Berlin Fashion Week off to successful start

The first Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, which ended last Sunday sparked positive reactions from most participants. The organisers of local trade fairs Premium and Ideal were mostly pleased with the general concept as well as exhibitors, show organisers, visitors and other companies involved in the event. The new show concept developed by New York-based marketing agency IMG and main sponsor Mercedes Benz that focused on a central location at Brandenburger Tor was well received, especially by international visitors.

Occasional criticism was mainly aimed at the overall organisation as the event spread out over too many separate dates and locations which were not linked sufficiently. Most significantly, German top label Hugo Boss – which according to rumours spent about 2.5 Million Euros on a most spectacular after show party at the Russian embassy - criticised some aspects of the collaboration with IMG and even announced to reconsider further involvement.

With IMG being responsible, the glamour level at Berlin fashion week got a strong boost, but at the same time the event became more elitist. Local media complained that common people were almost completely excluded. In fact huge crowds of tourists and locals who would have loved to take part in the circus of the vanities could be seen gathering round the main location at Brandenburger Tor every day. But then it is international practice that such events are basically staged for a selected audience.

On the whole it can be said that with the fashion week Berlin probably took the last chance to establish itself in the international contest of major fashion locations after the hugely successful tradeshow Bread & Butter had left the German capital for Barcelona. The mix of established names and upcoming local talent turned out to be a promising concept and was generally praised.

For the next event that is scheduled for January fashion heavyweights such as Karl Lagerfeld are considering to take part. Local heroes like Michael Michalsky already claim that a message was sent out to the world last weekend: “Berlin is getting hotter, that was just the start,” the German star designer stated. A similarly heartfelt commitment by main sponsor Mercedes Benz and IMG is still to come.

www.mercedes-benzfashionweek.de
18 July 2007

Berlin Tradeshow Gets Mixed Reactions

Bread and Butter, the Berlin tradeshow for premium streetwear brands, received mixed reactions from exhibitors. Much hype in the past has been attached to the directional fair, but this season it seemed as if it's sister exhibition in Barcelona stole the show.

Footflow for the event was down 35% and 60 per cent of buyers were German, as opposed to 30 per cent before Barcelona . Italian, French and UK buyers opted for the newness of the Spanish exhibition, where a mixture of new brands, warm weather and buzzing city made the trip a pleasant buying weekend in the ever-hectic fashion calendar. Berlin , by contrast, didn't have the international customer exhibitors needed for wider European distribution, and left many brands wondering as to the future of the tradeshow, when Barclona and Berlin continue showing with just two weeks between them.

Launching a new brand to only the German market, when two-thirds into the exhibition German buyers went to the Dusseldorf CPD fair, seemed, at best, a costly exercise. Premium, which tends to house more higher-end brands than B&B, kept the brands in place by having offered free space to image-making labels.

At Premium, brands such as Loomstate and Katharine E Hamnett received much buyer interest. Perhaps this tradeshow is the alternative answer to the B&B fair, where a denim hall, a sportwear and streetwear division and superior collection exhibition become so split, that sharing buyers with the Barcelona show dilutes what is meant to be a fashion forward tradeshow, offering a glimpse of what is directional for next season. After all, what use is labelling a show ‘directional' when no one is there to witness it?

24 July 2005