One of the best trips that I ever went on as a Student was to Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin, then when I eventually got a job in the fashion industry, I was a regular at London Fashion Week. After a bit, I got sick of the fashion industry for many reasons – its environmental damage, classism, nepotism, glass ceiling, bullying bitch culture… Need I go on?! So, I chuffed off to do other things, and these days, I don’t even know how I feel about fashion weeks happening at all!! Don’t get me wrong, I still love clothes, and supporting emerging Designers, but there’s no denying that the industry needs a massive overhaul, so I’m all for initiatives that look at making it a better industry both socially and environmentally.
Fashion Open Studio
New and emerging talent create change, and Fashion Open Studio (Fashion Revolution’s showcasing initiative) gives Designers an alternative way to present themselves and their collections via interactive workshops and by opening their studios to the public. For Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin, Five Berlin-based designers (Anekdot, Emeka, Buki Akomolafe, Church of the Hand, and Karen Jessen) were selected to host a series of digital workshops, studio tours and demonstrations, accessed via @fashionopenstudio’s Instagram and at www.mbfw.berlin.
So far this week, I’ve been nose deep in the FOS x MBFWB online events below. All aimed at reconsidering the role of the fashion industry, and it’s given me a bucket-load of food for thought.
Why Berlin?
Berlin is a fashion city with an established reputation for sustainable innovation and creativity, so it’s an ideal place to give visibility to a different way to showcase. Berlin may well just be one of the epicentres of a massive shift that the entire fashion industry is clamouring for. Time for me to also say yet again, I chuffin love Berlin! Many moons ago, I did my MSC dissertation on ‘Berlin as a Future Fashion Capital’… Maybe I’m a little bit of a psychic!!
Fancy a blob of sustainable inspo, love? You can find a bunch of informative vlogs and interviews over on FashionRevolutionGlobal’s YouTube channel here.
