sleek magazine

Melissa Drier is the Grande Dame of international fashion journalism in Berlin. A native New Yorker, Drier moved to Berlin in 1985 as the German correspondent for Women’s Wear Daily. Here we chat in the Mercedes-Benz lounge on the last day of Berlin Fashion Week about her impressions of how the week reflects the local scene that she has significantly exposed, informed and influenced.

AFH: Do you think that this week has well represented Berlin and what
is happening here?
MD: It depends on what you mean by “here”. I just talked to people from New York and Russia who asked me about Berlin fashion and I told them it was often pretty grungy. They asked why that’s not visible here. I told them that you can find that in a lot of places but not necessarily in the tents. I don’t know whether you need to see it in the tents. I think what’s happening in Berlin is a great opportunity for the German fashion community at large. A lot of that is not based in Berlin.

AFH: So are you saying that Julia Stegner, as a pretty healthy Munich girl, is really the embodiment of what Berlin Fashion week is? It is not about Berlin.
MD: I don’t think Julia has anything to do with anything. She is fine in a campaign, and represents what Mercedes thinks this should be. But I am really grateful to Mercedes for creating a space for this to happen. Germany had nothing and no place to set up a possible coming together of commercial and creative possibility in this market. Berlin has a lot of energy, so it is best to have it in Berlin.

AFH: Is this really the best platform?
MD: What we need is more. We need a solution for young talents who are a) young, b) don’t necessarily have the funds and c) don’t
necessarily have the experience or vision to come up with 40 outfits worthy of a runway. But they deserve to be seen. I miss them. I know that there are so many people here who fit that criteria and I miss them here. I also know that there are lots of cool things happening here but the schedule is crowded and we still need to find another platform for young designers. Though the young ones I saw here were among the best things I saw.

AFH: Stressing young isn’t a little problematic? The problem with a kitten is that, eventually it becomes a cat.
MD: Maybe there is a danger that it will become like the art scene where you’re either a young artist or no one cares. But people who are more established fashion entities, like Wolfgang Joop at Wunderkind, are looking for an international audience and they just can’t attract that here. They love being in Berlin and working here. They get a lot out of Berlin. But they still want something more international when it comes to showing and selling their collections.

AFH: Are you worried that all this attention will cause something like creative gentrification?
MD: I was here when all we had was young crap. I am really grateful that there is some stuff of substance. Ironically though, this season the people of substance let us down. The big boys let us down.

AFH: You mean Joop! should have shown?
MD: Joop! is a good example. I miss seeing that collection and Dirk Schönberger’s work. But the other major names that showed didn’t contribute all that much. The biggest names with the biggest events did not generate the biggest excitement.

AFH: The Boss Barbecue was tasty.
MD: If you’d been to their events in the past, you wouldn’t say that. They used to have amazing catering. That was probably the worst seafood salad I’ve ever had in my life and the meat was nothing to write home about. Maybe it’s time to invite less people. A lot of my journalist peers are beginning to question whether we need these monster events, especially under the current circumstances.