Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week S/S2018
Dawid Tomaszewski Spring/Summer 2018
To start with the best: I had the pleasure of shooting the new Dawid Tomaszewski collection exclusively for the label at the spring/summer 2018 fashion week in Berlin. It was the most lovely show – the models were slowly strolling on an elongated balcony, which offered a beautiful view over the city of Berlin. All buildings seemed to be white, as well as the handrails, except for the cathedral which created a romantic atmosphere. The clouds were dramatic in their shapes, but still white and peaceful and they created a great light.
Apposite to all this were the looks of the collection. I’d say the fabrics and styles were definitely inspired by baroque times, containing elements like precious prints and embroideries. The shoes where very special too: le Roi Soleil would have loved them for sure! The models were made-up with a gentle rose tone on their cheeks and temples and each wore a loose ponytail. They had beautifully decorated nipples because many of the looks were very décolleté or loose styles. Other ones where suit-like, Greek-like, etc. All in all, it was a very special collection.
The show lasted about 30 minutes and that was just about the time I had for shooting the looks. I could have the girls just for me at the end of their stroll (other than the press photographers) and take pictures from different perspectives. Later you could find the pictures all over the internet, like here on style/ranking.
Antonia Goy Spring/Summer 2018
Apart from this the other shows where quite interesting too. You could recognise an upcoming discontinuity to classical runway shows at many designers’ implementation. E.g. Antonia Goy’s models where gender fluent and walking in loops until they finally danced and interacted with the audience and the other models. It looked like fun and it felt like that too, because you could see everyone leaving the place beaming with joy.
Nathini van der Meer Spring/Summer 2018
Another concept was presented by Nathini van der Meer: the looks where exhibited as paintings, but no one quite knew if there would be any runway-like show too. Some people were sitting down, but others seemed to just go and look at the paintings as if they knew that this was all. It was a confusing situation until suddenly live music started and the models from the paintings came in with the styles they where wearing on the images. They walked around very fast, then lined up for a while and disappeared behind the scenes again. Maybe some guests weren’t ready for such a show, but I think it’s cool to mix fashion, art, and unusual performances. It makes us remember how much effort it takes to create things.
Marcel Ostertag Spring/Summer 2018
I really love Marcel’s collections and I’m happy for his international success. I think the selection of fabrics is always great and I love the subtle interpretation of themes. There’s always a video clip before the show giving insights into the campaign. So for the spring/summer season 2018 it was all about hippie styles and fly prints. Yes, flies. Unfortunately, the seats weren’t well located. The models had to walk serpentines between the rows and it wasn’t only too narrow, but they were also very quick, which made it hard to take good pictures. But you can still see the style of the collection.
After the Shows
Additional to the shows there where so many parties going on because of fashion week. I went to the Izaio & Peppermint party which had been organised by my agency and a well-known model agency from Berlin. I loved the goodie bag! It had much more inside than the bags have at the shows today. The other party I went to was the Marcel Ostertag after-show party, where I met some friends and a lot of new models. It took place in the Kitty Cheng Bar, which was extremely full that night, but also fun, especially when in the end everyone was dancing and going crazy.
Noetia Ammarell Open Forum
At the end of the week, I attended an open forum together with a friend who is a fashion design student. It was a discussion between Björn Lüdtke (editor-in-chief of how fashion ticks, fashion journalist & consultant), Julia Zirpel (fashion director at Condé Nast Verlag GmbH), Jan Schoper (international strategy & partner at Nightingale Agency) and Thoas Lindner (fashion designer, poet, sculptor & founder of The Tribe). They talked about the current Zeitgeist of fashion and especially about sustainability. In fact, they drifted off to the topic very much. It was quite interesting to hear them talk about green fashion as THE trend nowadays. I really hope they are right with that, but I think that it will take another ten or twenty years for a perfectly sustainable fashion world. I also have to say that the discussion was a bit superficial and my friend agreed: there would have been many more aspects to the zeitgeist topic… Anyways, it was a good experience too.
Epilogue
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