FAEX Showroom & Pop Up Store x Berlin Fashion Week
In Berlin, fashion rhymes with passion and in the collective unconscious, passion is a Berliner’s fuel. Today, Pynck is taking you on a fashion adventure in one of Berlin’s most beautiful historical districts. Along the way, I will introduce you to a brand new international fashion incubator start-up FAEX ( short for Fashion Exchange) who acts as a catalyst for the next generation of garment designers and supports the emerging talents in the industry through access to innovative new technologies and PR support.
It is 3pm at 37 Oranienburger Straße in the Scheunenviertel area of Spandauer Vorstadt in Mitte, the trendy and eco-district of Berlin. The address I was given locates the showroom inside the Hackesche Höfe, the largest single courtyard complex in Germany, and incidentally also an architectural Art Nouveau jewel. While a handful of curious tourists indulge in the mandatory stroll&shop, I am looking for FAEX, which I eventually find, tucked away in one of the largest courtyards and signaled by elegant panels.
Both a Showroom and a Pop-Up Store, FAEX, I am told by the lovely staff member, has become over the course of the last two years the platform for local and international independent fashion labels and talented newcomers from the fashion scene. FAEX’s strength lies in its plural missions and the fact that it is regarded as a serious and flexible interface between different service providers connecting fashion designers, customers and sponsors.
And their hard work paid off. More than 15 carefully selected designers occupy the grand space. I am immediately struck by the wide variety of unique designs on offer. From feminine dresses and classic everyday fashion for women to casual streetwear for men or experimental brands – the FAEX Showroom and Pop-Up Store only provides sustainable and fair produced garments accessible to all budgets.
The high ceilings and parquet floors exude atmosphere in this little modified two-storey house.
Mild lighting and small edible treats welcomed professionals and visitors upon arrival.