“We have developed a fantastic sense of community and are involving creative people from many different disciplines, from music and art, to sustainability and technology,” Muehlhans enthused.
Others were worried about a potential lack of commercial interest. The city’s statistics suggest that the trade fairs helped Berlin Fashion Week bring about 70,000 visitors and 240 million euros worth of business to the capital annually. Then, in January of this year, another shock: Premium Group announced it was moving back to Berlin. The fairs won’t be part of this Berlin Fashion Week. Their next iteration will take place between July 7 and 9. Those dates in Berlin directly compete with July’s Frankfurt Fashion Week, already scheduled for July 4 through 8.“We heard that a lot of the brands didn’t want to show in Frankfurt straight away,” a source at a major online retailer told WWD off the record.
Tillmann said she was still on good terms with the organizers at Messe Frankfurt too, despite Premium Group’s unexpected departure. She explained the move as simply a matter of timing, the result of the evolution of international trade fairs and the COVID-19 pandemic, which basically shut in-person events down for two years.
Although the local industry is awash with suggestions that this summer’s Frankfurt Fashion Week will be canceled after the Premium trade fairs’ departure, Schmidt insisted it will be happening. It is also to include the sustainable fashion trade fair, Neonyt, which had become increasingly important in Berlin over the last few seasons.But of course, this leaves Germany with three major fashion events, something that could well cause uncertainty and potentially even damage local business.
Discussions on reincorporating the more arty Berlin Fashion Week events with Premium Group’s trade fairs are planned. All the Berlin Fashion Week organizers and participants WWD spoke with welcomed the return of the trade fairs and said they could imagine everyone working together again.