It's the third week of war.
That's how long it takes to get used to this condition, says Jean Gritsfeldt, which he read today, on the 21st day.
The Ukrainian designer is in his mother's apartment in Kyiv, he has his long hair tied in a ponytail and looks friendly at the camera.
You can tell that he's energized - what he's been through in the past few days just bubbles out of him.
Actually, he should be in Berlin at the fashion week.
It would have been the first show he would have shown there for the tenth anniversary of his label.
However, when Russia attacked Ukraine, it was clear that he and his collection would remain in the country.
Caroline O Jebens
Editor in the society department at FAZ.NET.
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Nevertheless, he will show something on Wednesday evening, Gritsfeldt announced.
"I don't call it show, I call it manifest.
We completely canceled the show that was planned.
The current collection shouldn't be about clothes anymore.” Since fashion always tells the future, he wants to ask himself what will be important if the worst possible happens.
"It's about love, independence, poetry, those are the things that become central to defending ourselves internally.
I know that sounds cheesy.” Well, can you blame it?
Big concepts can sound hollow;
however, they also offer an area to unite.
Of course, solidarity was expressed everywhere at Berlin Fashion Week and donations were called for.
Billboards in front of the power plant in Berlin-Kreuzberg (once the famous Tresor) were plastered with QR codes and hashtags.
The relevant Berlin designers showed their collections here;
Thomas Ostertag's brightly colored clothes were supposed to compensate for "joie de vivre" which is currently lacking.
Without further ado, Kilian Kerner put black hoodies on his models with the words "PEACE" on them.
Panels were held, the central questions of which could involuntarily be further considered in the context of the war (“What would Karl do?”).
And the Berlin Salon curated individual labels like an exhibition on the ground floor.
For example, the extravagant clothes by Dawid Tomaszewski, who should have shown a show.
However, he canceled them to donate the money saved.
Everyone on site agrees that one should not expect this from designers.
Nevertheless: Consistency is more impressive, i.e. colorful expression.
The war that is raging hundreds of kilometers to the east makes it clear that fashion cannot escape politics.
She has lost her escapist momentum in recent years anyway: climate catastrophe, diversity debates, corona pandemic - all of this shook the foundations of the fashion industry: luxury, exclusivity, metropolises.
So, will it no longer be possible to think of fashion as apolitical in the future?
"I think fashion is at a point where it needs to reinvent itself.
Every piece I wear sends a message – always,” says Christiane Arp, former editor-in-chief of German Vogue.
She founded the Fashion Council Germany seven years ago, and she also manages the Berlin Salon, among other things.
In France, Great Britain and Italy these councils are powerful institutions;
in Germany there is still room for improvement.
Arp sees it as her task to give fashion in Germany the space it should have - and for German fashion on the world market.