fashion
Zurich Fashion Fever
Is there any day you wake up in the morning and think Zurich has it all? During the Zurich Fashion Days it was surely the case!
After Milan, Berlin, Kiev, Beijing, Sydney, the Big Apple and many other cities, the Mercedes-Benz Fashions Days finally made it to Switzerland. The location chosen for the four night show was the Schiffbau in Zurich West. The building, finished over 10 years ago by Ortner & Ortner architects, can seat up to 900 people in the main hall.
Schiffbau during the Mercedes Benz Fashion Days in Zurich
But, why is the luxury car label, Mercedes-Benz sponsoring so many fashion shows around the world? For the CEO of the company in Switzerland, Marcel Guerry, it is clear, fashion and car go well together and it fits wonderfully with their brand.
If fashion would be all about innovation, one of the winners would be Wensibo from China. During the Friday night runways, three associate professors of the Donghua Shanghai University for fashion & design came to present their newest collection in exclusivity in Europe.
Mrs. Wen Gu, Li Li and Xingzhi Xu won the Fibers & Yarns Award launched by Oerlikon this year. They had been asked to design clothes with their team using Oerlikon’s machines. For Oerlikon, the leader in textile machinery, it was important to find talented people, who love to innovate. CEO of Oerlikon, Michael Buscher, explained how challenging it was for the students. They were given guidelines how to use the raw materials and themes to follow such as energy, economics, environment and ergonomics. In an interview for Oerlikon Mrs. Cao Xiaojie, Deputy Director of the Fashion Research Center of the Donghua University talked about the difficulties to work with some of the materials like hard plastic and black carbon fibers.
CEO of Oerlikon Michael Buscher with model showing the Wensibo collection at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Days in Zurich
What they came up with was amazing, making dresses with draw textured yarns, carpet fibers, yarns for tires and fiber glass. One of the dresses themed “energy” had 15 kg of industrial yarns while another one worn by German model Luisa Hartema was also used as a tent! The great sensation was the arrival of the first model wearing a glass fiber dress!
The Mercedes-Benz Fashion Days in Zurich had it all, a glorious opening night, a Swiss night, the 9th Annabelle Award night with Barbara Bui and an international closing night, which no one will forget.
Wednesday night was called a homage to diversity, but it could have been named “Made in Italy” night. Angelo Bratis, the new revelation of 2011 award “Who is next?” brought elegance on the catwalk, followed by MSGM di Massimo Giorgetti with his colorful and animal prints clothing, then Marco di Vicenzo new collections “Minerals” and of course Mila Schön. Sophistication is Mila Schön! The creative director for the label, Bianca Gervasio, was inspired by the light!
Speechless!
Van Bery Spring and Summer 2013 collections at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Days
The last runway of the opening night was all what a lady would want to see and wear Laurel. Laurel, chef fashion designer, Elisabeth Schwaiger, brought the new 2013 collections to Zurich in exclusivity. No matter if it was the colorful, silky, lacy dresses or tiger motifs, everyone wanted more.
Studio Laend Phuengkit and Claudia Zuber showed more relaxed and dynamic collections on the catwalk. Van Bery’s clothing, inspired by pictures of Le Douanier Rousseau and the 1920’s, have much flowers and glossy shoes. Well expected, fashion designer, Barbara Bui handed out the 9th Annabelle Award to Julia Winkler and showed her Parisian chic but also relaxed Spring and Summer collections.
Javier Reyes with Mexican origins showed an elegant collection, which was much applauded. Marc Steiner with Marc Stone’s label amazed the crowd with a casual and chic collection for men and women. And from far away one of the models even looked like Brad Pitt! Kazu presented her 10th collection in Zurich with beautiful leaves and nature motifs. To end up the Swiss night was the sensational bridal collection of LBD white, designed by Joanna Skoczylas and Eliane Diethelm. Now it is time to get married!
Model for Marc Stone label at the Mercedes Fashion Days in Zurich
The closing night was amazing with so many elegant and sexy creations from Polish-German designer Dawid Tomaszewski, Greek designer from Dimitri, Turkish Arzu Kaprol and British Charlotte Ronson. Dawid just kept the guests speechless with his transparent dresses, the creme knitted dress or the corsage with Swarovski perls! With Dimitri, who worked for Hugo Boss and Jil Sander before, you could feel like Cleopatra or Cinderella with his gorgeous draperies, chiffon dresses, seductive cuts and the greatest innovated shoes and bags. Arzu’s models had remarkable hair and had silky dresses, bustiers and boleros! Charlotte Ronson was backstage before her runway started making sure all the models were together, the shoes and manicure were perfect. The strength of the water was her inspiration for next year.
Dawid Tomaszewski in Zurich showing his 2013 Spring and Summer collections
Two singers took care of the entertainment during the fashion days, British Pop singer Kyla La Grange for the closing night and the 4 band group, Pegasus. Noah Veraguth, Simon Spahr, Gabriel Spahni and Stefan Brenner, with long hair, all dressed in suits either with a tie or a bow tie, came to present some songs from their newest album “Human Technology”. The four young men were quite charming and easy to talk to during the after show party. Kyla La Grange shared that she loves Gothic style, wearing black and her mother’s taste for flamboyant clothing. At the Schiffbau she came with no band and no guitar, which she says was a bit alien to her.
Kazu label at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Daysin Zurich
To have good shows you not only need talented designers and enough sponsors but an amazing team preparing the models. Some nights there were over forty models backstage getting ready with 15 dressers, make-up artists and hairdressers. Each designer looked at every last details, shoes, manicure and hairdo. God knows how much work was put into the hairstyles with Paul Mitchell hair products. Arzu Kaprol, Barbara Bui, Studio Laend Phuengkit, Portenier Roth and Wensibo had given a lot of thought in hairstyles!
Many VIPs were here to enjoy the shows such as the models Laura Hutton, Nadine Strittmatter, Hefti Fiona, Racquel Marquard but also soul British singer Dionne Bromfield.
No doubt, Switzerland and Zurich will not only be remembered from now on for its bank accounts, watches, cheese and chocolates but also for its FASHION.
