fashion."

GLAMOROUS FUR

Still, the CFW chose to open the shows with a showcase of luxury fur creations by designers such as Lars Wallin, Soulland and Gaspard Yurkievich.

In December 2010, Oslo Fashion Week announced that it was banning fur from all its runway shows, as a response to concerns from animal-rights' groups and local designers. Kruse believed this cannot be good for Scandinavian designers.

"I think it is really weird that an industry will tell the designers they cannot use a specific material," Kruse said at the launch. "I think it is very limiting to an industry's creativity and activity ... I think it should be up to each designer to choose what material they want to use."

"This is also a formal invitation to all Norwegian designers, who want to show fur, to come to Copenhagen and present their shows on the runway," she added.

Denmark produces 45 percent of the world's mink pelts and is home to Kopenhagen Fur, the world's largest fur auction house and the company that sponsored the CFW's opening show.

Kruse insisted, however, that the CFW is "concerned with animal ethics and animal welfare," which is why she wants fur production to be confined to countries with good regulations, such as in Scandinvia.