Berlin Fashion Week Kicks Off

New York, London, Paris, Milan and…Berlin? The German capital is making a bid for couture-capital status with its up-and-coming fashion week, which kicked off Wednesday. Berlin Fashion Week, which is only three years old, claims to be the fifth-largest fashion week, and though it’s dominated by less well-known German designers, it nonetheless has clout. Why Berlin? “In comparison to other fashion weeks, Berlin is cool, new, edgy and trendy,” says German designer Anja Gockel. Other fashion weeks are “established,” she continues, “and established means no big surprises, and no big surprises means boredom.”