Day 2 - Berlin Fashion Week

On Saturday The Key is opened to the public. Photo: (C) Joachim Schirrmacher

When Bread & Butter started as a small fair in Cologne, all stands had to be open and no higher than 1.6 metres. Today you walk through long gorges created by the giant corporate stands. Not only is the entry to B&B strictly controlled but every stand also entails a further control. On top of that your every movement is electronically captured by scanners. Every exhibitor has access to the data and can use the information to internally justify their presence at the fair. I have elected not to participate in this – either they let me in to the stand, or they don’t.

In the press centre I met Elke Giese, fashion XXX manager at the Deutsches Mode Institut (German Fashion Institute). We discussed the Schumacher show. Was my verdict of the show too harsh? Mrs. Giese was quite taken by the collection and thought that it reflected lots of trends well.
Ivonne Fehn, Fashion Director, Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin thought the show paid too much attention to trends.

This goes to show: there is not one single truth, but many different perspectives. One is the artistic merit, the other, not too be neglected, are the clients wishes. After all, over 100 jobs at Schumacher alone are at stake. The Creative Director of Jil Sander, Raf Simons said to me a couple of weeks ago that the bigger the label the more influence and say clients have over a collection.

We seldom hear about this in the media because the media is dependent on the advertising revenues generated from the fashion houses advertising campaigns. “Everybody wants to be in the first row at Marc Jacobs show. And everybody want to report objectively – that doesn’t work,” said an unknown voice in the background.

These thoughts whirled through my head in the semi-darkness of the Joop! show. The evening was a tough one, I have to admit. After visiting the Premium and B&B fairs the Joop! show entailed more standing. Instead of chairs surrounding the catwalk there was a platform upon which people congregated. The result: few had a good view. Apparently it didn’t matter, however, as the collection was a bit too mainstream. “Hip models and famous photographers allow brands to be ‘in’ and trendy regardless of the quality of the actual product” explained the brochure of the strategists McKinsey & Company.

After the show everybody waited for the last public appearance of the Joop! Creative Director Dirk Schönberger. In December it emerged that Joop! wants to realign its brand to be more purist and is parting company with Schönberger. An embarrassing silence and incomprehension was the result. Schönberger however, speaking to the Tagesspiegel, insisted “We have to offer people something they haven’t seen before. They are not going to buy something in the next half year that they already know, they are not going to buy thousands of basic pieces. If they spend money, then on something that will define them.”

Pictures from Day 2 of the Berlin Fashion Week [here]