About

The Nordic fashion and textile industry shares a unique design heritage and craftsmanship tradition, which holds extraordinary potential for competitive advantages and economic growth. Through the Nordic Fashion Association (NFA) 10 Nordic fashion organisations aim to intensify the strategic cooperation across regional and organisational boundaries to harness the added value of collaborative action.

The core objective of the joint Nordic effort is to enhance inter-Nordic cooperation to develop a stronger Nordic identity and global positioning, leading to increased export of Nordic fashion brands and products.

Scandinavian Design is an international renowned trademark based on simple aesthetics and functional lifestyles. The design heritage has a functionalistic approach to clothes and has a shared feature of accessible, democratic fashion. The five Nordic countries are globally known for a socially responsible business conduct and Nordic fashion has a unique opportunity to position itself based on these values and use it as an international competitive advantage.

NFA was inaugurated in 2008 by five Nordic fashion organisations with a core purpose of gathering the Nordic fashion industry and collectively embark on the process of working with, and implementing principles for sustainable fashion. Realising the benefits of pooled resources and based on the accumulated experiences, NFA is committed to engage in the necessary next steps to unify the Nordic fashion industry beyond a sole focus on sustainability to include other elements and activities such as collaborative export initiatives, joint international positioning and new business models. New partners dedicated to accelerate the Nordic fashion industry include Sustainable Fashion Academy, Norwegian Fashion Institute, Finatex, TEKO Sweden and Swedish Trade Federation – Stil.

Launched in 2009 as the first project under NFA, the Nordic Initiative Clean and Ethical (NICE) project and its underlying educational focus on sustainable fashion creates a unique foundation for developing a strong Nordic fashion organisation devoted to competence building and global positioning. In a manifesto for new Nordic Fashion, NFA aims to define a number of strongholds and objectives to inspire a new vision for the Nordic fashion industry and the Nordic region.