There is movement in the Berlin Fashion Week. Not only local labels convinced with a diverse program, but also guests from the Ukraine. But it remains unclear how things will continue in the capital.
Young blood
In recent seasons, Berlin Fashion Week has often been declared dead, but now something seems to be happening. Many local and international visitors agreed on this. A highlight of many in the calendar was the show by the Berlin label Namilia, which also has many loyal fans outside of Germany thanks to its body-hugging and provocative fashion.
At the Berlin Fashion Week, the label presented a collection that was loud, uncompromising and liberating in terms of form and statement – all characteristics that many have always associated with the hip clubs of the German capital, but just not with the fashion week.
Some brands that are also internationally trendy, such as Gmbh or Ottolinger, have so far not shown in Berlin, but at the Paris Fashion Week. On the one hand, the buyers of international luxury boutiques go to the French capital to order, on the other hand, there may also be a certain reluctance to associate oneself with the Berlin Fashion Week as a brand.
“We’ve been a Berlin brand for seven years and previously showed in New York,” said Nan Li, one of the two fashion designers behind Namilia after Wednesday’s show. But now there are also a lot of customers and a strong community in Berlin.
“I’m also aware that Berlin Fashion Week isn’t comparable to New York, Paris or London, but it doesn’t matter to us because we’re not really in the fashion rhythm,” he explains the decision in January to show in Berlin. “Our casting, our people are in Berlin, for us this is our event. We just felt like showing in our hometown.”
At home everywhere
But Namilia is not the only Berlin brand that is close to the zeitgeist and showed at the Berlin Fashion Week. The young label SF1OG brought its collection inspired by everyday artefacts to the Rotes Rathaus; LML Studio staged inclusion and fashion in the Marienkirche. Other exciting talents such as Olivia Ballard, Acceptance Letter Studio or David Chuene were also seen with their own shows or in the Berlin Salon.
What is often striking about these up-and-coming brands is their international training and orientation. The creative minds behind Namilia, Nan Li and Emilia Pohl, met while studying at the Berlin University of the Arts before completing their Masters in Fashion at London’s Royal College of Art and moving back to Berlin to start their label in 2015 establish. Back then, it was easier and cheaper to set up a brand in the German capital, Li said.
Lucas Meyer-Leclère, the founder of the label LML Studio, designed fabrics for Chanel and Jimmy Choo before moving to Berlin in 2017. Born in New York, Olivia Ballard founded her eponymous label in Berlin in 2020. These labels could be at home almost anywhere, but chose Berlin as their headquarters.
The art and music scenes continue to define Berlin, says Li. “I think it’s one of the strongest youth culture scenes in the world and it’s absolutely perfect for our brand.”
Mail Mercedes Benz
Despite its cultural appeal, Berlin has had a hard time getting its most exciting fashion labels onto the catwalk in recent years. Sometimes it’s not enough to have talented fashion designers; the structures for promoting and presenting them must also be right. For a long time, the Berlin Fashion Week has been overshadowed by the image of the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, which once symbolized the heyday of fashion in the capital.
But where the white Mercedes Benz tent on Bebelsplatz stood for a spirit of optimism at the end of the noughties, there was recently a lot of weariness with fashion. The mix of labels was not right, too many commercial clothing but not enough fashion standards, some complained.
Mercedes Benz has now largely withdrawn from Berlin as a sponsor. The car company only wants to cooperate with selected brands, such as Marc Cain last week. Some actors in Berlin, such as the Fashion Council Germany, see this as an opportunity to reposition the fashion week. Last week offered a foretaste of what is possible.
There were three categories in which Berlin brands and other fashion players could apply for prize money from the city of Berlin since November. Between 5,000 and 150,000 euros were available for larger formats such as the Berlin Salon, up to 5,000 euros for store and studio events, and up to 25,000 euros for fashion shows and presentations. The fashion shows could take place in the Kantgaragen, but the labels were also free to choose the most suitable location for themselves.
The designer Sia Arnika invited to the FW23 show of her label of the same name in the archive halls in Berlin-Marzahn. The metal mesh walls and shelving provided an accomplished backdrop that complemented her designs, which were focused on textures and silhouettes.
support from Ukraine
The Hamburg label Fassbender was also among the award winners for a fashion show. The previous year it had also won an award that allowed it to show at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week but on a smaller budget.
“With this budget there are now completely different possibilities and my wish was always to make something private and cozy out of it than a classic catwalk,” said Christina Fassbender, the founder of the Hamburg label of the same name, after her show in the Kantgaragen on Wednesday. She used the prize money to combine her runway with a lunch, inviting guests to linger during the busy fashion week. Artist Fulya Celik, who she collaborated with for her FW23 collection, painted and finished a dress with silver paint during the show.
Established brands also used the prize money to hold shows. Designer Lou de Bétoly perfected the camp aesthetic as she showcased her subversive crochet creations. Odeeh’s FW23 collection played with geometric patterns with a Sixties flair. Last but not least, the collections of Ukrainian labels such as Dzhus and Litkovska, who were invited as guests and whose show costs were borne by the Berlin Senate, also enriched the show.
Quo vadis?
The Berlin Fashion Week showed last week what it can offer artistically and creatively. But some new questions that are actually old questions remain unanswered.
The date of the Berlin Fashion Week from January 16th to 20th overlapped with the men’s fashion weeks in Milan and Paris, so actually unfavorable for a fashion week that wants to attract international visitors. The fact that the dates are no longer in March and September like last year is due to the return of the Premium and Seek fashion fairs to Berlin. It is important for these two fairs to show collections between Pitti Uomo in Florence and before the Paris and Copenhagen fairs.
However, after the interlude in Frankfurt, their orientation has drifted even further towards the mainstream. The buyers who bring the trade fairs to the city hardly seem to have an intersection with the potential buyers who are interesting for the trendy Berlin labels. How could the synergies be increased here?
Apart from the women’s clothing brand Marc Cain, there were no major commercial brands showing their collection at a fashion show in Berlin. The Metzingen-based fashion group Hugo Boss last presented itself with an event in July 2019. This eliminates another component that brings commercially interesting visitors to the city for the labels.
This raises the question, as in the past, of why labels should put on a lavish and expensively produced show in Berlin. And what about the commercial future of the labels. Perhaps the model that brands like Namilia are following is one answer. The label does not go through fashion boutiques, but sells its clothes to customers itself. It has a following of over 200,000 on Instagram. It is therefore not dependent on buyers or a show date in the traditional fashion calendar. The location is less important, it’s more about reaching your fans locally and on social media with the show.
Nevertheless, Namilia founder Nan Li thinks it’s good that Berlin’s fashion landscape is becoming more diverse. “It’s getting stronger and more and more, I hope that more and more cool labels will show here that fashion week is doing more too.”
