SEDAN – This week, the German capital will once again host live fashion shows, as Berlin Fashion Week kicks off on Monday. The event will take place in March for the first time and will also include better business workshops, art installations, panel discussions, a summit focused on sustainability, various festivals and clothing sales for the general public.
“After two years of the pandemic, the yearning for real exchange is huge,” said Tanja Muehlhans, director of the Berlin government’s Projekt Zukunft (in English, Project Future), which supports creative and digital industries in the city. She is supporting this Berlin Fashion Week to the tune of 790,000 euros.
There will be something for everyone at Berlin Fashion Week, Muehlhans told WWD, even if the shows and events are overshadowed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“We have developed a fantastic sense of community and are engaging creative people from many different disciplines, from music and art to sustainability and technology,” enthused Muehlhans.
Behind the scenes, however, there has been something of a contest between three different fashion events in Germany, all of which would no doubt like to lay claim to the title of “the” fashion occasion Germany should pay attention to.
Tanja Muehlhans, director of the Projekt Zukunft in Berlin who supports her fashion week.
Courtesy
The rivalry began just under two years ago when, in June 2020, a major part of Berlin Fashion Week , the three trade shows that did most of the actual business and brought international buyers to the city , they announced that they would be moving to Frankfurt. .
Two of the trade fairs were organized by the Berlin-based company, Premium Group, and the third, the sustainable fashion fair Neonyt, was managed by Frankfurt Messe, one of the world’s largest trade fair organizers.
It was all about reinvention and synergies, Frankfurt Messe and Premium Group executives explained in 2020.
There is no doubt that the move shocked Berliners. After all, Premium has been organizing trade fairs in the capital since 2003.
After the initial shock wore off, reactions varied.
Some welcomed Premium Group’s departure, saying it would allow Berlin to do its own, more creative, non-commercial thing. The Berlin event could also specify its own timetable and become more attractive to international buyers and media, who would usually have been in Paris for menswear or haute couture shows when Berlin was underway, they said.
Others were concerned about a possible lack of commercial interest. City statistics suggest the fairs helped Berlin Fashion Week bring some 70,000 visitors and €240 million in business annually to the capital.
Questions were also raised about whether Frankfurt, a smaller, wealthier and more conservative city better known as Germany’s financial capital, was really the right place for a fashion week.
No one ever found out. The COVID-19 pandemic meant that Frankfurt Fashion Week was never able to prove itself. It took place in hybrid or purely digital formats in 2020 and 2021. And the Premium Group trade shows never happened there.
Then, in January of this year, another surprise: Premium Group announced that it would return to Berlin. Fairs will not be part of this Berlin Fashion Week. Its next iteration will take place between July 7 and 9. Those Berlin dates are in direct competition with July’s Frankfurt Fashion Week, already scheduled for July 4-8.
Rumors abound about the reasons for Premium Group’s infidelity to Frankfurt.
“We heard that a lot of the brands didn’t want to show up in Frankfurt right away,” a source from a major online retailer told WWD off the record. “They were interested but wanted to wait and see how it all worked out. So they [Premium] couldn’t get enough exhibitors,” the source suggested.
“It was all about the money,” complained one person who worked in fashion communications.
Frankfurt Fashion Week was to receive €10 million over three years from city and state authorities. Previously, Berlin’s former economics senator, Ramona Pop, had said something similar, claiming that Frankfurt had lured Premium Group with money.
Anita Tillmann, who runs Premium Group, debunks all the gossip. It wasn’t about the money, she said. “If only she could make money changing locations,” she told WWD, laughing. The new Berlin senate has simply been more business-friendly and open to Premium Group’s needs, she said, Tillmann, and she offered to rent her company a single location that suited all trade fair needs.
Nor was it for lack of exhibitors. “Of course, you have those discussions. It would be a lie to say that we didn’t have those discussions. And some people are risk averse,” he admitted. “But in the end, all the major brands confirmed [for Frankfurt].”
Anita Tillmann, managing partner of Berlin-based event organizer Premium Group.
Courtesy / Lottermann Sources
Tillmann said he was also on good terms with the organizers of Messe Frankfurt, despite the unexpected departure of Premium Group. He explained that the move was simply a matter of time, the result of the evolution of international trade fairs and the COVID-19 pandemic, which essentially shut down in-person events for two years.
“Everyone is looking for a reason and I think that’s fair,” he continued. “But really, we had an idea. [for Frankfurt] – and it’s one that I actually still think is amazing – but it didn’t work out. It is nobody’s fault. You can believe it or not, but if there was a reason, it was the coronavirus. It really changed everything.”
A statement from Olaf Schmidt, vice president for textiles and textile technologies at Messe Frankfurt, who is also in charge of the fashion week business, seems to confirm this. “From our point of view, there was never any doubt about the prospects of our concept and the potential that the site in Frankfurt has,” he said in an email interview with WWD. “It was just the pandemic that stopped us.”
Although the local industry is awash with suggestions that this summer’s Frankfurt Fashion Week will be canceled after the departure of the premium trade shows, Schmidt was adamant that it will happen. It will also include the fair for sustainable fashion, Neonyt, which has grown in importance in Berlin in recent seasons.
“We will announce the details shortly,” he confirmed.
But of course this leaves Germany with three major fashion events, something that could well cause uncertainty and even damage local trade.
It will probably cause a bit of confusion in the market, admits Magdalena Schaffrin, a sustainability expert and organizer of the 202030 fashion summit, part of Berlin Fashion Week. “But I’m sure it will be resolved after the next one or two seasons.”
“Perhaps this confusion is necessary in order to have a sharper, more concrete identity in the future,” added Carina Bischof, a Berlin-based designer and one of the organizers of this week’s Fashion Open Studios initiative, with a focus on sustainable design. . “I think that right now we are in a very important transformation process. Around the world, the face of fashion weeks is changing.
Carina Bischof, co-organizer of this Fashion Open Studios in Berlin.
Courtesy
“There is some irritation about the German situation,” admitted Muehlhans of the Berlin city council. “But let’s not forget that the fashion industry is in a state of change and reorganization.”
Discussions are planned on reintroducing the more artistic events of Berlin Fashion Week with the Premium Group trade fairs. Every Berlin Fashion Week organizer and participant WWD spoke with welcomed the return of trade shows and said they could imagine everyone working together again.
It’s just better for Berlin’s international image, Bischof explained. “The [Premium Group] The decision to return to the capital is a positive sign.”
Premium Group’s announcement was made when this Berlin Fashion Week was already planned, Muehlhans noted. “We trust the organizers and we will do our best to bring stakeholders together and avoid having separate fashion week and trade show dates.”
However, Tillmann was more evasive, emphasizing her company’s independence and pointing out that her trade show attendees often don’t have much to do with Berlin Fashion Week events. This summer, the company will also launch a new direct-to-consumer event in Berlin called The Ground, she said.
“At the end of the day, it’s about the target audiences and whether you can make a good business case,” he argued. “For me, it’s not about one or the other. Fashion weeks need to be defined in a different way, just like trade shows.”
Source: wwd.com