The Tamesis
Welcome to The Scoop: a weekly email series in which Elektra Kotsoni asks fashion insiders about the week’s stories. This will be a way for the Vogue business community to synthesize and reflect on the latest headlines every Friday and get a little inside scoop.
This week’s guest is Scott Lipinski, CEO of the German Fashion Council. When Mercedes-Benz canceled its sponsorship of Berlin Fashion Week in December 2022, many thought that would be the end of the event. But Lipinski, who has been on the job since 2017, and his staff saw the blow as an opportunity for a fresh start.
It seems they succeeded. After all, we cover it all the time. Berlin Fashion Week starts today and I called Scott yesterday.
Hi Scott! What is a scoop?
We are working on opening a showroom in Paris. This is part of our international strategy. Our strategy is divided into two phases at the beginning of 2023, when Mercedes-Benz withdraws as organizer and sponsor and we relaunch Berlin Fashion Week. The first phase was to establish a new Berlin Fashion Week, and we did that. The second stage is “going international”. Of course, we also do delegation visits – we’ve been to the United States four times, and we’ve also been to South Korea and Japan. The next step is to open a showroom during Paris Fashion Week. Looks good. We hope to launch this October or early next year.
It’s really exciting. How does it work? Who can display in the showroom?
If you look at Berlin Fashion Week, we have an event called Berlin Contemporary where about 20 brands are selected every season by an international jury, supported by the Senate for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises, and each brand will receive 25,000 euros to organize their fashion show. Our selection of showroom brands was probably primarily chosen from Berlin Contemporary’s talent pool. But we may also end up handpicking other products that perfectly match that showroom. It was very important to us that the showroom had a curated feel.
What is required to open a showroom for the National Fashion Council?
This requires money. We are considering finalizing partnerships with private institutions willing to support us. But we are also seeking support from government agencies, and it appears to be positive.
The era of artificial intelligence is coming, and everyone is worried about job security and doesn’t know how to develop their career. What advice do you have for safeguarding the future of designers in Berlin and other creatives in your circle?
Early in my career, I started working at a company called Accenture. I have consulted for large companies such as DHL and Deutsche Post on ERP systems such as SAP or Oracle, which were just being implemented. I always compare that time to now. People were very worried about losing their jobs. It does mean that fewer people are needed in the sales or purchasing department. But other departments, such as IT, are growing in size.
Looking at AI from a macroeconomic perspective does not necessarily mean that jobs will disappear, but that they will change. What I see now among young designers in Berlin is that they are not that afraid of AI. We recently did a delegation trip to South Korea and Japan, and I was really surprised by the extent to which the brands we met there were using AI as a support tool. They use it to cover their weaknesses, write formal letters, or plan content. I haven’t seen any brands using it to get away from their creative tasks.
