Berlin Fashion Week 2021 | All you should know

The 2020’s are destined to become the decade of glocal changemaking — this was clear long before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted most of our global human activities. Now the need to transform outdated systems could meet a historic opportunity to combine recovery from the disturbing pandemic with all the benefits of sustainable development. It is the last time Berlin Fashion Week takes place with Premium Exhibitions and the global hub for fashion, sustainability and innovation Neonyt – both events will be moving to Frankfurt by July of next year to be celebrated under the umbrella of Frankfurt Fashion Week­­–. Due to Covid-19, Premium Exhibitions decided to cancel this edition and Neonyt went digital.

MOVING INTO AN HYBRID FORMAT

Funded by the state of Berlin with 3.5 million euros, the Fashion Week will launch from January 18 to 24, 2021 as a hybrid event with digital events and face-to-face events with a highly limited number of participants. Fashion lovers can look forward to shows, conferences and presentations online. Urban streetwear, plus size and eco fashion shows are only some of the focal points of Berlin Fashion Week. While some of the shows and events are open to the public, others are accessible for buyers and retailers only.

THE PROGRAM

Berlin Fashion Week, the catwalk, includes German and international fashion designers as well as premium fashion brands and internationally recognized up-and-coming talent. The program will once again include runway shows, but also recurring programs such as Der Berliner Salon as well as new crossover formats such as the Reference Festival and the digital experiment 'Berlin, Berlin,'.

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week will take place primarily digitally from January 18 to 20 – with live streams of catwalk shows as well as live digital talks with designers and experts, virtual reality elements and live online tours. Among the designers announced we find Tom Van Der Borght, Michael Sontag, Danny Reinke, Kilian Kerner and Rebekka Ruétz. This year's Hyères Festival finalists will also be given a stage and featured in a presentation.

Der Berliner Salon celebrates its comeback on 18 January and once again bundles in the framework of its group exhibition about 35 German designers from the fields of fashion, accessories and jewelry. There we can find some sustainable luxury Designers, such as Antonia Zander, Mykita, Odeeh, PB0110 and Working Title.

The new format Fashion Open Studio X MBFW on January 19 & 20, 2021 will allow fashion labels to present themselves within MBFW in the form of showcases and a group exhibition. Conceived as a global initiative by Fashion Revolution, Fashion Open Studio is curated by the Fashion Open Studio team in collaboration with Fashion Revolution Germany. Fashion Open Studio is to offer mentoring sessions for five selected Berlin-based fashion labels, open studio talks as well as virtual studio visits in Berlin. 

202030 - The Berlin Fashion Summit launch its first edition to connect and find solutions for the needs of diverse fashion industries, consumer cultures, innovation-driven sustainability, and the tech movement. The event aims to bridge existing innovations with the industry and envision concrete tangible connections and solutions for a more sustainable future of fashion. All the events will take place online.

In addition, the Fashion Council Germany will present its study on the importance, relevance and size of the German fashion industry, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, in a hybrid event during Berlin Fashion Week. Together with the economic institute Oxford Economics, the contents of the study will be presented to a professional audience via digital video conference and a few presence participants. This is a first-time survey, which is intended to depict the German fashion industry as a cross-sectional industry with all sub-sectors and in its full value creation.