Interview with: Magdalena Schaffrin on the Vorn Fashion Show

Hello Magdalena, glad you found time for an interview today.

You are hosting the event "VORN Fashion Show" at this year's Berlin Fashion Week in January 2023. Can you tell us something about the concept of this event?

The vorn Fashion Show is a curated editorial fashion show. The show is fashionably curated by our styling team around Julius Forgo and all brands that will participate go through a Sustainability Quick Check by studio MM04. For the show, we ask around 400 designers and brands and mix the collection pieces together in the looks. This way new styles are created and independent avant-garde brands are combined with corporate brands.

The theme of the show is "Role Models". Current and former Role Models and influential personalities serve as inspiration. How did you come up with this idea?

We chose the theme of Role Models for the show this season because we are living in a very uncertain time right now and dealing with a lot of uncertainties. That's why many people look to Role Models for guidance and inspiration. With new role models, we can also change fashion, and that's what's really exciting about this topic. Because we stand for a change in the fashion industry towards more sustainability and towards a positive impact of fashion. Above all, we also include social and cultural aspects such as diversity, gender fluidity and equality in the concept of sustainability.

How could the designers apply for this show? Or how did the selection take place? According to which criteria?

Our team, together with the students of the BSP Business School Berlin, wrote to a large list of brands and asked if they were interested in participating in the show. Any sustainable label can apply to participate and contact our team. All brands will then go through a sustainability quick check, which will be conducted by studio MM04 to ensure that the collection pieces shown also meet the sustainability criteria. The stylistic and fashion selection is then curated by the styling team around Julius and Tanya Forgo, who style the looks for the show.

The show is also a collaborative project with the "Sustainable Fashion", "Fashion Marketing" and "Fashion Journalism" courses at BSP Business and Law School. What were the conditions of participation, how did you choose the winners and how many young talents can we look forward to?

At the BSP, cooperation projects with industry are offered in the third semester. 18 students from the three study programs signed up for the project and all actively helped with the show, from preparation to conception to set construction, assistance with styling, hair and make-up, music and communication.

Is there anything we can be particularly excited about during the show?

Of course, I won't reveal that just yet! But what is certain is that the show and its staging will be inspiring for all guests and reflect the themes of our time. And paint a picture of sustainable fashion that is current and visually compelling.

What are your expectations for the upcoming Berlin Fashion Week?

I am happy that the topic of sustainability will be brought more to the fore and I expect Berlin Fashion Week to develop even more in this direction. Because Berlin is the place where there is already a vibrant network of sustainable brands and designers. And the topic has become so important that there is simply no getting around it.

Last question: You also run "Vorn - The Berlin Fashion Hub": What are your goals of the hub?  What are you working on?

With Vorn - The Berlin Fashion Hub we are working on an ecosystem in Berlin for fashion, sustainability, digitalization and innovation. We have set up four programs for this: Community Services, Co-workingspace, Innovation Lab, and Scaling Program. We have already started with two programs, the Community Services and the Innovation Lab. We will also present the results of our first VORN Academy Program during Berlin Fashion Week. Here we have developed a pilot project on the topics of fashion, circularity and digitalization. 9 international designers from different disciplines completed trainings in an 8-week program and explored how the concept of circularity can be translated into new media like the Metaverse. An artistic process resulted in physical and digital exhibits that can be experienced immersively at Fashionweek.

Thank you for the interview!