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German model Julia Stegner, the face of the 5th Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week (press conference on 29th June at Berlin’s Bebelplatz)

(© Brauerphotos fuer Mercedes-Benz)

Successfully continuing its long-standing tradition as Germany’s fashion hub, Berlin is once again hosting a midsummer event considered a must for the international world of models, fashion designers and fashionistas.

In the first week of July, the fashion trade show BREAD & BUTTER returned home to Berlin after being held for the last four years in Barcelona – four years in which the number of visitors grew to nearly 100,000 at the last count, making it the world’s largest textile and apparel show. This year’s event at Berlin’s historic Tempelhof Airport evidently had no trouble continuing this success story; the approximately 430,000 square feet of exhibition space were fully booked. On the first day alone, some 25,000 visitors from all over the world flocked to the former airport site. BREAD & BUTTER is Europe’s strongest and most important fashion trade show in the street-and-urban-wear sector. It targets a trade audience that, to judge by the list of exhibitors in Berlin, should soon be ordering the latest trends by international manufacturers such as Levi's, Onitsuka Tiger, Bench, Woolrich, Ben Sherman and Birkenstock. The show attracted around 550 exhibitors, who appear to have come through the global economic crisis unscathed.

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(© picture-alliance/ dpa)

Parallel to this show, the 5th Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week was held on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the center of Berlin. Since its beginnings in 2007, the Fashion Week has also become an internationally acclaimed first-rate runway show mainly featuring the work of young designers.

From the start, the show has benefited from the creativity and innovativeness of Germany’s capital, offering lasting support to young talent in this sector. Some 30 labels presented their collections, including Anja Gockel, BOSS Orange, Escada Vintage, as well as award-winning newcomers such as the Black Coffee label from South Africa or Pablo Ramírez from Argentina.

A host of other events and fixtures, such as the well-established Premium show at the Postgüterbahnhof, and smaller events were vying for attention alongside these two major fashion shows, turning the entire city into a catwalk for a whole week. As an international fashion show venue, Berlin is today almost as attractive as it was in its heyday: there are some  5,000 young people studying fashion and fashion-related subjects here, and the 6,700 or so fashion design companies have become an important economic factor in Germany’s new capital.

Another event that is taking advantage of the city’s creative flair is “createurope”, the Europe-wide competition for young fashion designers that is being supported by the Goethe-Institut and will be attracting this year’s prize winners to Berlin with working stays lasting several months. The winners, then, will be able to mingle personally with the glamorous trade attendees at the next BREAD & BUTTER show from 20 to 22 January 2010.