Berlin Fashion Week has been and gone and we wanted to look back a little and reflect on what we saw and how we think BFW is progressing.

We saw some striking F/W 09 collections from a mixture of local and international designers. The collections were admittedly a little on the sombre side, revealing the pressure of the economy crisis on everyones pockets. Designers seemed to be playing it safe, rather than pushing boundaries. But we are sure that time will come round again. There were some stand-out stars for us: Michalsky and his edgy glamour was fantastic, Bernhard Wilhelm and his crazy colourful sportswear was inspired, Sisi Wasabi had some really desirable pieces that were both smart and sexy, Kaviar Gauche had an eye-popping runway show with beautiful bags, Lala Berlin had gorgeous knitwear for cool rock chicks and Designer For Tomorrow introduced us to new hot talents Joel Horwitz and Julia Knüpfer.

Overall it felt like BFW had stepped their game up from last year. It’s a definite improvement and is staking it’s claim as a Fashion Week that’s worthy of international attention. However of course there is a lot more they could do before it can seriously compete with London, Paris, Milan and New York. The organization as you move into the main tent on Bebelplatz should be swifter, smoother. We should be more on our toes – like the New Yorkers! We would like to see more big names show here. We liked the choice of Julia Stegner as the face of BFW and look forward to another interesting choice next year. We think designers should follow Bernhard Wilhelm’s example and start experimenting more with how they present their collections – Wilhelm created an installation in the Postbahnhof that was very successful – his models were presented in different situations and appeared like works of art that you could walk around. That’s the sort of thing that Berlin should become famous for – a place where you don’t know want to expect, a place for creativity and some risk-taking. We want to keep things fresh and remind the world that Berlin Fashion Week is really worth a visit.