The Prêt-à-Porter welcomes Bloggers

It was only a few posts ago when I talked about Premium Berlin hosting a blogger pannel (here & here). Prêt-à-Porter Paris, the "Mecca" of fashion exhibitions, made a statement about the vital role of fashion bloggers too. The organizers see the web as a "window to the show and trends of autumn-winter 2010-2011" and thus contacted three "distinctively talented leading bloggers" to actively cover the event by doing what they do best:
Nast, a photographer, as The Eye of PAPP.

The Cherry Blossom Girl, a fanatic for looks, as The Look Tracker at PAPP.

Éléonore Bridge, a pro of reporting, as The Grand Reporter for the PAPP.

During the exhibition dates, they reported both on their blogs and the official site of PAPP, using images, interviews and clips.
A very, VERY interesting move.

Familiar at Prêt-à-Porter

It's always nice to come across familiar names and shapes at a foreign exhibition. Last season it was a brand I noticed whilst strolling the isles of the salon. This season, whether visiting the accessories section or not, there's no way one could have missed Koukos.

Being mentioned in two different sections of the press release special mag edition, the brand of Greek accessories designer Georgia Koukos was surely a favourite. In the "trends to capture" section, a photo of her delicate string necklaces is featured amongst others right next to "jewellery with fabric" forecast whereas there is also a reference to her work later in those pages, sharing that "for thirty years, Greek designer Koukos has found the art to carry us away".

Island stores, Plaka and other contemporary jewellery points may have been taken by storm over the recent years by this style. Most Greek girls already have something similar around their neck. However it's France based Koukos that's bringing it to the world, and the world loves it.

Prêt-à-Porter, the trends bag by Lovisa Burfitt

This season's Prêt-à-Porter salon was themed "Les Parisiennes 2.0" and it's creative direction was trusted in the hands of Philippe Blondez. He explains what he went for in this video.

Blondez chose to involve Lovisa Burfitt yet for another season, and this time it was much more than illustrating a smart car. The Swedish illustrator who lives in France, unleashed her amazing design skills across the exhibition space, illustrated the cover of the PAPP press release and went on to creating the lovely print for the Prêt-à-Porter "trends bag". (see last season's trends bag here). In case you haven't already done so, go a few lines up and click on her name. You are gonna love her portfolio of colourful illustrations and girly style.

The limited edition "trends bag" was manufactured once again by Kolam, a young brand strongly focused on eco-fashion. Thumbs up.

The colourful entrance of Prêt-à-Porter, Paris

This must be one of the most colourful "welcomes" the Porte de Versailles has ever prepared for us...

Getting personal with your clothes

Which one would you say is the moment that you get most familiar with what you wear? Is it when you buy them? Is it when you wear them? Is it when you handwash them with care? None of the above.

After recent ironing marathon I performed in an effort to beat the stash of crinkled laundry in my room, it hit me: IT'S WHEN YOU IRON THEM. Not only you go through every inch of their existence, get familiar with their fabric (gotta adjust the temperature, if you love them), understand and care for each naughty seam, you inevitably pay attention to the labels too.

Whilst ironing for the first time my favourite tank top by American Apparel, a top I have worn so many times, I was met by a revelation: it's Sebastien Tellier* for American Apparel. How could I have missed that?

For me, it's official: the moment you get most familiar with your clothes, is the moment you personally iron them.

*And since we brought up Tellier, let's pay homage to his 2008 participation in the Eurovision Contest, a move that had everyone talking about bringing cool back to the luke-warm-and-to-some-indifferent music fest. (In the end, it didn't bring cool back scoring just 42 points for France. Was worth a try (?))

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.

Smack - the winners

The Smackers giveaway is now closed and all randomly selected winners have been notified via email. If you participated, please check your inbox (maybe spam folders too!). I have stopped announcing names by posting since quite a few participants do not wish to be named in public. Big *smack* and thanks to all, a new giveaway will soon be on it's way!

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

G-star Raw at Bread and Butter

Fashion-wise we may still be in the heart of A/W 09, but G-star Raw is so ready for A/W 10. Bread and Butter visitors had a taste of what's it gonna be for next season and so can you, right below.

It looks like grey will stick around a bit longer. It's no more aubergine, lilac and electric shades of blue though. According to G-star Raw, green and bright block yellow will be the new... seasoning of the season.

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!”