NothingIsRealButTheGirl wrote:
Germany is Europe’s biggest consumer of fashion. So why isn’t the country a bigger force in the international fashion world?

http://www.businessoffashion.com/2014/1 … layer.html

The article describes and explains the reasons pretty well.

However, it omits Wolfgang Joop, who is the second most important, international, German designer after Lagerfeld.

He used to show at NYFW with his label "Wunderkind by Wolfgang Joop", but here in the US, he is mostly known for his fragrances.

I think that it was 2005 when I shot him during Fashion Week in NY:

Eyesso wrote:
Because they''''re still playing Techno.

... well... and Germans, no matter if from the North or from the South wear 85% of the time the traditional German clothing... and since that doesn't change, same as techno... they not only prevent German fashion development... but also keep the American Oktoberfest alive...

Eyesso wrote:
Because they''''re still playing Techno.

And they still have punks in the streets. A lot of them.

Pictures of Life wrote:
Germany - Cars and beer
England - Diplomacy
France - Food and wine
Italy - Food and romance
    Think of where you are most likely to see beautiful women, and least likely.  Would you rather shoot models in Italy or Germany?  Germans do have decent fashion with leather goods.

Man... you have no clue about German women... as everywhere in the world... you've got gorgeous people and those with challenging faces...

I grew up in Germany and have been with quite a few ultra hot German women in my young life.

Besides, I meet every season of fashion week in NY a ton of German models who are sent to walk the runway in NYC.

Lack of a real fashion scene and interest in super styling doesn't mean there are no gorgeous women with unbelievable bones structures... and naturally slender figures.

Think about Eastern Europe... there is a much smaller market for fashion, yet you find those gorgeous Eastern European girls who end up on international runways for major designers.

DOUGLASFOTOS wrote:
They build better cars.

Better cars than who?

Good Egg Productions wrote:
No one understands Austrian fashion.



You think Germany is any better??!

She is hideous. Well, she''s a guy!!:-)))

Images by MR wrote:
Better cars than who?

Not sure how to answer this... but Germany has some pretty solid brands: Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Volkswagen and even Ford-Germany (since 1925)...

There is one traditional brand in Germany, called Opel... they produced their first car in 1899. I just read that their various models are sold under different brands in the US... which was a surprise to me, e.g. the Buick Regal is the Opel Insignia. I didn't know until now how global Opel is actually selling their cars... my first car was a 1973 Opel Kadett, btw.

Pictures of Life wrote:
.  Would you rather shoot models in Italy or Germany?

The only real answer to this is

Claudia Schiffer and Giselle Bundchen ( who is of course of Germanic descent , not Portuguese )

Garry k wrote:

The only real answer to this is

Claudia Schiffer and Giselle Bundchen ( who is of course of Germanic descent , not Portuguese )

Yep, and I just found a list:
http://www.ranker.com/list/german-fashi … upaulogies

GER Photography wrote:
Lederhosen is about the extent of German fashion!!:-))) JK: Puhleeze!!:-)

Hey!  I still have my Lederhosen!  And I think my mother has my favorite old dirndl.

Germans are a very traditional and stoic people, and because of the history of the nation, cling to those solid traditions that they have managed to create for themselves.  I know it''s so for my family, even today for those of us here in the US.  Fashion probably isn''t as important as other things.  In my not-so-humble opinion, of course.

udor wrote:

Not sure how to answer this... but Germany has some pretty solid brands: Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Volkswagen and even Ford-Germany (since 1925)...

There is one traditional brand in Germany, called Opel... they produced their first car in 1899. I just read that their various models are sold under different brands in the US... which was a surprise to me, e.g. the Buick Regal is the Opel Insignia. I didn''t know until now how global Opel is actually selling their cars... my first car was a 1973 Opel Kadett, btw.

OPEL was, at least at one time, owned by GM.

Images by MR wrote:

Better cars than who?

Everybody.

Kent Art Photography wrote:
And a German friend told me, ''''A German joke is no laughing matter.''''

I am so stealing this line. Perfect.

John
--
John Fisher
700 Euclid Avenue, Suite 110
Miami Beach, Florida 33139
(305) 534-9322
http://www.johnfisher.com

Creative Image wrote:
OPEL was, at least at one time, owned by GM.

OPEL is owned by GM without interruption since 1929 (80 percent) respectively 1931 (100 percent). It even wasn't dispossessed during World War II...

(Heaven is where
the British are the policemen
the Germans are the carmakers
the French are the cooks
the Italians are the lovers
and the Swiss are organizing everything

Hell is where
the Germans are the policemen
the French are the carmakers
the British are the cooks
the Swiss are the lovers
and the Italians are organizing everything)

AJ_In_Atlanta wrote:
I suspect those who think they make better cars have never driven a good italian car...

Regardless there are few German designers and as mentioned they are less active, sort of explains it all

When you are saying "good", you must be talking about the high-end luxury car brands, not about the cars made for regular people, right?!

udor wrote:
When you are saying "good", you must be talking about the high-end luxury car brands, not about the cars made for regular people, right?!

Well the new Fiat Abrath are pretty good, but I wouldn''t get too crazy about them

P.S. Next you are going to tell me that my business model of shooting models for money isn't going to afford me the better Italian brands LOL

udor wrote:

Man... you have no clue about German women... as everywhere in the world... you''ve got gorgeous people and those with challenging faces...

I grew up in Germany and have been with quite a few ultra hot German women in my young life.

Besides, I meet every season of fashion week in NY a ton of German models who are sent to walk the runway in NYC.

Lack of a real fashion scene and interest in super styling doesn''t mean there are no gorgeous women with unbelievable bones structures... and naturally slender figures.

Think about Eastern Europe... there is a much smaller market for fashion, yet you find those gorgeous Eastern European girls who end up on international runways for major designers.

Actually I spent a few years in Germany.  I was gonna say there are some stunningly beautiful women in Germany, and they stand out, but that sounds more like a slam than a compliment to the country at large.  It''s also a regional issue. Just like in the US, women around DC put more effort into their appearance than Smalltown Idaho.  Women in West Berlin are hot!  But overall, the architecture is more captivating than the women. I was constantly gawking at buildings when I was there.

udor wrote:
When you are saying "good", you must be talking about the high-end luxury car brands, not about the cars made for regular people, right?!

Although VW does own Bugatti (Veyron), which, according to The Jeremy Clarkson, is the world''s best car.

As a totally irrelevant aside, near here we have Prescott Hill climb, and if you go into town early enough on a race day you can see a shed load of Bugattis doing a circuit or two to warm up (presumably).

AJ_In_Atlanta wrote:
I suspect those who think they make better cars have never driven a good italian car...

Regardless there are few German designers and as mentioned they are less active, sort of explains it all

Until some years ago a lot of italian cars had corrosion damages even before they were delivered to the car dealers. This got better in last years. Nevertheless once big names like Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Maserati had to be rescued by goverment money and Fiat.

("Gott schütze uns vor Regen und vor Wind und vor Autos, die aus Italien sind!" - popular saying by German car mechanics. God help us against rain and wind and cars from Italy. There are identical sayings regarding French and British cars, by the way.)

Why Isn’t Germany a Bigger Fashion Player?

When you look at a random "street scene" in Germany and then in Italy or France you will realize that "fashion" and being well-dressed is much less important for Germans than for Italians or French. A lot of people in France or Italy never would wear clothes that many Germans regard as "a proper dress". This holds true especially for men. Ordinary people in an average Italian or French city place much more value on their dresses and on fashion than ordinary people in an average German city. When it comes to clothing Germans are bargain hunters - "cheap" is much more important to them than "chic".

LA StarShooter wrote:
Germany once had a vibrant scene in fashion, long ago in the twenties. In a sense, German identity isn''''t as settled as that of the French, English, and Italian peoples due to its short history as a nation and the unsettling transformations. German states still retain some measure of authority, and Berlin, while important doesn''''t have the centralising influence of London or Paris. As to the unsettling transformations--in 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors, at the dramatic conclusion of the Prussian-Franco war, the Unification of German under a central government was declared, embodied by the Kaiser. Prussian-driven, the Unification met with disaster in World War One, and the negotiations at the end in Versailles where the Act of Unification first was announced was shadowed by the toppling of the Kaiser principle and tumult ensued in Germany. Assasinations and military manuevers followed, with freikorps defending Germany from. . . Germans.

The Rise of Hitler led to a change in identity, a radicalization of being, where men became very sharp knifes meant to slice apart imperfections and unite in the passion for ruling Europe. Nazi chic didn''''t last long and its end was very unsettling: the breakup of the German State. Imagine if the U.S. were suddenly split between North and South and a wall was built to keep the people of the South in.

Unification again and more unsettling, the mission of the South was to de-Sovetize a people who had much of their German character purged.

So if fashion springs from identity, from a strong sense of it and sometimes a reaction against an identity, a search for the other, in England, there has been almost a thousand years, since 1066, a forging of national identity. A German sociologist wrote about German terrorism and he coined a phrase, we-values, and his conclusion was elegant: Germans didn''''t have as strong sense of identity and unity and thus their culture would give rise to more internal terrorism in the seventies where at that time, the English, in particular, had an extremely strong sense of national identity, of the glory of being British, of British values, of things British people did not do to each other as they were so civilised, so wonderful and glorious, and the education system helped produce that. . .

The U.S. has a stronger sense of national identity than Germany and thus a stronger style scene.

Funny how diffferent things look to different people. To me Germans display a very strong sense of national identity - much more so than the British, for example, who are now very confused about who they are. I think that sense of collective unity, and unity of purpose, is what has led `Germany to be the economic powerhouse it is today. Also, the Germans I have met tend to be naturally serious minded, and fashion is, after all, a frivolity.

Why Isn’t Germany a Bigger Fashion Player?

TomFRohwer wrote:
When you look at a random "street scene" in Germany and then in Italy or France you will realize that "fashion" and being well-dressed is much less important for Germans than for Italians or French. A lot of people in France or Italy never would wear clothes that many Germans regard as "a proper dress". This holds true especially for men. Ordinary people in an average Italian or French city place much more value on their dresses and on fashion than ordinary people in an average German city. When it comes to clothing Germans are bargain hunters - "cheap" is much more important to them than "chic".

That's a very interesting POV, yet... how do you explain that despite the Germans' quest for cheap, Germany is the biggest consumer of fashion in all of Europe, spending more on fashion than any other country, including France and Italy?

After all, the premise of the article is that Germany is the biggest consumer of fashion in Europe, yet it appears that Germany is not really interested in producing fashion on it's own, e.g., creating labels that will be recognized internationally... despite a few little exceptions.