General musings – Contradictions: Fashion Highs….er…Lows
While at the showroom of Vladimir Karaleev the other day, I asked him if he named his wittingly ripped-torn-shorn pieces. The Andy, the Mickey, the Sue? The tug? The yank? But wait, what’s Karaleev’s trick? How does he make a rip look romantic? How does he make it look Parisienne and not partisan New Jersey? It made me begin to think of the language used to describe so many of this year’s favorites. [more]
0 CommentsRisto Bimbiloski Seals Berlin Fashion Week
He’s the designer all the cool girls know about. You see them walking around town in one of his lightning bolt knee length shift dresses and crocheted sweaters and fight the urge to run behind them calling out pleas of “where did you get that dress?” You should know about Risto Bimbiloski. The inception of his label was way back in 1998, when MTV was still a music video channel and Bimbiloski watched with the vigour and determination of a whimsical teenager with the hope that one day, he’d be a part of the Western fashion action. After four years as head designer for menswear at Louis Vuitton, Bimbiloski is concentrating on his label, Risto. He showed his pre collection at Berlin Fashion Week Saturday night, the last show of this season, the cry of which erupted the waiting tent into applause and giggles. Digital print bike shorts underneath black crocheted mini dresses with flounce skirts, blazer dresses and shredded white denim knitted into oversized and chunky vests with gold chain detailing along the edges; long sleeve body suits with very, very high cut legs and of course, his signature print leggings. Check out all the cool girls wearing him next season.
Alien Bodies and Shock Value
The quality of the models at the Berlin fashion week has always been a point of criticism. “Too short,” “Too young,” “Can’t walk,” were just some of the comments you’d hear from local “experts” at every show. Some were even accused of being downright unattractive. It seems like the city that has never really seen any super models on the catwalk somehow managed to produced a slew of unforgiving critics. Could this be the reason why this season, designers chose to cast the somewhat “different” kids, the ones that were picked on at school, the ones no critic would dare comment on? Shaun Ross, the albino model from the Bronx, was either on the catwalk or seating in the front row at every single show. A male model with a prosthetic leg walked for Boss and – with shorts exposing the artificial limb – Starstyling. Patrick Mohr sealed his aliens-with-facial-hair show with a shockingly thin female model with artificial breasts in uniform look with her male counterpart Shaun Ross. Shock value was apparently the theme at castings this season, a trend that Berlin fashion week makers will hopefully get tired of soon.
No fashion, but a show at Michalsky
Obeying the Michalsky rule that fashion is not about fashion but show, and after having received subtle signs from Michalsky’s PR that a show review from our side was not considered necessary anyway, we have decided to concentrate on the red carpet instead of the show at Tempodrom. This season, Michalsky presents the notorious F-listers that have become his signature style, combining them with tinges of A-listers and throwing in some refreshing details from the plain&ugly-compartment. All in all, a collection that boldly sets out to erase all pretense of a fashion-related event. And the fact that Michalsky, the Pied Piper of sponsor acquisition, this season is supported by a German detergent brand, will make sure that soon Michalsky will be cleansed from any connections to fashion that some people might still falsely ascribe to him.
0 CommentsWhere are Germany’s Fashion Bloggers?
On Friday a Fashion Blogger Get-Together took place at the Premium trade fair. The event is meant to create a platform for the mostly anonymous bloggers and help them to communicate and connect, thus promoting the potentially growing influence of the blogging sphere. After a short informal introduction by Mary Scherpe of „Stil in Berlin“ and Julia Knolle of „Les Mads“ and a following round of questions the bloggers were meant to make contacts among themselves, which a lot of them obviously found a bit hard, as if they didn’t seem used to conversation without using a keyboard. Unfortunately Mary didn’t seem to see any necessity to talk to the press, but Julia kindly had a word with us, mentioning the slightly increased attendance of German bloggers to that event but still wishing it were more. Maybe it is in their nature that they are easier to get in touch with via www. (MR)
0 CommentsMongrels in heat
On Thursday the Mongrels in Common show took place at Ressort, a beach bar/restaurant located right next to a shipping canal. The narrow boardwalk to the showroom was extensively crowded, so even a couple of our beloved “celebrities” had to walk through the sand in their high heels. The showroom itself was a raw old storage depot painted white, but what a shame that it had a corrugated sheet roof though. Overtaken by the heat the urge to escape made it difficult to focus on what designer duo Pluess and Ximénez-Carrillo had to offer. Floral silk blouses met riding pants or denim pants with rounded seams, all endowed with a sartorial elegance. The looks were strong but still very feminine through the use of folded shoulders. They might have been reading sleek recently as we recognized the flora/fauna theme of the current issue in their printed head scarfs. The crowd made it through the sweltering show, and even the most grumbling ones calmed down after a nice BBQ in the sand. (MR)
G-Shock receives a special (star)styling
A collaboration between watch brand G-Shock and Berlin fashion label Starstyling resulted in a quirky and fun collection of 20 unique watch models based on two models of the current G-Shock collection. These models will be available in especially selected concept stores worldwide, so unfortunately most of us will not be able to get their hands (or rather, wrists) on these little babies, but at least you can watch our interview with Katja Schlegel and Kai Seifried of Starstyling and take a look at some of the models presented at the temporary G-Shock store during Berlin Fashion Week.
0 CommentsFinally a Weekday for Berlin!
Gone are the times when Berliners used to have to go to Hamburg to shop at Weekday, the Swedish brand that started out ten years ago at a little Stockholm venue only open on weekends. Two days ago, Weekday finally opened their first Berlin store, offering all Weekday brands including Cheap Monday jeans which on the opening day were on sale at 10 (yes, TEN, that’s right) euros. Here we talk to Weekday’s PR director, Elinor Nystedt, about the store’s concept and get some impressions of what the store has in store for you. www.weekday.se
1 CommentLiving in a window display
British artist Alex James Daw has spent the last three days in the Diesel Concept Store’s window display at Neue Schönhauser Strasse. Working and living in the small space, he even slept under a small bench, which is normally used to present the jeans of the brand during daytime. People passing by stopped, writing their names or even telephone numbers onto the window or contributing to the growing installation in some other way. Daw will now return to more ordinary living conditions but the artistic results of his time spent at the store will remain on display for some more time.
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