Fashion Open Studio x MBFW Fashion Open Studio x MBFW

Fashion Open Studio brings a series of impactful activations highlighting local designers to Berlin Fashion Week for the first time this January, in partnership with MBFW Berlin, supported by the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises.

Fashion Open Studio is a showcasing initiative launched by ​Fashion Revolution​, the global campaign which asks ​#WhoMadeMyClothes?​ The focus of the two-day series of Fashion Open Studio digital events at MBFW is to work with designers to engage citizens with who makes their clothes - and to explore some of the hands-on processes along the way. Fashion Open Studio offers tangible solutions towards a more responsible industry.

The Fashion Open Studio Programme:

1. Fashion Open Studio

Fashion Open Studio has selected five Berlin-based designers to be the first representatives of the city, hosting a series of digital workshops, studio tours and demonstrations: ​Anekdot​, Emeka Suits​, ​Buki Akomolafe​, C​ hurch of the Hand​, and ​Karen Jessen​. Access to the designers’ studios will be via Instagram ​@fashionopenstudio ​and at www.mbfw.berlin. Change begins with new and emerging talent, and Fashion Open Studio (FOS) gives designers an alternative way to present themselves using interactive workshops and by opening their studios to the public.

2. Panel Talks

To support the designer presentations there will be three expert panel discussions featuring fashion experts and campaigners from Berlin and beyond, discussing everything from activism in fashion to the responsibility of the luxury sector. Speakers will include Céline Semaan, founder of Slow Factory; Michael Beutler, Sustainable Operations Director, Kering; journalist and labour rights activist Aditi Mayer; Berlin-based designer Buki Akomolafe; and Dio Kurazawa, founder The Bear Scouts.

3. Designer mentoring programme

As well as a series of five live interactive digital Open Studios, the programme will showcase the work of five Berlin-based designers who are leading the way towards greater sustainability in their practice, each with a different approach: Soup Archive, #DAMUR​, CRUBA, Fade Out Label, and social enterprise pioneers People Berlin.

These designers are part of a mentoring programme with Fashion Open Studio to help maximise their positive impact.

Fashion Open Studio x MBFW is intended to initiate the transformation towards a ho- listically responsible MBFW which is a turning point in the structure and focus of MBFW for the future.​ We believe this is a turning point in the structure and focus of MBFW for the future and FOS is pioneering the programme into a sustainably focused portfolio of events. "With Fashion Open Studio, we give young people and designers a transparent stage for responsible practices in the production of amazing collections. We celebrate the elaborate process behind finished collections, which usually remains hidden. In the intimacy of a studio, we introduce the people behind the designs. The Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week provides the perfect setting to further strengthen the international awareness of our vision.” - Orsola de Castro, Creative Director Fashion Open Studio & Co-founder Fashion Revolution