Every July, Berlin goes fashion mad. This week, it’s hosting three wildly different threads fests: Bread & Butter, Fashion Week and Wedding Dress. Daunted? We’ve picked out the most intriguing shows and parties.
Whether or not you’ve managed to wrangle a pass to the invite-only international trade fair Bread & Butter (July 7-9), there’s plenty of free champagne and fashion to be had in the next five days, between the hundreds of shows, events and parties linked to Berlin Fashion Week (July 7-11), the indie street fair Wedding Dress #5 (July 10-11) and the occasional unofficial bash thrown in for good measure.
On Tuesday, the Fashion Whaat! vernissage at Stattbad Wedding (Tues, July 6; through July 11) unveils works by emerging local designers and artists in the swimming pool’s changing rooms and balcony hall. Stick around for the Fashion Week opening party (from 21:00) – or race over to take a peek at Berlin haute-couture label Kimberit’s latest collection of airy, carefully engineered silk chiffon dresses (Tue, July 6; through July 10).
In a sea of spring/summer 2011 previews, Reality Studio’s dark, chic collection “Open to the Public” is the one to watch, if only for its unorthodox presentation: a “moving fashion show” on bicycles through the streets of Mitte (Wed, July 7).
Green fashion organisation THEKEY.TO ‘does’ Fashion Week its own way – by bringing together sustainable living practices and DIY culture from Berlin and beyond at Supershop (Thu, July 8; through July 10). You’ll be able to browse displays by local DIY staples such as Stitch ‘n’ Bitch, relax in the “mobile garden lounge” made by the Öko farming organisation Prinzessinnengärten or rework your preloved threads at the Fashion Reloaded workshop.
If you’re feeling more punk rock then fancy frock (or hippie smock), check out White Trash Fast Food’s Trashion!, an unofficial Bread & Butter bash with live music by Town, Thrush Metal and Rapskallion (Thu, July 8). The next day, Janelle “the next Gaga” Monáe will be rocking the trade show itself with her tailored suits, asymmetric afro and impressive stripped-down vocals (Fri, July 9).
Student shows are often more interesting than most of the commercial runway efforts: the seefashion 10 parade of new work from the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee (photo, left) is sure to be an interesting, edgy case in point (Fri, July 9). At the other end of the ‘establishment’ scale is London-born fashion photographer Miles Aldridge (top photo), whose blank-eyed beauties have appeared in the pages of Vogue Italia (Fri, July 9; through Aug 31).
If you’ve managed to conserve some energy for the weekend, Wedding Dress #5 takes up the baton on Brunnenstraße with a two-day bonanza of fashion, music and art. There’ll be an enormous bazaar, a designer sale, DJs, live concerts, a kids’ fashion parade (perfect for the P’Berg Bobos) – all alfresco. The main event: Dario Natale of the spot-on blog Stil in Berlin is curating the big local-label-centric Wedding Remixed catwalk show. Who needs sleep anyway?