More fashion, more fun please

Berlin Fashion Week is over. Was it a good week? We honestly don’t know yet as it takes some time and distance to digest. We haven’t had time to post every day but surely with all other posts and pictures and street style snaps and instant reports, fashion readers are already overwhelmed. The information overkill and the quality of it do not necessarily correlate, but the readers were not alone. Let’s be honest – with so many locations, shows, tradeshows and shop openings do we really have time to see it all? No. Do we need to? Not so sure. Do we miss something? This is a rhetorical question.

Don’t get us wrong – we love fashion. We are prepared to spend hours waiting for a good show to get our chunk of inspiration and emotional touch. We really care and would give anyone daring to show as much credits as we could. But this week was different. And confusing. Too many shows with less quality were our problem. We missed Kaviar Gauche and Penkov. We enjoyed Michael Sontag, Vladimir Karaleev, mongrels in common, Patrick Mohr and Hien Le, and studio presentations of DSTM and Dawid Tomaszewski.  Dutch Iris van Herpen and Belgian A.F.Vandevorst brought a bit of a sparkle into the sea of reduced, minimalist, good quality fashion. 


But the rest? Solid but boring. The concept of wearability does not justify the absence of ideas. The core, the essence of what fashion made or shown in Berlin should be is missing. Jil Sander has put her minimalistic mark – 20, 30 years ago?  Karl Lagerfeld said in his Spiegel ping pong with Bread and Butter CEO Karl-Heinz Mueller: “Berlin takes itself way too serious...”  Maybe he is right; we shouldn’t be so dead serious about it. 
Let’s have some fun next season!


image courtesy: Iris van Herpen

Next week' madness, relaxed

Just one more day, and the fashion week Berlin (pardon, Mercedes-Benz Fashion week BerlinJ) kicks off.. Season after season, there are more designers, shows, off-schedule events and presentations, trade shows and installations.  No wonder everybody seems stressed even before the first model steps into the catwalk. Instead of  running a fashion marathon, we have decided to be relaxed and to attend only a few, very subjectively selected shows and presentations we feel somehow represent the capital of emerging fashion and capture the zeitgeist at their best.

The week starts on Tuesday with two events both off-schedule and both equally intriguing –

EDGED showroom and projektGALERIE run their opening parties. Pretty energetic start right on into the mood for avant-garde in fashion, we will be there.

Wednesday 10 sharp (10 am of course!) is the Michael Sontag Show. He is one of the designers featured in the book, and we really like his work outside of trends and seasons. He is also last year’ nominee of the Start Your Fashion Business award we will be attending too. Hien Le, Issever Bahri and Augustin Teboul are on board this time.

Back on Wednesday – we will sashey to the (capsule) and then back to PREMIUM where our book presentation will be taking place (if not accredited yet, a short email, pronto!)

Then will be just on time for the Zadig & Voltaire event at the Lafayette, the label finally available in Germany, yes!  Reality Studio guerilla presentation is on our list after that. And then - open end, with a few more events to drop by. 

You better check IHeartBerlin providing an excellent party calendar for the best and funniest parties in town this week. 

Thursday is a very exiting day. Vladimir Karaleev will be showing in the morning, right after the first morning slot allocated to Schumacher, Mannheim-based  label that caused quite a stir last season. Laurèl and mongrels in common are the shows we would not miss, followed by the avant-garde and street fashion at its best: Patrick Mohr (!), Wood Wood and later the gem – Designer Scouts with an excellent portfolio. Our personal highlight of the week.

Back to the tents next morning, Don’t Shoot the Messengers followed by Marcel Ostertag. Berlin is known for being unpredictable and mixing all sorts of things, two labels that cannot be any different.  Frida Weyer and Kilian Kerner are on our schedule too; later on the night at Tempelhof, the place to be.

Saturday on ease. Dawid Tomaszewski and Hien Le, and a closure by A.F.Vandevorst, we hope this time there will be their first line - the capital of emerging fashion is definitely worth it!

see you around! xo

image courtesy:  MBFW, IMG