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Review of Berlin Fashion Week - A Bubbling Cauldron of Creativity
Reviews
By Le Vin Chin
As anyone with a passing acquaintance with Berlin knows, the city is a bubbling cauldron of creativity. Young and established designers from all over Europe have flocked there in recent years to take advantage of its thriving art and design community, as well as its network of artisanal competence. As a result of this, the city has also developed its own channels for nurturing, supporting, encouraging and, finally, launching its design stars …
Recently, I was fortunate to be shown around two major fashion trade events during Berlin’s Fashion Week which highlighted two diametric ends of the spectrum for the city’s fashion and design scene. Guided by the trend scouters at PCH during one of their "Experience Days", I visited IDEAL and PREMIUM. Both were fashion events, both were trade events (i.e. providing a forum for designers to be seen by retail buyers), but how different they were!
Sylvia Schön‘s stand at the IDEAL Showroom
IDEAL labels itself the “Avantgarde” tradeshow, choosing to present progressive, alternative labels within its halls at the historic Café Moskau (“where the parents of many East Berliners met at dances,” said our guides). Now in its fifth year, IDEAL feels very much a part of the vibrant cultural scene of Berlin. As Sumi-Ha, the creator and driving force behind IDEAL explained to us, the event is meant as a platform to discover, counsel, encourage, support and promote new, young, international designers. Sumi-Ha, creator and driving force behind IDEAL |  |
Nadja Herder in front of the Winter Geek / Paper Forest paper sculpture installation by Hvass & Hannibal and Go Ahead Rob Us at the IDEAL Forum
Aside from the IDEAL Showroom – the actual fashion showcase – events included the IDEAL Forum, an art exhibition bringing together the exciting works of seven international artists, curated by Nadja Herder; and the Villa Noir, a semi-regular Berlin fixture: part party, part restaurant, part design event, part cultural event.
Yuka Oyama with sculpture based on re-use of rubbish bags, at the IDEAL Forum
Amélie Marciasini’s rope dress installations, at the IDEAL Forum
PREMIUM was on its 12th edition this year. The show, occurring twice-yearly, is firmly aimed at the exclusive, high-end end of the fashion market, presenting all kinds of wear – menswear, womenswear, childrenswear ... and everything else in between. By contrast with IDEAL, PREMIUM was the show with the major names, although their placement seemed very democratic: Missoni and Pringle shared equal floorspace with smaller, less established names.
There was really too much to see here (it was at PREMIUM that I found the ICOON universal wordless phrase book mentioned in “X” Marks The Spot! #10). I was pleased to bump into Susanne Schmitt of Schmitthut yet again (we had previously met each other twice in two days at Material Vision and Blickfang Zürich)!
One interesting item I discovered was the SunLoad SolarBag, a funky shoulder bag with an integrated solar panel and battery pack that you can plug your electric devices into.
The Fixed Gear exhibition Maximal Reduction Minimal Boundaries also took place during Berlin Fashion Week and a review of that event will come very soon!