Fashion or Passion, Green or Mean: Berlin Fashion Week

I really love Berlin.

It hasn’t been snowing and it hasn’t been raining. In fact, you would hardly recognise that it’s winter at all, so I have been wearing spring-green and sky-blue dresses to my office!

It’s January and there is so much to do.

Although I have had my head down with trying to reach my academic deadline, the beautiful people have spent the week

….well,

…..just being beautiful!

Having said that though, Berlin Fashion Week isn’t really all about beauty. I mean, it’s Berlin. There’s always more than meets the eye and you don’t have to be an expert to appreciate it, so I’m going to give you the low-down of what it’s all about.

The Berlin Fashion Week is a fairly new concept and only started in the summer of 2007. Since then, twice a year; an entire week is allocated to the fashion trends of the region.

Everyone, who is anyone, is here.

We’ve got trade shows, fashion shows, exhibitions and shows for the public, and that’s just for starters.

Creative young things show off their new designs and as I have previously told you in reasons to be an expat, Berlin is a hotspot for support and encouragement for a wide range of business initiatives because:

Berlin is cheap.

Berlin is young.

Berlin is urban.

Berlin is fresh.

Berlin is creativity on the go.

Berlin is out there.

It’s crazy!

The host and crème de la crème of the show this winter is:

1.   Mercedes Benz Fashion Week: This platform is the fashion week main sponsor and Germany’s most important fashion forum focused on new emerging talent, established names, contemporary brands and successful collections.

This is where you will be matched and mixed with fashion, art, music, photography, designers, stylists and people.

2.   Bread and Butter:  This is the leading international trade fair for street and urban clothing. They assemble at the old Tempelhof Airport which is the largest airport building in Europe and boy, do they have some really interesting, quirky stuff.

Their motto this year was apt: “Ich bin ein Berliner- I am a Berliner.”

3.   Greenshowroom: This is a luxury fashion un-conventional ecological trade fair with emphasis on quality and style.

Germans are very conscious about green fashion and are leaders in the ecological-environmental-organic-fair-and-friendly side of things.

However, just because it’s “green” doesn’t mean you have to be mean with your lifestyle or drab not fab. Put that picture of sackcloth and hippy-baggy clothing right out of your mind ‘cos you can be “green and hip” and still be luxurious, exciting and contemporary.

4.   The Ethical Fashion Show: Berliners in particular want to know where their clothes and materials are from and whether the conditions were fair and socially responsible.

German fashion and lifestyle is to demand quality, style, transparency, fair trade, human rights and sustainable living.

For all.

Berlin is pretty ahead of its time in that vein as Berliners also like to put their money where their mouth is.

As a matter of fact, very close to where I live is the first “vegan only” supermarket in Berlin (Veganz) in conjunction with a joint vegan café (also by the same name), a vegan shoe shop (Avesu) and a no-leather-vegan-organic store that describes itself as an animal-human-eco-friendly clothing store (DearGoods). I’m not a vegan myself but for those of you who are, you’re pretty sorted!

This winter the Berlin fashion week was from January 14^th – January 19^th, 2014.

The next fashion week is in the summer of July. A perfect time to come to Germany.

Come to Berlin and see for yourself.

For more Information contact Berlin Fashion Week.

How passionate about fashion are you? What do you think of fashion week in your city or region? Would you go to a local one?

Have your say!

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