So it was fashion week. It was pretentiousness, camo’ print pants and good times on the streets of Berlin, as the worlds finest fashion heads headed to the German capital. I’d never visited before, and with my only preconception of Germany being Munich, I was shocked to see how varied the cityscape was, compared to the Bavarian capitol. Berlin was darker, grungy with the sense of youth percolating through the graffiti stained walls. It was a modern, youthful beauty.
I arrived on my own, late doors on the Wednesday night, dropping my shit off at the hostel and heading straight out to Templehof for the Bread and Butter opening party. If you haven’t been, Bread and Butter is vast. Located at Templehof, a disused airport, the tradeshow is spread over 3 days, housing over 600 brands. Heineken was the order of the night. I met Alex and JB from The Daily Street for a few drinks and the pre match entertainment, 2manydjs at the High Voltage club, located within the venue. They killed it, an entire wall of screens with the booth set amongst it, full light show and the music was on point. It set the tone for the rest of the week.
I arrived at the tradeshow the next morning, with a slightly bad head. I was intrigued as much as I was excited. Tom was over at the Quintin stand, representing the LA based brand at the D.O.C.K, a stack of portacabins housing some of the finest streetwear from around the block. Tom and I caught up, before strolling down to the Vans stand to pick up passes for the nights entertainment.
If there was one stand out moment of the entire trip, it was the ‘House of Vans’. Located in a built out club in Berlin’s Mitte district, Vans celebrated Springs OTW Collection in unrivalled fashion, getting Lupe Fiasco and [Mighty] Mos Def to see the week in, in style. Myself and Tom and our Italian counterpart Alex stood in the packed out crowd awaiting entry for about an hour, sipping intently on warm Jåger based hot chocolate, which was a lot better than it sounds. The art of Ron English decked out the sub rooms that jutted off the main room, offering up a contrast to the classic architecture that housed the party. Mos’ finished up a decent set, before Lupe entered stage left around 1am. Not paying a whole lot of attention to anything Lupe has made since ‘The Cool’, I stood in anticipation for personal favorites ‘Kick, push’ and ‘He Say, She Say’. He didn’t disappoint, the show wasn’t too long but from a fan boy point of view, having listened to Lupe, memorizing the lyrics to ‘Kick Push’ when I was 15, it was unrefuted.
On the final night, there was a sense of disbelief of how fast the trip had gone. Early mornings and late nights had seen us all crave a damn good meal in a chilled restaurant. So, Martin took us to ‘White Trash’ and yes your right, it missed the chilled restaurant category we were hoping for by a country mile. The bar, club, restaurant, tattoo parlor was vast, spanning three floors, it was bizarre to say the least. We took our seats on a long wooden table, as a man dressed head to toe in German army gear got on stage with burlesque girls to offer up some live German tunes. The food was unbelievable, as was the beer. However, the sambuca and Tom’s insistence to have a photograph with the establishment’s cross dresser, was not.
Berlin’s a sick city. Really. It’s one of those places you can sit for hours in a bloody good café, talking to new people and enjoying the day. There’s not a tremendous sense of urgency, considering it’s a capitol city, not in the same way London works. If you get a chance get over to Bread and Butter and enjoy Berlin, you won’t be disappointed.
A shout out to; Alex, JB, Martin and Tom. How many fingers?
