This season’s Seek exhibition was all about destination, referring to the community who is regularly part of the show and–at the same time–loves the opportunity to enjoy the city of Berlin. Hence the trade show underlines its closeness to the typical Berlin street style, and let this season’s visitors enter through a gift shop, picking up Bansky’s fake-documentary masterpiece.
The selection of brands this season was, as usual, a mixture of casual fashion battleships and Seek regulars such as Fred Perry, Alpha Industries and Edwin Jeans and retro sportswear brands such as Helly Hansen, Ellesse, Fila and Sergio Tacchini.
Together they build a vibrant picture of the zeitgeist that also attracts some newbies such as Craghoppers. The traditional outdoor and travel brand exhibited for the first time at a fashion tradeshow. “Our main markets, outdoor and travel, are more and more focusing on lifestyle collections and urban products nowadays. With 50 years of brand history, we can offer a great story which is a plus. Once we started dealing with these new market’s needs we recognized a big potential in the fashion market as well. Seek as trend show seems to be an ideal partner on our journey,” explained Oliver Robens, managing director for Europe.
Also sneaker brand Drunknmunky showed for the first time at Seek. Originally from the United States, the brand is in the hands of Italy-based licensee and distributor Wage who also represents the shoe brand Colmar. “We decided to move from Pitti to Seek as we appreciate the street credibility of the trade show. We are very enthusiastic and a lot of people are interested in our brand here,” said Marinella Fiore, marketing director of Wage. “The fact that Seek is directly connected to the Bright trade show with its designation to the skate culture was an important argument for us,” she added. A few months ago Drunknmunky launched a collaborative collection with skate-star Tony Hawk.
Wage presented the new styles at Bright as one exhibitor of 58. According to that number and the organizer’s announcement to re-dedicate the show to the community, this edition of Bright became more of an exhibition about skateculture including an in-house skatepark and an exhibition on the cult magazine Read and Destroy (RAD). Besides collections such as of Pelle Pelle, Ecko Unltd and DC Shoes, one could find a surprising broad offer of skate hardware. Taking this new direction as starting point it’s rather unpredictable how Bright will evolve.
Style check
Ribbon everywhere
With logo or without, stripes or accent colors, classically applied on the side seam, as wrist- or neckband, or even as closure on the side seam of trousers. Barely any collection can make it without ribbons, be it clothing, shoes or accessories.
Cozy is key
Velour, flannel and teddy looks called for coziness. Ellesse showed a tone-on-tone striped version, American Vintage and Amor Lux are all easy, Kings of Indigo uses teddy as detail and combines it with ethnic ribbons, and Eastpak dares to create a terrycloth backpack.
Proud to be loud
Blue and yellow are favored accent colors of the season. Brands such as Wrangler, DC Shoes and Pelle Pelle go for those strong accent hues.
Like ice in the sunshine
Gentle pastel color palettes counter this loudness and are omnipresent so that you catch yourself in front of some rails thinking about whether if you should take pistachio, vanilla or raspberry. But where the heck did they hide straciatella? Maybe Miami Vice has eaten them all...
Wanna wear a unicorn?
Prints seem to be about the most fuzzy motif this season. Super colorful and packed with humor, they go beyond the Hawaiian style and dedicate themselves to the ’80s. One finds them mostly on shirts and shorts.
Cross Check
Don’t dare to think that the cross bag is over. They are all around, on the presentation displays as well on the visitors.
Label to watch
Heritage brand Clarks has launched a new bold and sporty shoe range that somehow seems to start where sneaker majors can’t step further into fashion. Especially well done is Clarks’ reinterpretation of the classic white sneaker with gently colored soles. Thumbs up!
Decked with meaning
Checking the hardware at Bright showed some beautiful patterns and colorways, often inspired by highly sophisticated sources. Skateboard producer Trap for example uses historical patterns designed by Bauhaus artist Gunta Stölzl in the 1920s. One can see how this culture grows up with their supporters.
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