Frankfurt Fashion Week Cancelled: New Plans for Local Fashion Trade

The Frankfurt Fashion Week will no longer exist. This was announced by economics department head Stephanie Wüst (FDP) at a press conference on Tuesday. It was found that the city was not in a position to help Fashion Week achieve its national success. “It’s not the city’s job to organize trade fairs,” says Wüst during a background discussion in the Bethmannhof.

A hopeless task from the start

Frankfurt and Fashion Week have had a rather rocky relationship since the beginning. At the beginning of last year, the Premium Group had already turned its back on Frankfurt Fashion Week and announced that it was going back to Berlin from now on – the fashion fair had not even been able to take place because of the pandemic. In the summer of 2022 there was a subtle version of fashion week in the city. There was severe criticism because the city paid 4.1 million euros to the fair for the fashion week.

New creative center as a place for the local fashion trade

In order to still give the fashion trade a place in the city, there will be so-called trading and order days twice a year in the Bethmannhof. Florian Jöckel, founder of Massif Central, will open a new creative center here and offer retailers a platform in November and April.

However, in order not to raise false expectations, Jöckel wants to distance himself from the term Fashion Week. “Frankfurt is not Milan, Paris or New York,” he says. Rather, local fashion shops and labels should also be able to take part – he doesn’t want to organize glamorous fashion shows. “But if someone wants to organize a fashion show, they’re welcome to do so,” says Jöckel.