The Morning after.. Melt Festival

At Melt festival

The Campsite

The Morning after…

Karneval der Kulturen

Impressions of the Karneval der Kulturen (carnival of culture) 19.05.2013, Berlin

Images by Jessica Weber – Patterson

Maifest 2013

Snapshots of the  May Day  in Kreuzberg, Berlin.

1st May 2013

images by JWP, Canon G12

St. Patrick’s Day, Berlin 2013

Images from the St. Patrick's Day festival 17.03.2013
at Burg am See, Ratiborstraße 14c, Kreuzberg

All images by Jessica Weber – Patterson

Neo Dove – Shake your Ass B*tch Coz this is House (DJ Set)

The Hipster Olympiade

The Hipster Olympiade is basically ‘Olympic’ games hipster style!

What is a hipster you may ask?!

Well here is the definition as seen in the urban dictionary: “Hipsters are a subculture of men and women typically in their 20’s and 30’s that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence, and witty banter. The greatest concentrations of hipsters can be found living in neighborhoods of major cosmopolitan cities such as New York, London, and Berlin respectively. Although “hipsterism” is really a state of mind,it is also often intertwined with distinct fashion sensibilities. Hipsters reject the culturally-ignorant attitudes of mainstream consumers, and are often be seen wearing vintage and thrift store inspired fashions, tight-fitting jeans, old-school sneakers, and sometimes thick rimmed glasses. Both hipster men and women sport similar androgynous hair styles that include combinations of messy shag cuts and asymmetric side-swept bangs. Such styles are often associated with the work of creative stylists at urban salons, and are usually too “edgy” for the culturally-sheltered mainstream consumer. The “effortless cool” urban bohemian look of a hipster is exemplified in Urban Outfitters and American Apparel ads which cater towards the hipster demographic.”

Ok now this is out of the way. you may think how do I become a hipster?? Well if you are  not  so hip then you can buy a hipster kit from  “The Hipstery” for €25 and wham you are hip!

But back to the Hipster olympiade, the main categories in the games are :

1. Hornbrillen-Weitwurf- thick rimmed glasses throwing
2. Club-Mate-Kisten-Wettrennen- Club Mate crate running
3. Vintage-Bart-Basteln- build a vintage beard
4. Jutebeutel-Sackhüpfen- cloth bag jumping
5. Bubbletea-Perlen-Tauchen- Bubble tea pearl diving
6. Konfetti-Hürden-Lauf- Konfetti hurdle jumping
7. Hipster-Konsumprodukte-der-Preis-ist-heiß- Hipster consume products Questioner
8. Vinyl-Platten-Drehen- vinyl turning

9. Skinny-Jeans-Tauziehen-skinny jeans rope pulling

Oh yes these hipsters know their shit! Here are some pics to prove it!

Warming UP!         

           

Thick rimmed glasses throwing!

 

Club Mate crate running ( Bit of an unfortunate position I captured the guys in black in-sorry)

Club Mate crate running ( Bit of an unfortunate position I captured the guys in black in-sorry)

Vintage mustache making!

How many hipsters does it take to make a beard? I have the answer on vinyl

One always goes a bit over beard!

And at the end of it all this is what the winner got!

Now you have a little insite into the live of a hipster or maybe you are a hipster and could just emphasise how super cool ja, this all was!!

Carnival of Culture

Grab your  flower garlands and dancing shoes as tomorrow is the carnival of culture. The festival has been in full swing from the 25th May, but tomorrow 27th May, is the main event, the street parade. There will be exotic street food, floats, dancers, musicians and performers from over 70 different countries. Berlin is Germany’s  most international city with over 450 000 inhabitants from all over the world. The festival was founded to celebrates such diversity.

The carnival parade starts at 12:30 p.m.at Hermannplatz, Kreuzberg

..and whats even better entry is free and it’s meant to be sunny again!!

Block Party

We had lots of fun at the Block Party last Saturday. The Block Party is basically what it says a Party on the Block. Different Designer Boutiques including;
BAERCK, BRILLENSCHNEIDEREI YVES, BUTTERFLYSOULFIRE AW11, DIX-SEPT, F.RAU BOUTIQUE, HECKING, LALA BERLIN FLASH STORE, LE COUP and YUU, were celebrating an evening of fashion, music and fun between Gormannstrasse – Mulackstrasse and SteinStrasse on Saturday the 12th from 6pm. There was music by Dj’s Face & Faddy /Jochen Voller , lots of free booze and fashionable people dancing till their heart was content. Well that was until the police came and shut the whole thing down at 9.30. Half an hour before curfew, SPOILSPORTS!!

Anyway we had a great time and can’t wait until the next time. We had so much fun we forgot to take more pictures, but here a few from the evening and a shaky mobile video.

Boooooo!!

One gorgeous fashionista who enjoyed the party was Merle Winter a designer from Berlin

Shaky Mobile Video of the Block Party:)

Block Party Event on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/events/304646936283542/

Gallery Weekend

This weekend is Gallery Weekend. 51 Galleries will be opening their exhibitions  from the 27th-29th of April to showcase new work. The Galleries will be open from 11am-7pm this weekend and  various tours and events will be held around the venues. This is a great way to explore Berlin’s thriving art scene. Some of the Galleries involved include  Circus gallery, Eigen+Art, Kow Berlin and Kicken Gallery.  Kicken Gallery is hosting an exhibition of one of my favorite Photography artists, Diane Arbus. I went to see her exhibition before in London and I loved it! Her black and white images are full of emotion, yet very stark. They are an honest depiction of life around us, no frills. She photographed real people, often the outcasts of society. This is definitely a must see!! For more information on which galleries will open their doors this weekend and who they will be showcasing, please go to http://www.gallery-weekend-berlin.de/index.php?id=2012start

Diane Arbus, Teenager with a Baseball Bat, NYC,

// Image courtesy of Andrew Russeth -Flicker Creative Commons

Berlin Fashion Week 2012

Berlin Fashion Week is over and we can all catch up on our sleep now! As, what distinguishes Berlin from the other mayor Fashion cities is that the Berliners know how to party, so the emphasis at Fashion week is not just on the shows but, more so, on the Fashion Parties!!

Nike Stylists Own Dinner Party

Many of the shows were held at the Mercedes Benz tent at Brandenburger Tor, this can make the actual show aspect quite boring because the backdrop stays the same for all the shows, but the off campus shows certainly made up for it, as the creativity of Berlin totally shines through in these shows. I attended the Augustin Taboul Installation, which was very conceptional to say the least. Models standing dramatically on a pedestal, whilst a performance artist recites words through a microphone, mostly about femininity and sex. The clothes were absolutely stunning and we were able to get up close to the dresses and see the intricate details. However I  had to smile coming out of this show, as I thought to myself (being half German), that only in Germany would you get a Fashion show that was so intense!

My favourite show from the ones I attended had to be the  ‘Dawid Tomaszweski’ show. His dresses were flowing pieces of art, the more structured pieces in gold, khaki, brown and black were teamed with just enough kinky rubber to make them relevant to Berlin. The venue was the ‘Heeresbaeckerei’ in Kreuzberg and the show’s theme was ‘Apocalypse’, but hey, if the Apocalypse looks like that then it won’t be so bad!

Here are some images of the show:

Another designer who used ‘the soft, the beautiful , the hard and the sexy‘ was Kaviar Gauche. He managed to merge pretty dresses with metal belts and accessories, not only that, in the midst of flowing dresses he also sent some of his models out in see through full size veils with little underneath! If you will find controversial anywhere it will be in Berlin!

..and last but not least , a few backstage beauties from the Kaviar Gauche show:

All in all,  Berlin is well on it’s way to becoming one the the major Fashion cities. Germans like tailored, minimalist, Jil Sander type pieces, where as in Berlin they like to have fun  and you will find that the designs are heavily influenced by art.  The combination of the two are set to get the fash-pack talking,  watch and see !!!