It’s that time of Berlin Fashion Week again, but this time instead of focussing on the main venue, I thought I’d tell you guys a tale of another venue; Lavera Showfloor. We were set to provide the garment care for this eco friendly show, with a focus on sustainability and green fashion. Fashion with a conscious, which has got to be a good thing!
The event was for three days, right in the heart of Berlin, during fashion week. The venue was a large building lit up in pink. Very nice.
I had planned to drop into Berlin, as you do. I got the 5 am flight to Berlin Schoenefeld and arrived in freezing cold Berlin at around 9:30 am.
So, what to do in Berlin? Hang in the cool cafes of Kreuzberg? Browse the galleries in Mitte? Eat a million sausages? All of the above I thought, but fate had another plan for me.
I decide to treat myself and turn on the roaming on my phone (a genuine treat) and I received an email from the organisers of the show! They say, “Ben, come to the venue immediately, we have a problem with the steamers”. No problem, that’s what I’m there for I guess…
So I arrive at the amazing venue and am a bit shocked about how big it is. It’s a huge building that is slap bang in the middle of Alexanderplatz, a very central location of Berlin. This looks great I thought! Plus they had catering!
I arrive to quite a few frustrated German designers (they’re the ones to be scared of). I am greeted by the backstage manager, who in a panic turns to me almost in tears “none of the steamers are working!” Ever the professional, I calm her down and ask where the steamers were. She pointed them out, five shiny Fridja F-1400 professional garment steamers. I ask her where the plug point was and I got to work.
I plugged in the first, and waited. Errrrr, waited some more. Errrrrr, waited even longer. No steam. Unplugged.
I plugged in the second, and waited. Made a nervous joke. Waited. Played with my hair a bit. No steam. Unplugged.
I plugged in the third. You get the point. There I was, and not a single one worked.
Now in my experience, this had NEVER happened before. With anything electrical tool, somethings can go wrong, no biggie. But to have 5 not working was unheard of. I thought maybe a hex had been put on me (maybe by an ex-girlfriend, hmmm).
Now I did what any professional in that situation would’ve done; i panicked. I called our Polish distributer and told him to get 6 F-1000 steamers from Poznan to Berlin ASAP (at any cost). He got on it, but it was still a good three hours away.
Now picture me, pacing around on too much coffee, avoiding any German designer/backstage person for my life. This had never happened to me before and it was a total shocker. I don’t think the strong German coffee helped.
I did however make some friends, who were to help me out! The lovely Alexis Knox, superstar tv stylist and general cool chic and the headline designer of the night Ada Zanditon.
After my initial panicking, I realise that there is lots of work to do and I had to get rid of the creases somehow. I also had to turn around the designers and make them stop saying ‘Why are ze steamerz not verking??’ So I took a bit of initiative and asked Alexis if I could borrow her mini portable steamer, just to get going.
I plugged that one in and waited. And waited. Errrrr. What? Her one didn’t work either? Something’s not right here.
I then take a look around and had one of those moment like at the end of Usual Suspects when everything twists. Derelict building. Extension leads everywhere. Caterers with lots of equipment.
That’s right! It was bloody electricity.
I found a sparkie quick smart and asked him if he could turn up the power! He was half German half American, so I told him how I needed him to save my bacon (I’m not sure he understood). However, he did turn up the power and VOILA!
THEY ALL STARTED WORKING! TIME TO GET TO WORK!!!
I’m sorry there aren’t that many more photos, but I was busy steaming and helping the interns steam (lots of them were super young and needed a big of guidance). It’s all good. My heart had started to beat at a normal rate.
And of course, the people started flowing in…
That night there were four designers showing.
The shows were fabulous as ever. Here are a couple of pics from Edelziege.
Next up was Ewa Herzog. She was a really sweet girl! Here’s some of her great garms. Apologies for the heads, I didn’t get a great seat!
Seeing how much work these designers do is pretty astounding really. There’s a real X Factor moment when it’s all done though. Hats off.
Now next up was Good Soceity. Unfortunately I was too busy preparing for Ada’s show to take photos, but i did manage to capture some of the jazz funk fusion band.
Yep.
Yep.
So this brings us to the headliner, Ada Zanditon. The show was being introduced by none other than Katie Melua! She wore Ada’s dress on the front cover of her album, so she gave a speech before the show begun, which… me and Alexis wrote! It was pretty forgettable…
As Ada had Greenpeace as part of her gang, everyone was wearing these Greenpeace t-shirts, so I thought it was only fair to dress one of the steamers in one too!
And so the show began! Katie introduced and looked buff as ever. Here are the pics.
Ada’s show was a big success. The champagne was brought out.
So, lessons learnt? Always check power? Don’t anger Germans? Make friends with the caterers and they give you big portions?
Yes, all the above.
Nightmare beginning, fairy tale ending. Next stop, Paris.
