Norwegian fashion industry focuses on international marketing

The Norwegian fashion industry is working hard on internationalizing its business in a bid to turn Oslo into another capital of fashion in Nordic countries.

"The designers in Norway are very good, but Norway has never had the tradition of focusing (it) on business," said Janne Ulven from Innovation Norway, a government agency responsible for promoting innovation in Norway and marketing Norway's tourism on the world market.

Norwegian fashion designers needed to make more efforts in marketing their brands, Ulven said recently.

"It is just 20 percent of the work that is design. The other 80 percent is marketing," Ulven said.

An attitude change, more cooperation among designers and greater professionalism in Norwegian fashion design were needed to make Norway's fashion industry more visible overseas, according to Norsk Form, a foundation established by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture.

Gisle Mariani Mandal, executive manager of the Norwegian Fashion Institute (NFI), told Xinhua in a telephone interview that fashion basically was an international product and one of the most important things was to make Norwegian fashion visible internationally.

From 2004, Oslo Fashion Week (OFW) has been held here twice a year. The latest OFW opened in the Congress center here Tuesday.

Last week, NFI sent four fashion designers to the Copenhagen Fashion Week Festival to represent Norwegian fashion design.

In Copenhagen, a 1.6 kilometer catwalk stage, the world's longest, was set up to highlight the fashion week.

Ulven said the Danes were interested in Norwegian fashion.

"The Danish Fashion Institute also wants to engage in cooperation with the Norwegian Fashion Institute," Ulven said.

Source:Xinhua