When it was announced in June that Fashion Week would be held in Frankfurt starting in 2021, the news caused a lot of excitement, and not just in the fashion world. At the time, the world was already in the midst of the Corona crisis, yet many spectacular plans had already been unveiled for the first edition of Frankfurt Fashion Week, which is scheduled to take place in July 2021. Although the pandemic is now raging worse than ever, Fashion Week is to take place as a public event. Today, more details about this were announced.
It quickly became clear that a positive look towards the future should define Frankfurt Fashion Week. This does not only refer to the pandemic, but also to other challenges like climate change, which we will have to face in the future. Therefore, the goal is to improve the fashion industry together! In doing so, Frankfurt Fashion Week positions itself as a host for the future of fashion and actively drives the transformation towards a future-oriented, more sustainable fashion and textile industry.
In Frankfurt am Main, from 5 to 9 July 2021, all decision-makers who want to help shape this change will come together - which the development of the pandemic will hopefully allow. The initiators of Frankfurt Fashion Week - Messe Frankfurt and the Premium Group - have achieved a real coup: The Conscious Fashion Campaign (CFC), which works together with the United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOP), will be the Presenting Partner. Building on the existing cooperation between UNOP and Messe Frankfurt, Frankfurt Fashion Week is to be established as a platform that supports the fashion industry in further developing the Sustainable Development Goals and launching the Decade of Action.
"Frankfurt is becoming a host for the whole world. The popularity we are experiencing is immense," says Peter Feldmann, Lord Mayor of the City of Frankfurt am Main, during today's digital press conference. And he continues: "The fact that a Fashion Week can be so completely rethought is impressive for me. Proof that the fashion industry is interpreting the signs of the present and the future correctly. It is about time that value creation and values are consistently brought into harmony with each other. The consistent alignment of Frankfurt Fashion Week with the Sustainable Development Goals is an important step."
The aim of Frankfurt Fashion Week is for all exhibitors, participants and partners to commit to the Sustainable Development Goals by 2023. The SDGs will also be taken up in all formats of Frankfurt Fashion Week. In this way, the UN's Sustainable Development Goals will be made visible and tangible for the Fashion Week audience - and thus their aspirations, goals and concrete proposals for implementation will be brought to the attention of an international opinion-forming fashion and lifestyle community.
During a one-day Frankfurt Fashion SDG Summit presented by Conscious Fashion Campaign, topics such as gender equality, clean water, climate protection, social justice and their importance for a forward-looking fashion industry will be explored in depth. Another item on the sustainability agenda: Frankfurt Fashion Week is launching a sustainability award for outstanding, innovative, sustainable design and other categories with global appeal for the fashion and textile industry.
Fashion for all
Another special aspect that will distinguish Frankfurt Fashion Week will be the consistent inclusion of the entire city. Frankfurt as such will become a stage for contemporary fashion stagings and a discourse space for a dialogue between fashion professionals and the fashion-savvy public. To this end, Messe Frankfurt, as the organiser of Frankfurt Fashion Week, has held intensive talks with various agencies and as a result a creative board was formed with eleven nationally renowned Frankfurt agencies. Despite the difficulty of planning, innovative and groundbreaking concept ideas have emerged for the city. This is a unique closing of ranks and testifies to a special spirit of cohesion in our city.
In addition, numerous other events and happenings are being conceived in various rounds of talks with museums, music, art and cultural institutions, universities and Frankfurt's retail sector. In cooperation with municipal institutions - the Tourismus+Congress GmbH Frankfurt (TCF), the Frankfurt Rhein Main GmbH and the Economic Development Agency - as well as with the Hesse Trade Association and the Creative Industries Hesse, the concrete implementation will start in January 2021. On the part of the Economic Development Agency, Frankfurt Fashion Week has been included as a lighthouse project in the master plan for the creative industries. This serves to secure the cultural and creative industries ecosystem in Frankfurt. The lighthouse projects included in the master plan have a high signal effect and radiate into other economic sectors, the public and internationally.
Part of the eventisation of the city of Frankfurt will be the Skateweek SKTWK, which will take place in Frankfurt for the first time. SKTWK, realized by agency Fine Lines Marketing, celebrates skateboard culture as a citywide festival - from open sessions and contests to art and photo exhibitions and video screenings to music and parties. From Tuesday through Sunday, the entire city will be activated as the official B2C offsite location and become a place-to-be for a fashion-savvy skate, sneaker, performance and lifestyle crowd.
"Revitalizing our urban economy and achieving a new post-Corona normal will become definitive challenges and success factors for forward-thinking urban policy beginning in 2021. We are in the fortunate situation of being able to bring about global and local synergies in this respect with Frankfurt Fashion Week: Globally, Frankfurt Fashion Week works towards a more sustainable, fairer and environmentally friendly fashion system; locally, an investment of 10 million euros spread over three years and jointly borne by the City of Frankfurt am Main, the State of Hesse and Messe Frankfurt generates an expected indirect return of over 200 million euros per year. This makes Frankfurt Fashion Week a real win-win situation for everyone involved," says Mayor and City Treasurer Uwe Becker.
New start in Frankfurt
Inform, inspire, discuss, negotiate, celebrate - in the summer of 2021, the entire fashion industry will come to the Main metropolis. "The need to finally meet, exchange and be inspired physically again is great. At the same time, it is impossible to imagine the fashion industry without digital tools and formats," says Markus Frank, Head of the Economic Affairs Department of the City of Frankfurt and thus also responsible for the creative industries on the Main. "In order to implement such a future-oriented and holistically conceived overall concept, Frankfurt's business and creative scene with its internationally networked agencies, universities and museums offers an almost unique concentration of different competencies. Our multifaceted and high-quality Frankfurt club, bar and gastronomy scene, our multi-layered hotel industry and our internationally renowned retail landscape will be the stage for this. This network will be a key factor in the successful implementation of Frankfurt Fashion Week and the way it will radiate into the public sphere as a cultural and social happening."
The Show Stage
A hybrid runway concept has been developed to stage the fashion shows in Frankfurt's Festhalle as a large stage. At the same time, defining Frankfurt venues will be played with unexpectedly implemented presentation formats, physical and digital stagings and runway interpretations. The show calendar will include classic fashion shows for invited trade audiences as well as curated shows with shop-the-runway formats.
Runways for all
Through livestreaming, the show experiences will be made accessible to all. The internationally renowned creative agency Untitled Project was brought on board as a partner for the concept and production. With digitalisation and sustainability as its focus topics, Frankfurt Fashion Week sees itself as a catalyst for phygital innovations. Livestream events, online panels, matchmaking tools, digital marketplaces and shopping experiences, virtual reality and, last but not least, a mobile app will be pushed by Frankfurt Fashion Week and specifically integrated conceptually - as a pioneer for the exchange of the industry.
So a lot should happen in the summer of 2021 - a summer in which this will hopefully be possible again. We will, of course, continue to keep you up to date on the planning around Frankfurt Fashion Week 2021. You can also find more info at: https://www.frankfurt.fashion/en
