Sofie Dolva, the new Director of the Danish fashion and accessories fair CIFF is a force to be reckoned with. Although the fashion industry wasn’t where her journey began, Sofie has over ten years of experience in business.
We sit down with Sofie as she shares her story, the recent acquisition of Revolver, celebrating 60 years of CIFF and how she plans to take the fair to the next level.
As Sofie begins sharing her story, I’m already in awe of how sincere and passionate she is. She divulges that being in the fashion industry was not what she was aiming towards at the start. Having studied Economy and Law in school, she aimed to become a lawyer, “I love numbers and Excel spreadsheets, I’m not very creative, but the business side of the industry always fascinated me.” She stumbled into the beauty industry through her mother who opened a salon whilst Sofie was studying at university. “I come from a family where they’re mainly entrepreneurs. So, when my mum opened her salon, I would help her with the administration and financial side of things.” She was immediately struck, not just by the products but by how good she was at handling the business side of things, whilst her mum handled the creative side.
Sofie started her own business whilst studying with the aim of taking what she was learning and applying it to real-life situations. After doing a lot of reading and research into the beauty industry she then acquired the products she needed and became a distributor of beauty products. The business blossomed through sheer hard work and drive mixed in with a little luck. “I was invited on to the Good Morning Denmark show as a Beauty Expert and this really helped with publicity, which in turn helped open a lot of doors.” Building her business to a success point, Sofie then decided to sell it to one of her competitors. It was whilst in this role she began her transition into the fashion industry.
Though her work often threw her into the luxury fashion market, her main focus was beauty. Through several projects and opportunities she began learning more about the industry and building relationships that she would need in the future. “When I started working for L’Oréal as their Sales Director, I consistently built up my network and relationships in the industry.” When she was contacted by the group that owns CIFF, they were looking for someone with fresh ideas, having worked in both the corporate world and in a start-up, Sofie was the perfect choice. Sofie lets me know that relationships played a big part in her getting to where she is now. “My track record in the industry and also luck had a big part to play, being connected to the right people at the right time is something that helped me get to where I am now.”
For a long time, both CIFF and Revolver were competitors, and it was ingrained in their DNA to fight for a space in the Danish fair industry. Though CIFF has been the forerunner of the fair industry for a long time, Revolver became better at adapting post-pandemic. The two giants then decided to join hands to solve the bigger problems the Danish fashion industry was facing. Utilising the resources once wasted on fighting, to now build a better hospitality system that helps the brands participating in the fairs. Sofie shares that she wants to make sure their brands get a return on investment and show them that their time is valuable. Since CIFF partners with Copenhagen Fashion Week, the brands participating in the fair must undergo strict requirements regarding sustainability and CIFF with the leadership of Sofie now aims to help them and provide the resources they need to meet those requirements. “A lot of brands don’t have the resources or know-how to make their supply chain better, so we aim to provide them with experts who can help them with this.” She explains that CIFF wants to provide help for its brands not just during fashion week but also in the months in between.
Sofie’s resilience has always been a driving force. She sees the business as a start-up and decidedly never takes no for an answer. “I have always been able to see possibilities and solutions in every problem.” Having been through her own start-up she gained a more holistic approach to business and it’s no secret why she is now in such an awe-inspiring leadership position today. When asked for her three leadership tips she said this “Be able to adapt. Create clear frameworks. Create trust!”
