Jutland Station interviewer Christian Chapelle om HEADSTART FASHION: A new project aims to turn Aarhus into a hub for both big fashion brands and up-and-comers and boost today’s largest creative industry in Denmark



By Katherine Dunn
How do you make a fashion capital?
That’s the question behind a new start-up organization that aims to turn Aarhus into a hub for both big fashion brands and up-and-comers.
Headstart Fashion is part of a funding project by the Midtjylland’s More.Creative initiative to support five of the region’s creative industries over the next three years, including film and architecture.
The project, which is managed under Aarhus Kommune, began in March with a 200,000 kr budget and a mandate to boost the industry.
Several partners have already joined the initiative, including companies such as the sports brand Hummel as well as institutions Teko Design and Business School and DAFI (Danish Fashion Institute).
“We already have, in Denmark in general, and in Aarhus, we have firms that prove that you can make a lot of money in this industry,” says Christian Chapelle, who runs the program through the Mayor’s Office. “But on the other hand we have a lot of small companies that need a lot of help to move their businesses forward.”
Slated to become an independent body by 2015, the project will try to provide both business expertise and a sense of community to smaller companies struggling to gain a foothold, he says.
Headstart has already hosted a fashion show in collaboration with Kopenhagen Fur – the first of it’s kind in the city, says Chapelle. Future ideas include hosting more events and possibly starting a fashion “hub” where small companies and designers can meet.
Furthering interaction
It’s also a matter of getting both big and small companies, who currently “don’t talk at all,” he says, to interact on their home turf. “They might not meet in Aarhus or in the region, but they would meet in Copenhagen, or they would meet internationally.”
The Danish fashion industry is the largest of the country’s creative industries, with an annual turnover of 45 billion kroner annually, according to the city of Aarhus.
In central Jutland, the creative industries have a collective turnover of 49 billion kroner, employing 8% of all private sector employees. The region is also home to some of the country’s biggest fashion companies, including mega-brand Bestseller.
As Denmark’s largest fashion company, Bestseller owns brands including Vero Moda and Jack & Jones, with a net turnover of about 2.6 billion euros (19.4 billion kr) and 3,300 employees in Denmark alone.

Central Jutland is home to some of the country’s biggest fashion companies, including mega-brands Bestseller and Hummel

Headquartered in Brande, the company is currently constructing a building in the Aarhus harbour, designed by famed Danish architecture firm C.F. Møller.
The region is also host to sportswear brand Hummel, shoe brand Shoe the Bear, and multi-brand company Metropol. But Chapelle says the majority of the industry consists of small companies. Of Aarhus’ 348 fashion companies, 90% have less than 10 employees, and 62% have no employees at all.
“I think a lot of them have the same problems,” Chapelle says. “And within the creative industry, I think it’s very common that they have difficulties making growth.”
This is where Headstart comes in, he says, supported by the School of Creative Industries at TEKO Design + Business

Headstart Fashion seminar at Hummel’s facility in Aarhus (Photo: Headstart Fashion)

at VIA University College, which emphasizes business sense in design school.
“Starting a business is daunting for anyone,” says Anne Mette Zachariassen, who is manager of the school. “We therefore have a strong focus on entrepreneurship across all educational programs and in our student business incubators.”
But for designers, growing a business remains challenging, especially when Danish companies often need to develop an international outlook from inception.
And for bigger companies, Chapelle says he hopes the project can help them attract talent and, by increasing the profile of Aarhus, convince talented designers to stay or move to the city, rather than heading for Copenhagen, Berlin or London.
Although Bestseller doesn’t have trouble attracting talent, says Jesper Stubkier of corporate communications at Bestseller, a higher profile would be a benefit to the company.
“That’s one of the big benefits of it, if we can create this idea of a ‘fashion capital’, that Aarhus is up there when it comes to fashion, of course that will attract more candidates in general, which will also benefit us,” says Stubkier.
But he says while the company will support the project, they are still waiting to see what the initiatives will actually entail. “So far it has been somewhat indefinite, and not very concrete.”
Chapelle says the new year is expected to bring a drastic increase in budget for the project, and a clearer sense of what the program’s role will be.
A report by TEKO, to be released in January, is also expected to shed more light on the challenges the local industry is facing.
–
Katherine Dunn is a Canadian journalist who has worked for the Toronto Star, the Canadian Press, and Frame Publishers, a publisher of art and design magazines based in Amsterdam.



HEADSTART FASHION modeshow i samarbejde med Kopenhagen Fur

Copyright Claus Sjödin, Thomas Priskorn

 Velkommen til det største modeshow nogensinde i Aarhus, sådan lød det, da Jacob Bundsgaard, Aarhus' borgmester, åbnede modeshowet, som er søsat sammen med Kopenhagen Fur. Begivenheden fandt sted på DOK 8000, Aarhus C den 15. november, og showets formål er at bidrage til en realisering af modebranchens potentiale.



- Arrangementet i aften understreger, at der er fuld gang i udviklingen inden for modebranchen i Aarhus, sagde Jacob Bundsgaard, Aarhus borgmester, og fortsatte: - Det er godt for byen, da der jo blandt andet bliver skabt flere arbejdspladser.
Kopenhagen Fur engagerer sig gerne i byens modebranche, fordi virksomheden ser et potentiale.
- Aarhus er en meget dynamisk og fokuseret by. Når de vil skabe business, så gør de det. Pels og mode hænger jo også unægteligt sammen, så vi er glade for at være med her i aften, siger Torben Nielsen, Adm. direktør i Kopenhagen Fur.
Modeshowet støtter initiativet HEADSTART FASHION, som består af Aarhus Kommune og en række partnere i regi af More.Creative.



www.headstartfashion.dk - www.facebook.com/headstartfashion

Copyright Thomas Priskorn



HEADSTART FASHION Modeseminar ved Hummel

Så fik vi afviklet endnu et fantastisk morgenseminar i regi af HEADSTART FASHION

Tak til Hummel for at lægge lokaler til, tak til Muuse, STORM og Sketz for meget fine oplæg, tak til borgmester Jacob Bundsgaard & Søren Schriver for velkomsten og ikke mindst tak til alle de fremmødte!

Se HEADSTART FASHION filmen fra "Dome of Visions"

https://vimeo.com/76940222

  Se vores lille film fra det seneste HEADSTART FASHION seminar i ”Dome of Visions”.  

 

HEADSTART FASHION SEMINAR I DOME OF VISIONS

Den 19. september afholdt vi endnu et succesfuldt HEADSTART FASHION seminar. Omdrejningspunktet var nye online forretningsmodeller i modebranchen. Vi havde den glæde at høre følgende oplægsholdere i "Dome of Visions": -Lise Skov, Associate Professor of Creative Industries CBS-Copenhagen Business School -Bianca Hegedüs, Global Salgsmanager & ejer Delogue -Stefan Bech, direktør & ejer Wantr / Pernille Rasch, marketingchef Trendsales

Candelight Dinner & Fashion

Så blev borgmesterens  "Candle Light Dinner" skudt af med et brag i "Kedelhuset" (Ceres Byen). Omdrejningspunktet var krydsfeltet mellem IT & mode.

Der var taler af borgmester Jacob Bundsgaard, Rune Kilden (developer), Anne Mette Zachariassen (dir. TEKO design+Business), Mogens Elhauge (kreativ dir. ZUPA Recommended) og Anders Byriel (Kvadrat).

Anna Bells akustiske trio stod for underholdningen og maden i spændende emballager blev leveret af BETABETA!

Her den røde løber...

Aarhus Kommune & Region Midtjylland sætter fokus på mode

Headstart Fashion Kick off

Rina Hansen (online direktør ved Hummel) er den første oplægsholder som vil berige os til kick of seminariet den 18. juni! Tilmeld dig under "begivenheder" på Headstart Fashion facebook sitet.

Billede lånt af Rina Hansen.

Rina Hansen har gennem de sidste 13 år arbejdet med multichannel; åbnet fysiske og online-forretninger for brands som Anne Klein, Burberry, MCM og hummel med fokus på at få kanalerne til at spille sammen og give et sammenhængende brand-udtryk. Hun er desuden, som den eneste i Europa, PhD Fellow i ebusiness og branding indenfor modebranchen.

Headstart Fashion kick of seminar
Tirsdag den 18. juni 7.30-10.00
Balticagade 12, D, 8000 Aarhus C

Læs mere om modesatsningen Headstart Fashion i JP artikel JP
"Vi er meget opsatte på at skubbe de små modevirksomheder i den rigtige retning, så de kan vokse," siger Christian Chapelle, konsulent i Erhvervs- og Byudvikling i Borgmesterens Afdeling, og fortsætter:

"Aarhus Kommune har generelt en stor interesse i at skabe arbejdspladser. Vi kan understøtte og bidrage til, at det rette miljø er til stede i Aarhus."

Kopenhagen Fur og Dansk Mode & Textil

Kopenhagen Fur og Dansk Mode & Textil har etableret et nyt fælles kraftcenter kaldet Kopenhagen Internationale Center for Kreativitet (KiCK). Målet er at det nye samarbejde skal styrke dansk mode og skabe vækst gennem kreativitet. Det lover godt for fremtiden!

Billede lånt fra Kopenhagen Fur

Det nye samarbejde blev officielt indviet af Karin Gaardsted (S), Formand for Folketingets Erhvervs-, Vækst- og Eksportudvalg. I åbningstalen påpegede hun styrken i den fremtidige alliance, som skal sikre nye forretningsforbindelser til dansk mode.

Fremsynet og stærk alliance

- Jeg ser det som særdeles fremsynet, når to organisationer, der er stærke i sig selv, vælger at gå sammen i et strategisk samarbejde for at sikre et marked for danske minkskind og modebranchen generelt, både nu og i fremtiden. Med Kopenhagen Fur og Dansk Mode & Textils store netværk og deres direkte adgang til relevante samarbejdspartnere, kan KiCK tilbyde kinesiske investorer og andre investorer alt, hvad de har brug for i forhold til at etablere virksomhed i Europa, sagde Karin Gaardsted, som gjorde det klart, at hun har store forventninger til, hvad samarbejdet, som i øvrigt matcher den udvikling, der er beskrevet i regeringens nye vækstplan, kan kaste af sig.

Facebook side for kreative erhverv & kultur i Aarhus

Check out den nye facebook side for kreative erhverv & kultur i Aarhus.

https://www.facebook.com/Creativeaarhus

Magic Mushrooms skal pryde Dokk1

Dejligt for Aarhus at der er udvalgt et kunstværk med internationalt format! Jeg husker stadigvæk et af Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragsets imponerende værker fra 1997 "Powerless Structures", Louisiana. Makkerparret har fortsat udviklingen siden da og leverer kontinuerligt nyskabende og udfordrende installationer.

Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset, Powerless structures, (Magtesløse strukturer), 1997

Elmgreen & Dragset, har med værket Magic Mushrooms vundet den første – og største - konkurrence om kunstnerisk udsmykning af Dokk1.

Elmgreen og Dragset udtaler om deres værk: ”Drømmen om en imaginær verden har eksisteret til alle tider. Byer, som ikke kan nås i fysisk forstand, men som kun kan begribes gennem vores forestillingsevne. Vores forslag til Dokk1 viser en arkitektur i arkitekturen - en fantasiby, der udfordrer den besøgendes perception og indbyder til at blive oplevet fra nye synsvinkler alt efter, hvor man vil befinde sig i bygningen.”

http://www.realdania.dk/Presse/Nyheder/2013/Urban+Mediaspace+Kunst_200313.aspx