Why an American-based backpack company is showing at Berlin Fashion Week is beyond me but who cares! The show featured a kickass band and everyone attending the show scored funky little Eastpak bags. This was the SECOND ROUND of freebie bags -- Eastpack also provided the press swag bags, which were amazing: large, multi-handled black bags tricked out with several pockets inside and out and embroidered -- yes, embroidered! -- with Berlin Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2009. The show featured packs and streetwear (hoodies, windbreakers, etc.) designed by cutting-edge stylesetters, Eley Kishimoto and Raf Simons -- Mark Eley and Wakako Kishimoto are of course the designers behind the Cacharel label and Simons heads Jil Sander. Perhaps the coolest thing about the show, though, was a feature that seems to be unique to Berlin Fashion Week: a show soundtrack courtesy of a live band instead of a recording.
Eastpak's house band was insider Berlin fav MIA. It was my first encounter with MIA -- actually when I saw the announcement on the invite, I thought the label had scored the M.I.A., the American MC who mixes hip-hop with Bollywood beats. Imagine my surprise when instead a red-plastic-clad white chick named Mieze Katz came down the runway instead, mic in hand, belting out the electro-punk band's newest single, "Mein Freund." What I didn't realize until later was that Eastpak in Germany is quite expensive -- and actually quite fashion forward. Thumbing through their catalogue, they've collaborated with more than a few designers and have a range of fashion-forward fabrics printed with everything from McQueen-esque plaids (or more recently, D&G) to rows of barbed wire. The kids are definitely alright!
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