Saturday

berlin fashion week: the last day

by the time the final day of fashion week had arrived my brain was fried for pretty much most of the time. i was tired of picking up my heavy camera and therefore quite happy to just stick to my SONY XPERIA Z smartphone for taking snapshots of the day unfolding.


photography was still possible here and there, but meaningful conversation? not so much. try to picture a chat between well-dressed zombies, that is essentially the type of banter you get on the last day: "shit, my head hurts." - "man, i'm so tired." - "oh god." - "oh god." something like that. amazingly, true fashion people still manage to pull it together for the testimonial photograph like the lovely ladies of blonde magazine.


freshfaced like on day 1.

for a little less conversation and a little more fashion action i went to the istanbul next show, where 3 up and coming labels from turkey showed some quite lovely collections. istanbul next is a project supported by the turkish ministery of culture and tourism to help expose young turkish designers to an international audience.


after a well-deserved shopping break on friedrichstraße my next rendez-vous was backstage at the miranda konstantinidou show where models were made to look like real-life sailormoon dolls with gelled-back hair and big heavy braids.



konstantinidou's fashion is always amongst the most colorful at fashion week and accordingly the spirit backstage was casual and fun. how could it not be when every other person looks like a giant japanese doll? for pictures of the show click here.


after konstantinidou (try saying that 3 times fast) i stuck around for the first big runway show of my friends moga e mago, a designer duo from berlin who specializes in avant-garde accessories and intricate designs. instead of goodie bags, guests found a torch on their seat - they were to literally be the stars of the spectacle. as models hovered along the runway in slow-motion giving awkward stares into the audience, the torch lights completed the night sky athmosphere, making the last show of this berlin fashion week a particular highlight.


there is no better way to celebrate the end of fashion week than to do it over a chilled-out dinner with other fashion friends and so a few of us had a bite before heading out to the müller PR after party at le chat gris, decidedly the best option for that last friday night. blogger darling vladimir karaleev himself was spinning fine rnb and hip hop while the champagne kept flowing and the whole event turned into one big street party. apologies for having forgotten to photograph the festivities but here`s a photo of soren of thelocals.dk and anna (and their friend golli) who recently launched the amazing travel blog 12hrs.net - check it out!

that's it from me and fashion week. next up: berlin summer. xoxo


*made with my SONY

Friday

berlin fashion week: miggy


one of berlin's cutest blogger imports! miggy from miggylikestheinternet

berlin fashion week: floral


berlin fashion week: model watch backstage at laurèl

yesterday i had the opportunity to hang out backstage during the preparations for the laurèl show. there is something strangely soothing about being surrounded by busy people when you're the only one who can relax because all she has to do is to occasionally pick up her SONY XPERIA Z smartphone and snap the madness unfold.


ok, maybe that's not entirely what happened but it felt that way. the best part of being backstage at laurel weren't the clothes as much as modelspotting. not every show at berlin fashion week has a great casting but this one was refined to the teeth with some of the best german models and a few great international ones too.



the one who stood out to me was sula starridou, who really is incredibly beautiful. not surprisingly that she came out first and modeled a total of 4 looks (while other girls only had 2 or 3). i had not heard of her before but her 58000 facebook fans suggest that i am simply behind on this one.


also running were german supermodel kathrin thormann and lovelyn, the recent winner of germany's next topmodel. with so many well-known models, naturally there were a ton of camera teams, photographers and journalists adding to the buzz.



also in the show was model rebecca mir, a former runner up of germany's next topmodel, who was just about to pull down her pants when i wanted to take a snap of her. oops! she handled it well though - how cute is this photo?


90 minutes after the craze began it was already all over again. no shoe broke, no model tripped, applause, tension relieved, everyone happy.


xoxo the smartphone paparazzi

*made with my SONY

berlin fashion week: "holy me" by augustin teboul

i think that ultimate benefit of anything artistic, be it a painting, a song or fashion, is to inspire others. there is value in being "nice to look at" but in order to be outstanding it takes a bit more.

presentation matters.


as every year the queens of presentation, when it comes to showing their latest collection, are anneli augustin and odély teboul of the label augustin teboul. each season they come up with a new exiting concept, impressing onlookers, imposing feelings, thoughts, ideas.


their spring/summer 2014 is called "holy me" and was largely inspired by christianity, and remained in line with the label's color of choice. except that in the world of augustin teboul black has many shades which come out through the use of all sorts of materials like leather, silk, wool and beads. 24 models stood lined up in an empty former supermarket, each one separated by white linen, walking up and down in slow motion. the whole thing was accompanied by music that didn't alwas seem to make sense. i mean that in a good way.


i'm not one to photograph each show i go to but in this case i like to make an exception. enjoy.


 

for more info on augustin teboul, head over to their website

Thursday

berlin fashion week: the bulk of it


berlin fashion week: sophie


berlin fashion week day 2: with my feet in the air

compared to the first day of fashion week, day 2 usually feels like a walk in the park after being hit by a car. the birds sing, the sun shines but you are limping through the trees. ok, i am clearly exaggerating it a bit here but while the madness usually finds its climax on its first day (for me anyway), the remaining days are spent in varying degrees of zombie mode, largely depending on the amount of sleep i got the previous night.


nevertheless i had a fantastic day 2, this time i put my SONY EXPERIA Z smartphone to the test and snapped a bunch of snaps from the various stages of my day.

one of the highlights of any berlin fashion week is always the show by franco-german designer duo augustin teboul (check out my post on them for last summer here) where the city's cool kids meet to marvel at the ever so creative ways these two ladies turn black cloth, leather, beads and chiffon into almost magical pieces of clothing. never short of amazing is the installation they create around it.


fashion week is great for fashion but personally my favorite part is the socializing, a time when i get to catch up with all my fashion friends whom i never usually have time to meet or who come in from cities like hamburg or munich where they normally live. berlin fashion week is great about providing attendants with free drinks wherever you go (you could start downing free prosecco at 9 am if you wanted to) lending a nice excuse to hanging out for a bit to smell the roses.


the next show we saw, that i look forward to each year, is the designer for tomorrow award by peek&cloppenburg where a star designer chooses 5 talented young designers to come and show their collection in a runway show before one of them is pronounced the winner. in the past marc jacobs was the patron designer to pick the 5 up and coming talents, this year stella mccartney had the honors. i will say that i found the choices a bit on the boring side (marc jacobs usually picked wildly creative and daring designers, always ensuring an entertaining runway show) and while i appreciate stella as a designer, i think she could have covered a broader range of talent.


the jury consisting of fashion professionals like german vogue editor christiane arp and blogger hanneli mustaparta eventually picked ioana ciolacu miron from rumania as the winner. for more info about the different contestant click here

check out the photo below to see if you can recognise the famous heads in the front row.



after more socialising and a lot more prosecco we eventually ended the evening at the bright opening party at casino 36 in kreuzberg. for those unfamiliar with the bright tradeshow - it's the go-to place for all things urban and hip hop fashion and usually a nice and laid-back break from the "real" fashion circus happening in and around the tent. definitely the best place to be hooked up with fun music to dance to.



and that was the end of day 2. what today will bring, you will know by tomorrow. xoxo
 
*made with my Sony