Does Berlin Fashion Week need viral moments? Because the way it's been churning them out, it kind of feels like it does. From runways in the middle of construction sites as seen at OBS to the Dualingo bird walking at Marina Hoermanseder, almost every brand this Berlin Fashion Week pulled out a viral moment to capture our attention. Did you ever wonder if maybe that’s because they don’t have a choice not to?
For context, Berlin Fashion Week was founded in 2007, and for that reason - when compared with the decades that the likes of London, Paris, Milan, and New York fashion weeks have been around - it’s new here. As a result the brands that show in Berlin tend to be quite young.
Don’t get us wrong, talent for fashion has existed in Berlin since long before its fashion week started. Plenty of industry changing designers have come out of Germany including Karl Lagerfeld, Jil Sander, and more, but in their day, they didn’t have a fashion week to show at. Instead they showed elsewhere.
This means that, in 2025, a lot of Berlin’s schedule is made up of emerging brands. The issue arises because, when you have a fashion week that’s dominated by small designers - which we love to see - there’s often a struggle to capture the world’s attention. Heads turn to Paris where the prestigious houses show or Milan where the biggest brands flock every season, while younger fashion weeks struggle to compete.
Social media is a tool emerging brands can use to combat this issue. Small designers very quickly realised that, with apps like Instagram, TikTok, and X, they can help their collections reach a much bigger audience than those already tuned into Berlin Fashion Week, with the help of viral moments.
As Beate Karlsson of AVAVAV - a brand known for its famously viral stunts at fashion week, including throwing trash at models - told us, “At the end of the day, we have like 200-300 people come to the show, but like 300 million people will see it online, so it’s definitely important that we get to show the idea in a digital sense.”
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Emerging designers are using social media as a means to be seen by millions more people than ever before, and it’s working. For LUEDER, moments like the time it invited a vape artist onto the runway at SS25 or the “Men are so back” it revealed at FW25 (which was actually a commentary on the return of Trump to The White House) rack up a thousand times more likes than people it can fit in its show space.
Despite how viral her “Men are so BACK” tee was this season, Marie Lueder says she comes at the virality of her shows from a place of performance art, rather than just wondering what will pop off online. She told us, “My background was in performing arts before I started my brand, and I always like to play with the feeling of the audience.”
Some people criticise brands for using viral moments to push their collection into conversations, saying that it detracts from the integrity of their designs. But the reality is that their shows are still going viral because people are interested in or intrigued by the content, and one look going viral from a designer’s collection can launch their whole brand into the limelight.
British designer Tolu Coker made a point defending the brands who use viral stunts to help their shows capture attention, arguing that, “it tends to be younger designers, and I think that perhaps is quite telling about the level of support and visibility that they get and need. So I think that, rather than criticising it, it’s something that can open up a wider conversation.”
“Money [is the biggest hurdle young designers face today.] It’s sort of all round; fashion is an extremely expensive industry, especially if you’re trying to do it in a way that is slightly different to the tide.” So can we really blame them for sending the Duolingo bird down the run? Probably not. Just make sure that you take notice of the rest of a brand’s collection when a viral stunt from its show appears on your feed - that’s where you’ll find the real gems from Berlin Fashion Week.
Featured image via @marie.lueder ©
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