Reference Studios: Berlin Fashion Week strives to be better than London

Berlin Fashion Week is becoming increasingly international and is already being seen by some visitors as “the new London”. The Berlin PR agency Reference Studios, with its ‘Intervention’ show format, has played a key role in this, persuading well-known names such as Shayne Oliver with his Anonymous Club, GmbH and Lueder to showcase their collections in the German capital, rather than in Paris, Milan or London.

Agency founders Mumi Haiati and Tim Neugebauer, creative lead at Reference Studios, review the current edition of Fashion Week in this interview and give an outlook on their future plans.

What is your conclusion on Berlin Fashion Week?

Mumi Haiati: Intervention, but also Berlin Fashion Week as a whole, is taking shape. It has a stronger and clearer identity. We are on the right track. The feedback from the international press was also very positive. People are talking about a new London, and we were very pleased about that.

Tim Neugebauer: We even want to do it better than London – more sustainable – and above all create a hub for brand experiences. In addition to the designer runways, we would like to further develop and expand what we did with C.P. Company [an Installation and DIY workshop, ed.], the party with Ugg and all the other cases. There is definitely a lot of interest and there are a lot of brands knocking on our door already. Berlin, with all its great locations and so much history, simply offers the perfect playground for this.

Was there a show that particularly impressed you?

Tim Neugebauer: GmbH was mentioned a lot, but Anonymous Club was also mentioned at about the same frequency. Anonymous Club was already present last season, when Shayne Oliver showed in Berlin for the first time, and it was the first time for GmbH. That makes it a bit more special in terms of perception.

GmbH is based in Berlin and Shayne Oliver is also said to live in Berlin. Do the brands you select for Intervention need this connection?

Both: Yes, that's right. Shayne has been living in Berlin for two, two and a half years.

Mumi Haiati: A Berlin connection is important in some way, whether they are actually physically in Berlin or whether they simply refer to Berlin as a source of inspiration. Even at the first Intervention, we had Olly Shinder, who has a natural connection to Berlin through his husband Wolfgang Tillmans [German photographer, ed.].

Tim Neugebauer: He also refers aesthetically to a scene in Berlin.

Mumi Haiati: We are pleased to see that all these creatives - the designers, who take Berlin as a source of inspiration, draw on Berlin, but show elsewhere - are now gaining the confidence to show something in Berlin too – to recognise the potential.

Tim Neugebauer: We don't want to sell anyone on showing in Berlin, but to convince them that the environment really exists, that value creation is possible and that there is also meaning beyond visibility – a commercial benefit.

Mr Neugebauer, you mentioned the comparison with London at the beginning. What's that all about?

Tim Neugebauer: The comparison is very inspiring on the one hand. It's great that many people think that way. London has always managed to give young designers a high level of attention and then also initial commercial success.

Mumi Haiati: It was a springboard for many now big designers like Craig Green, J.W. Anderson and Martine Rose.

Tim Neugebauer: For many, the success was only initial and the visibility only up to a certain point. That's why we want to create a more sustainable version of it. The designers who show with us should get sustainable success and long-term visibility. But the first big step is that Berlin is seen as a kind of springboard. That's a big difference from previous editions, of course.

So can Berlin Fashion Week compete internationally?

Tim Neugebauer: It's a matter of curation. Berlin has so many elements that make the city so unique. No other city has such a wide range of aesthetics and values that meet in the city, coexist, and even fertilise each other, precisely because there is such a great cultural exchange in Berlin. If we continue to play this out consistently, the concept also has the potential to become sustainable.

What about the German fashion landscape as a whole? Is it internationally relevant?

Tim Neugebauer: Ottolinger immediately comes to mind. There are also German brands in New York or examples like Jil Sander, but overall visibility is quite low. When you think of the German fashion landscape, you quickly get a relatively bourgeois image – Karstadt, Peek & Cloppenburg, functional clothing. But there's so much that we might not even understand as German in the first place. And that's what Intervention is all about. It's not about an aesthetic, but about the breadth and different values that these designers and brands represent.

The discourse has also given us a certain narrow-mindedness, that we think in a cliché about what fashion design actually is in Germany. It doesn't matter how it's perceived here, but rather how it's perceived everywhere else. People in Japan have a completely different image of ‘Made in Germany’ than in Germany. It has always been a breeding ground for design.

Your ‘New Wave’ showroom is also a breeding ground for new talent. How do you discover them?

Mumi Haiati: That's a real interest. It's the reason why I do this job at all and it's a big concern for me to see what's happening, who's really doing something exciting and groundbreaking. Of course, we also have limited capacity to support young designers, but we do a lot. We've built up some Emerging Designers from the beginning who are now going through the roof, like No Faith Studios or Magliano.

What's next for Intervention and the former Reference Festival concept? Is something completely different coming?

Mumi Haiati: Intervention will definitely be there in February. We can't say too much yet, but it will definitely be a wider spectrum with very promising names – commercial, iconic and progressive independent labels. And our Reference Festival will probably be held abroad.

There is definitely interest in Intervention. The brands and other representatives are also happy because they have the opportunity to activate and reach the city, because the right people are also coming. There were also great guests this time. Mark Holgate and Stavros Karelis from Machine-A were there, but also Ye [stage name for US rapper Kanye West, ed.] at the Anonymous Club show.

Tim Neugebauer: Then there's Stefano Pilati. So really people who come from our close or extended network and come from all creative sectors besides fashion. They come together at our events.

But the agency is also constantly evolving. Last year you opened a new showroom in Milan. What are the next steps?

Tim Neugebauer: We will be opening our Paris headquarters in September, but we can't say more yet.

This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.DE. Translation via AI and edit by Rachel Douglass.