This installment of Berlin Fashion Week has seen an unusual number of celebrities descending on presentations: Jessica Alba, Zoe Saldana, Kellan Lutz, Diane Kruger, and Olivia Palermo, to name a few. (My use of the word celebrity here is somewhat casual, extending to anyone who has made repeated appearances in US Weekly, but demanding more than a recurring role in a German tabloid, because if that was the only qualification then the Bebelplatz is overrun by ‘fame’ every season.) For the past 10 to 12 years, fashion’s love affair with celebrities has blossomed to epic proportions, thanks largely to the voracious market dynamics of US publishing – celebrities sell magazines better than models, so editors don’t have much choice but to use them, especially in the current bleak economic landscape. But Berlin designers, poor but sexy as they are, can’t afford much in the way of celebrity, except tedious soap opera stars and Boris Becker, and despite the aforementioned regular appearances at the shows, the larger Berlin fashion engine remains refreshingly uninvolved for the most part with tabloid fixtures.
When it comes to fashion, the city certainly has its growing pains (some collections feel as awkward as a 13 year-old with braces), but what sets it apart is a corresponding youthful energy, and a kind of innocence. If one day Berlin’s fledgling fashion industry manages to capture a larger share of the global market, perhaps all that will change. Economic success brings a new set of pressures that sometimes require creative compromises. But for now there’s something great about the lack of A-list entertainers infiltrating the scene and stealing the show – instead of using major celebrities to prop itself up, Berlin’s scene succeeds or fails on its own merit or lack thereof. It’s certainly more pleasant than being around a big-name actor in public – at Calvin Klein’s event this week, it took five bodyguards to escort Twilight star Kellan Lutz into the presentation, an apt illustration of the hazard celebrity poses to fashion.
