While the German press has made out a positive, even enthusiastic response to Berlin Fashion Week’s show schedule, the international press delivers a more candid picture: by not reporting on Berlin Fashion Week at all.
Yes, there were some highlights. But there was also a lot of bullshit that would never have made and will never make it onto a runway in a city like Paris, London and New York.
Don’t get us wrong. We love Berlin, we don’t want to compare it to any other place in the world because we value its uniqueness, and we see good local fashion designers – but we don’t see the city’s fashion week and fashion scene evolving into something that will be both unique and on par with the international scene.
Why?
Because there is so little serious interest in fashion that even the only designer of international acclaim on the show schedule, and one of the best around at the moment, seemed to think it made sense to employ a fashion-illiterate PR agency which filled the seats of her show with German F-listers instead of the few members of the international press who had actually made it to Berlin not for the parties but to see some shows.
Because there is so little belief and commitment that hardly any buyer visiting the Bread and Butter tradefair makes the effort to visit one of the promising local showrooms.
Because too many Berliners are so full of themselves they believe playing fashion week is the real thing.
We strongly believe that the local fashion scene is worthy of a fashion week, a true Berlin fashion week with a unique show and event schedule, comprising both local and international designers with that sense of “so Berlin”. We see local designers who seem to incorporate a Berlin influence into their design; constrasting fabrics, bold shapes, unfinished hemlines seem to reflect the abundance of space, brash appearance and constant state of flux characterising this city, and conceptual depth appeals to an art-savvy and intellectually demanding audience. Among them Perret Schaad, Vladimir Karaleev, Michael Sontag, and this season’s newcomer Don’t Shoot The Messengers stand out. But we fear they are not challenged enough here to reach full bloom; with each new collection they only confirm the status quo reached with their first show (often a much lauded graduate collection) instead of demonstrating a gradual refinement of their talent.
Interestingly enough, the only event we consider worthy of our dream vision of a Berlin fashion week (apart from the above-mentioned Dutch designer) was demonstrated by a designer who once said showing in Berlin was just not worth it: Kostas Murkudis. Collaborating with artist Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto), and setting the show in what is soon to become a gallery space, Murkudis created an environment that both stressed and extended the collection’s themes. This was a presentation that was meaningful in the best sense, by assigning each element – sound, image, model, item – a specifically calculated amount of time and space in a meticulously staged framework. The whole affair was not flawless; the light made viewing (and photographing, as you can see) the pieces difficult, a lot of people had to remain standing after a long workday and cope with blocked views, and we would have preferred less themes in favour of a deeper exploration of each of them. And yet, this was the perfect example of how we would love Berlin Fashion Week to be.
Photo© Maxime Ballesteros.