About Talent Support
Berlin is known as a creative centre for fashion and design, where many emerging fashion talents thrive. The city attracts creative minds from all over the world who create innovative and unconventional designs. Berlin's fashion design talent is characterised by its experimental approach and ability to combine street style, art and avant-garde fashion.
Berlin Fashion Week plays a central role in the promotion of young fashion talent. It not only provides a platform for young designers to present their collections to an international audience, but also encourages dialogue with buyers, fashion journalists and other creatives. It also places special emphasis on sustainability and inclusion, enabling young designers to realise their visions in these areas. This makes Berlin a place where not only fashion trends are set, but also important social issues are reflected and developed through fashion.
Berlin Fashion Week Concept Competition
The competition initiated on behalf of Berlin Senate Department for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises and the Fashion Council Germany consists of two categories: The talent promotion for fashion shows BERLIN CONTEMPORARY and the support of B2C concepts STUDIO2RETAIL. The aim of both initiatives is to strengthen Berlin's international relevance as a fashion centre and to offer design talent and their collections a stage.
BERLIN CONTEMPORARY: Powerhouse of Talents
The creative heart of the BFW programme is the category BERLIN CONTEMPORARY, which selects each season established and up-and-coming labels that are convincing in terms of style, craftsmanship and concept with international commercial potential. Each fashion label selected receives a prize money of €25,000 for their fashion shows. The jury, consisting of internationally experienced experts with backgrounds in press, buying, consulting and business development, evaluated the labels and their show concepts based on design performance, marketability, media impact and the innovation factor. In addition to the prize money, the winners also received support in the areas of communication and show design as well as valuable network connections and sales and PR contacts.
The BERLIN CONTEMPORARY WINNERS for Berlin Fashion Week in July 2024 were: Avenir, Balletshofer, Clara Colette Miramon, DZHUS, GmbH, Haderlump, Horror Vacui, Kitschy Couture, PLNGNS, LUEDER, MARKE, Milk of Lime, NAMILIA, ODEEH, RIANNA + NINA, Richert Beil, SF1OG and Sia Arnika.
The BERLIN CONTEMPORARY winners for Berlin Fashion Week in February 2024 were: Avenir, Dennis Chuene, Kitschy Couture, Lou de Bètoly, Lueder, Malaikaraiss, Marke, Namilia, Olivia Ballard, Rianna + Nina, Richert Beil, SF1OG, Sia Arnika and William Fan from Germany as well as the Ukrainian labels Bobkova, DZHUS, Glück Clothes and PLNGNS.
STUDIO2RETAIL: BFW for all fashion enthusiasts
STUDIO2RETAIL is the B2C initiative of Berlin Fashion Week, which has set itself the goal of making fashion accessible to everyone. To enhance the program and network of STUDIO2RETAIL the same-named category of the concept competition supports brands and stores with event concepts that bring the special vibe of BFW to the streets of Berlin. The competition will therefore recognise event concepts aimed at end consumers that focus on their key themes of sustainability, inclusion, education and community. The most convincing receive each a grant of €5,000 to support the realisation of the event.
Designers and brands can once again enter the Berlin Fashion Week Concept Competition for the February 2025 season. For more information please visit: Berlin Concept Competition
More BFW Formats to support talents
In addition, The Senate Department for Economics Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises supports other formats of Berlin Fashion Week that also focus on promoting talent. These include:
Intervention by Reference Studios
Intervention is the format developed, curated and produced by Berlin- and Milan-based communication agency Reference Studios under the direction of founder and CEO Mumi Haiati. The mission is to create an innovative platform for national and international designers that is seamlessly integrated into the official schedule of Berlin Fashion Week.
NEWEST by Nowadays
NEWEST is a platform that supports designers in organising sophisticated, high-quality fashion shows and installations. The aim is to provide young, less experienced and financially limited designers with all the necessary resources to stage their collections in the best possible way and generate content that meets international standards.
DerBerliner Salon
DerBerliner Salon is a group exhibition that aims to ensure that the selected creatives promote the sustainable development and production of their work. This requirement is the decisive factor for the participation of the design talents in the group exhibition, which is curated by Christiane Arp and organised by the agency nowadays.
Neo.Fashion
Neo.Fashion is a platform that enables young fashion designers to enter the professional fashion industry. Its core competences are the graduate shows of the majority of German fashion colleges and universities. The highlight is the Best Graduate Show, which presents the best collection from each university and awards prizes in the following categories: Best Design, Best Sustainability Concept and Best Innovation. For further information: https://neofashion.de/