Premium Berlin - Now Showroom among exhibitors

Premium Tradeshow is also currently at large as part of the ongoing Berlin Fashion Week (18-20/01/2012). If visiting, drop by Hall 7N, booth H7, C49. It's the Greek mission by Now Showroom featuring Sotiris Georgiou's upcoming collection and limited edition tees by Digitaria. Worth checking out.
Booth snapshot stolen from here.
Sotiris Georgiou
Digitaria

4FashionShake II - Schmidttakahashi

Berlin based duo Schmidt/Takahashi presented their latest project 'Reanimation' which I'm sure you'll find damn interesting. Their collection is made out of previously used textiles, based on the idea of recycling.

And it gets better: since the whole point is that garments are affected by their former users, S/T enable us to access information on their history through a restored RFID chip and via a special reader. Dig this: this way, the user can access all data regarding the former life of any garment, giving all materials a unique identity.

Gives a whole new meaning to 'I remember wearing this the day we met', doesn't it?
In their own words:
“It’s a curious and fascinating experience to slip into the external “skin” of another person. Even if the clothes are mass produced for an unknown number of consumers, each piece is affected by the individual as soon as it ends up in a the hands of that particular person. It is no longer an anonymous object. It stores aesthetic information unique to it’s owner including things like body shape, smell, posture, attitude and lifestyle. (...)“Reanimation / Wiederbelebungsmassnahmen”. [source]

Interesting presentation at the event too, with a robotic voice narration of pattern codes and fabric details substituting music. I had to show you:
(Minute 01:29)

All photos in this post by photographer/dj Ino Mei.

Starstyling fashion pots

Confused about what you're seeing?
In days when cool boutiques are meant to look like a boudoir or the most minimal of spaces, Berlin brand "Starstyling" went for a garden. During her recent trip to the German capitol, accessories designer Katerina Georgoudaki (aka Sugar Line Productions) visited the store and felt it was worth sharing. Well so do I.

You can't help but notice that what's growing out of these pots is strictly green. Maybe that's because among them it's carefully stashed clothes popping like blossoms in vibrant Spring hues.

"Mocking fashion's strict aesthetics, it emphasizes it's volatility instead, resulting in a colourful signature of revolt and play. Serious? Never. Fun? Always!" is how it's put in the brand's profile. Starstyling is Katja Schlegel and Kai Seifried.

No worries if you are not visiting Berlin any time soon, there is a "webshop" : future-retro sunvisors, cotton t-shirts and dresses with statement prints, lots of fringed goodness - sadly, no plants. You can also watch the s/s 10 show at Berlin Fashion Week, here.
So avant-garde(n).
*Special thanks to Katerina Georgoudaki for the in-store photos.
**All other images belong to Starstyling.

Premium Berlin A/W 2010 - the aftermath

Premium, part of Berlin Fashion Week, has released the official visitors stats for it's A/W 2010 exhibition. We've been looking forward to that. You see we can no longer count on Bread and Butter for this piece of info since last season's announcement that it won't be mentioning such data from now on, a symbolic move to show it's all about quality, not quantity.

Anita Tillmann, Managing Director of Premium Exhibtions summarized this season's performance: "We’re more than satisfied. We started with 70 designers 15 seasons ago in January 2003. We now have well over 900 collections from the Premium segment, which we present in our location STATION-Berlin. The resilience and hard work in establishing Berlin as a fashion city have paid off and we have always remained true to our concept of putting quality before quantity.PREMIUM F/W 2010/11 was the most successful event to date with 41,807 international visits".

On Premium's Symposium 'Fashion Blogs - Hype or Future?' she commented: "The symposium was packed – it was a really hot draw".

Next Premium dates: Spring/Summer 2011, July 7 – 9, 2010.

Good stuff Berlin.

Next Bread and Butter: July 7th-9th

Before pulling the plug of yet another successful Bread and Butter, the organisers announced the dates of the next one, already scheduled for July 7th-9th 2010. The theme is selected and applied: Premier League - Best brands, Best buyers, Best business.

“The thought behind the campaign is obvious. First of all, only the best of their trade can participate at BREAD & BUTTER, and secondly, the football World Cup will take place in South Africa concurrently with the BREAD & BUTTER.

On the eve of BREAD & BUTTER as well as on the evening of the first day of the tradeshow, there will be a semi final each. We will build a huge stadium on the airfield and celebrate a big football event. So book your flights and hotels and be part of it! The ticket sale will start shortly.” - Karl-Heinz Mueller, BBB Director.

I've got a feeling we'll be seeing more boys than usual in Tempelhof this July:)

Diesel at Bread and Butter

Diesel showed it hearts grey too at it's a/w 10 preview in last Bread and Butter. Even though grey is THE colour, do not forget, well, COLOUR! Hues of red and chakis are the slicers of choice in what looks like an ash dominated winter.

Glasses with rounder ends, booties and oversized bags are on too, the first being quite a promising successor to the popular Ray-Ban style classics that took the market by storm in the recent past. And yet again, Diesel reminded everyone it's strong ties to music

Blogger panel @ Premium, the clip

On Fashionblogs from Mary Scherpe on Vimeo.

Since the announcement of a bloggers' panel talk at Premium exhibition in Berlin, I've been looking forward to a report of what finally went on. The name of Suzy Menkes amongst other important speakers had me all excited about this. I thought it would be really interesting to see what a print fashion journalism representative of her status has to say on blogs and their place in fashion today. Coming across this clip at IFB was as close as I got, but it's worth watching.

Bread and Butter, and the music

And again, music was there to celebrate fashion.

The evening's musical highlight was the live performance by the local seven-man country band The BossHoss which with further seven orchestra members played with a full line-up. The currently most sought-after hillbillies of the music scene fired up the crowd with their trash-country-punk-rock songs. In the past, top acts such as Mando Diao, The Hives and many others have played live at BREAD & BUTTER. (release)

It was Bread and Butter again

Another Bread and Butter exhibition has just come to an end. Here's what went on in freezing Berlin:


“Since the return of BREAD & BUTTER in summer 2009,” says Klaus Wowereit, Governing Mayor of Berlin, “the city has taken a great step towards reaching its goal of being a fashion metropolis! The international fashion audience is not just here to look at this city – it is here to stay! Berlin without BREAD & BUTTER has come to be almost unimaginable!”

Blogger panel @ Premium, Berlin

I've received this notice and I'm kicking myself I didn't book that ticket to Berlin this season. I know (frozen) Berlin is reading so chuck on something warm and go attend this on my behalf:

PREMIUM SYMPOSIUM Fall/Winter 2010/11
BLOGGER PANEL: FASHION BLOGS – HYPE OR FUTURE?

Suzy Menkes: “The world changed, when fashion instead of being a monologue, became aconversation. And that's never going to stop.“

For the seventh time running, the PREMIUM SYMPOSIUM is inviting luminaries from the international fashion industry to talk about themes and trends that are important to the business.

The panel will be moderated by Mary Scherpe (blogs: “Stil in Berlin”, “Quite Contrary”) who will lead a discussion on the significance of fashion blogs and their future, fashion reporting in print and online media, and the actual communication between media and users.

Guests:
Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune (via Video)
Imran Amed, Business of Fashion
Markus Luft, Gala Germany
Christoph Amend, ZEITmagazin
Sven Schöne, K-MB Agency for Brand Communication GmbH
Annette Weber, InStyle Germany (tbc)

BLOGGER PANEL: FASHION BLOGS – HYPE OR FUTURE?
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2010
2 pm
PREMIUM AUDITORIUM
STATION-Berlin 1st floor
Luckenwalder Strasse 4 – 610963 Berlin

For accreditation - please send an email to: symposium@premiumexhibitions.com

.......................................................................

- Here's a glimpse of how Premium was for me last season.

Berlin Vintage

This is the dress I chose to wear at Katerina Alexandraki's boutique opening the other night (and was very well spotted by little spy Thalia in the previous post). It was no random choice. Katerina loves Berlin and this dress was bought at a Berlin vintage store during my trip to visit her there last summer. There was a sign at the door indicating a -20% off happy hour and what a happy girl I was, strolling up and down rails full of gems!

I ended up buying this '70s dress among other things, but no matter how much I treasured the colour and fit, I could see a downside to it: pointy, asymmetrical ends. I could cut them out I suppose, but didn't want to tamper with an original vintage piece. So I got creative with bows. Sharing 'cause I think this is quite a simple and effective diy trick to bring back to life clothes with similar finishes lying in ur closet, awaiting for a revival.

Tie ends together on each side. Pointy ends: gone! The shape changes immediately, looks quite interesting and is ready to go.

I took it one step further and slid my feet through the newly created holes. Was only experimenting, but the harem pants effect this gave to my dress turned out better than expected so I kept it. Mission accomplished.

*shoes: Bally vintage, bought in some London charity shop ages ago.

Hope you found this inspiring.
I am off to Paris again today but laptop and full gear is coming with me so I'll be in touch. Have a lovely weekend.

*Quick Reminder:
This designer vanity case giveaway is still at large;)