Can Berlin Fashion Week expand its international presence?

State secretary Biel says cooperation with other fashion weeks around the globe is a key part of his strategy to expand the city’s international reach. “There are not a lot of cities that show political support [for fashion week]. [CEO] Cecilie [Thorsmark] from Copenhagen Fashion Week has even asked me to come to Copenhagen to talk to my political colleagues and show them there’s a different way to do it,” he adds.

Berlin’s Intervention

Some of the most highly anticipated shows of the season were part of Intervention, a brand showcase now in its second edition, hosted by local communications agency Reference Studios (which has offices in Milan and London too, and whose clients include Gucci, Acne Studios and Gentle Monster). Reference Studios founder and CEO Mumi Haiati thinks of Intervention as “Berlin International”. This year, Intervention featured GmbH, which showed in its hometown for the first time, knitwear legend Claudia Skoda who designed for David Bowie in the ’70s, Shayne Oliver’s Anonymous Club and Yeezy Gap graduate Marie Lueder (the latter two showed last season, too). All Intervention shows were hosted in different areas of the iconic events venue Tempodrom (previously a circus tent), in artsy neighbourhood Kreuzberg.

Brands from Reference Studios’s inner circle are invited to the programme; Haiati says he looks for a strong design language, an understanding of the zeitgeist as well as ties to Berlin’s culture and promising international potential. Haiati also has a dialogue with international buyers and press about designers who hold the most potential. “These [designers] are really key to the city,” says Haiati. “If you know the scene, the communities, the creative tribes of Berlin, they are the trailblazers and the ones leading these conversations, so I’m incredibly proud to have all of them together and also from across different generations.” The goal is to nourish these designers and create a platform with a “stronger positioning and international relevance”, he says.

A vape artist (left) opened Lueder’s SS25 show.

Photo: Finnegan Koichi Godenschweger

Lueder’s show, which drew attention from buyers, press and notable industry figures, opened with a performance by a vape artist who blew smoke in circular patterns, followed by a collection inspired by traditional alchemical processes (the designer takes inspiration from medieval armour throughout her designs and silhouettes in each collection). She’s planning to stick with Berlin: “I think sales are in Paris but everything else [such as the show] can be anywhere else,” she says backstage.

Alongside Intervention, Reference Studios hosted Oliver’s multi-brand exhibition Mall of the Anonymous and a new showcase of German talent, Reference Forum, again drawing international attention. “We need these kinds of people and agencies with international contacts to bring people from abroad to Berlin and bring Berlin labels to the world, and Reference Studios is doing a fantastic job,” says Biel.

“It’s first about creating desire,” says Haiati “Then step by step we also have to create relevance for actual business.”

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