Berlin Fashion Week is becoming increasingly international and is already seen by some visitors as “the new London”. Berlin PR agency Reference Studios has played an important role in this with its show format ‘Intervention’ and convinced big names such as Shayne Oliver with his Anonymous Club, GmbH and Lueder to show their collections in the German capital instead of in Paris, Milan or London.
In this interview, founders of the agency Mumi Haiati and Tim Neugebauer, creative lead at Reference Studios, look back on the past edition of Fashion Week and give a preview of their future plans.
What is your conclusion about Berlin Fashion Week?
Mumi Haiati: Intervention, but also Berlin Fashion Week as a whole, is starting to take shape. It has a stronger and clearer identity. We are on the right track. The feedback from the international press was also very positive. People are talking about a new London, we were very happy about that.
Tim Neugebauer: We want to do even better than London – more sustainable – and above all create a hub for brand experiences. In addition to the designer runways, we want what we have with CP Company [een installatie en DIY-workshop, red.]the party with Ugg and all those other cases, further develop and expand. The interest is definitely there and many brands are already knocking on our door. Berlin, with all its great locations and so much history, simply offers the perfect playground for that.
Was there a show that stood out to you in particular?
Tim Neugebauer: GmbH was mentioned a lot, but Anonymous Club was mentioned about as often. Anonymous Club was there last season, when Shayne Oliver showed in Berlin for the first time, and for GmbH it was the first time. That makes it a bit more special in terms of perception.
GmbH is based in Berlin and Shayne Oliver also seems to live in Berlin. Do the brands you select for Intervention need this connection?
Both: Yeah, that’s right. Shayne has been living in Berlin for two, two and a half years.
Mumi Haiati: A Berlin connection is important in some way, whether they are physically in Berlin or whether they simply refer to Berlin as an inspiration. Even in the first Intervention we had Olly Shinder, who through his husband Wolfgang Tillmans [Duitse fotograaf, red.] has a natural connection with Berlin.
Tim Neugebauer: He also refers aesthetically to a scene in Berlin.
Mumi Haiati: We are happy to see that all these creatives – the designers who take Berlin as their inspiration, draw from Berlin, but show elsewhere – are now gaining the confidence to show something in Berlin as well – to recognise the potential.
Tim Neugebauer: We don’t want to sell anyone on showing in Berlin, but convince them that the environment really exists, that value creation is possible and that there is also meaning beyond visibility – a commercial advantage.
Mr Neugebauer, you mentioned the comparison with London at the beginning. What is it about?
Tim Neugebauer: The comparison is very inspiring on the one hand. It is great that many people think this way. London has always managed to give young designers a high level of attention and then also first commercial successes.
Mumi Haiati: It was a springboard for many now great designers such as Craig Green, JW Anderson and Martine Rose.
Tim Neugebauer: For many, success was only initial and visibility only to a certain extent. That is why we want to make it a more sustainable version. The designers who show with us must achieve sustainable success and long-term visibility. But the first big step is that Berlin is seen as a kind of springboard. That is of course a big difference from previous editions.
Can Berlin Fashion Week compete internationally?
Tim Neugebauer: It’s a matter of curation. Berlin has so many elements that make it so unique. No other city has such a wide range of aesthetics and values that come together in the city, coexist, and even fertilize each other, precisely because there is such a great cultural exchange in Berlin. If we continue to play this out consistently, the concept also has the potential to become sustainable.
What about the German fashion landscape as a whole? Is that internationally relevant?
Tim Neugebauer: Ottolinger immediately comes to mind. There are also German brands in New York or examples like Jil Sander, but in general the visibility is quite low. When you think of the German fashion landscape, you quickly get a relatively bourgeois image – Karstadt, Peek & Cloppenburg, functional clothing. But there is so much that we might not even understand as German at first. And that is what Intervention is about. It is not about an aesthetic, but about the breadth and the different values that these designers and brands represent.
The discourse has also given us a certain narrow-mindedness, that we think clichéd about what fashion design in Germany actually is. It doesn’t matter how it is perceived here, but how it is perceived everywhere else. People in Japan have a completely different image of ‘Made in Germany’ than in Germany. It has always been a breeding ground for design.
Your showroom ‘New Wave’ is also a breeding ground for new talent. How do you discover them?
Mumi Haiati: That’s a real interest. It’s the reason I do this work in the first place and it’s a big concern of mine to see what’s happening, who’s doing something really exciting and groundbreaking. Of course, we also have a limited capacity to support young designers, but we do a lot. We’ve built up a number of Emerging Designers from the beginning that are now going through the roof, like No Faith Studios or Magliano.
What will happen next with Intervention and the former concept Reference Festival? Will something completely different happen?
Mumi Haiati: Intervention will definitely be there in February. We can’t say too much yet, but it will definitely be a broader spectrum with promising names – commercial, iconic and progressive independent labels. And our Reference Festival will probably be abroad.
The interest in Intervention is definitely there. The brands and other representatives are also happy, because they get the chance to activate and reach the city, because the right people are coming. There were also great guests this time. Mark Holgate and Stavros Karelis from Machine-A were there, but also Ye [artiestennaam voor de Amerikaanse rapper Kanye West, red.] at the Anonymous Club show.
Tim Neugebauer: And then there is Stefano Pilati. So really people who come from our immediate or wider network and besides fashion come from all creative sectors. They come together at our events.
But the agency is also constantly evolving. Last year you opened a new showroom in Milan. What are the next steps?
Tim Neugebauer: We will open our headquarters in Paris in September, but we can’t say more yet.
This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.DE. Translation via AI and editing by Caitlyn Terra.
