PREMIUM has transformed the famous Berliner Luft – within the span of only a few years, the city has become an internationally recognized fashion metropolis. Today, Berlin sets the trends, is always one step ahead, a place where fashion, lifestyle, art, music, the established and the innovative come together. And in as fascinating a way as nowhere else.
Berlin offers a lot of space for creativity, it’s open to all kinds of designs for living and, as a result enormously livable. The relatively low rents attract huge flagship stores just as young, talented artists to Berlin, making the city immensely attractive for an international audience.
From PREMIUM’s beginnings in a subway tunnel beneath Potsdamer Platz with 70 brands and 3,500 visitors, to the PREMIUM of January 2011 with 1,000 collections and almost 60,000 visitors at its own location STATION-Berlin, a lot has happened.
A revolutionary, innovative fashion trade show has become an internationally successful enterprise. Many-faceted, progressive, and with an influence on the world of fashion that is beyond doubt: PREMIUM International Fashion Trade Show.
Total global
Now as before, the exclusive trade show PREMIUM is the main focus of the PREMIUM team and, has, in the meantime, come to be considered the mainstay of Berlin Fashion Week. Worldwide, it is the only fair that puts fashion and lifestyle in the high-end segment together in this size and quality.
It seems only logical that the concept for Berlin Fashion Week would also have been created by PREMIUM Exhibitions GmbH, a project which Anita Tillmann and Norbert Tillman presented to global player IMG in New York in 2005. Following advice from the makers of PREMIUM, IMG now has a headquarters in Berlin too. In 2007, Mercedes-Benz was acquired as the title sponsor – certainly also a reason why Berlin Fashion Week achieved international recognition so fast.
On to new horizons
Background information on fashion trends as well as the communication of all events, shows and trade fairs, are bundled together by PREMIUM in the Berlin Fashion Week Magazine and a corresponding guide. The Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin Guide now has a circulation of 30,000 and the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin Magazine, a circulation of 70,000, with national and international delivery to 40,000 buyers and media representatives.
Time and again, PREMIUM has engaged and established new fields in the area of fashion, as with the founding of the PREMIUM Fashion Store F95, which has been presenting exclusive fashion in Berlin since 2005. But outside the fashion field too, the team of PREMIUM Exhibitions GmbH brings innovative event ideas and novel trade fair concepts to the market. As, for example, with the premiere of the “Berlin Bicycle Show” in March 2010, where innovative trend bikes, city and mountain bikes, sport bikes, Velo couture® as well as concepts of intelligent mobility were presented for the second time to professional visitors and an interested public. Or with the “next conference”, one of the most important future conventions for digital trends in Europe, which PREMIUM has been co-producing since 2010.
Just a few years ago, it was completely different. When Anita Tillmann and Norbert Tillmann – who, by the way, only coincidentally have the same surnames – founded PREMIUM Exhibitions GmbH in 2002, Berlin was virtually fashion-free. They recognized the city’s potential and organized the first PREMIUM Fashion Show in a subway tunnel in the center of Berlin. And it was a success.
That was, on the one hand, certainly due to the unique exhibition location, on the other, however, also to a brand new trade fair concept which PREMIUM has used to define a completely new segment: Instead of focusing on marketing and booth construction of the fair, fashion is in the foreground. For the first time, womens’ and mens’ collections were presented together, denim shown alongside accessories and luxury labels. The aim is to deliver relevant content and first-hand fashion information as well as being a meeting place for the most innovative national and international collections and retailers from high-end stores worldwide.
“PREMIUM is not about more, PREMIUM is about better!” (Norbert Tillmann)
Everything hand-made
PREMIUM guarantees this in its exclusive selection. Only those designers whose products perfectly fit the concept, profile and audience are exhibited. Because the focus should be 100% on fashion, the exhibition areas provided have a maximum size of 50 sq. meters. Each designer forgoes their own decoration, music and furnishings at the start. Thus an ideal work environment is created with equal opportunity for all. At PREMIUM, young Berlin designers are presented alongside established ones, national and international emerging talent alongside top stars. Each receives the same attention.
“We believe in young talents” (Anita und Norbert Tillmann)
To promote young designers, in 2005, the PREMIUM YOUNG DESIGNERS AWARD was launched. A highly regarded award within the industry, which has a very positive effect on the credibility and thus, the success of the label. Through the winners’ presence at the fair and in the media, high brand awareness is quickly achieved.
“PREMIUM is the opposite of the mainstream – PREMIUM is focused, selective and unique!” (Anita Tillmann)On many stages at once
As a complement to its international location in Berlin, PREMIUM Order Platforms were launched in Düsseldorf and Munich. They meet the demand of predominantly German-speaking buyers for a high-quality order platform and have established themselves thus successfully as regional satellites.
July 2006 witnessed another innovation: The first PREMIUM SYMPOSIUM. A new stage that presents international business heavy-weights from the areas of design, media and industry to discuss current themes relevant to success.
One year later, GREEN LIVING was presented at PREMIUM – the only Green Luxury Area in all of Europe with high design ambitions. Fashion that is ecological as well as ethically correct and produced according to sustainable standards. With fair and responsible trade and the Green Luxury fields, PREMIUM not only sets new standards, but, thanks to growing environmental awareness, has positioned itself with the top-growing market of the 21st Century.
During PREMIUM Berlin in January 2009, SEEK was launched and presents a selection of progressive designers and brands from the youth culture, music and art segments. Thanks to its huge success, the presentation area of SEEK will be doubled the next year.
“Fashion is like cooking – it’s about taste, about ingredients, about the way it’s presented. What counts in the end is the right mix and that’s what PREMIUM provides!” (Norbert Tillmann)
From Subway Station to Postal Station
The purchase of the former Postal Freight Depot “Dresdner Bahnhof” on Gleisdreieck was an enormous step in realizing the project. Besides creating a unique atmosphere, the architecture (turn of the 20th Century) also lends a special flair to the different exhibition areas.
Thanks to its inspired, innovative concepts, PREMIUM registers steadily growing numbers of visitors and exhibitors at STATION-Berlin. Through strategic marketing and leasing, the location has established itself successfully in the area of modern event production from economics, society and culture.
Change instead of Standstill
Anita Tillmann and Norbert Tillmann have connected with the spirit of the times with their way of thinking. The industry, and years of growing networks, they have moved the enterprise to the top of global fashion trade shows.
Off We Go
This combination has proved itself to be ideal for realizing a vision of continuous development and renewal, and not just in the fashion sector. Anita Tillmann and Norbert Tillmann are doers, not talkers. Striving for perfection and uniqueness is the focus. In the process, they don’t waste words about what they are doing because there is simply no more time for it. And that’s exactly what works.
As a game changer, PREMIUM Exhibitions uses disruptive technologies, breaks through outdated models, leaves behind restrictions as well as established business models and defines them anew. Thus, it improves the experience, the benefit and the value for the public, the exhibitors and events of the most diverse branches.
“We create what is needed: inspiration, reliability and business – a perfect combination!” (Anita Tillmann)PREMIUM: www.premiumexhibitions.com
PREMIUM ORDER Düsseldorf: www.premiumexhibitions.com/premium/duesseldorf
PREMIUM ORDER Munich: www.premiumexhibitions.com/premium/munich
PREMIUM Fashion Store F95: www.f95store.com
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin Magazine: www.berlinfashionweek.com
SEEK Exhibitions: www.seekexhibitions.com
Berliner Bicycle Show: www.berlinerfahrradschau.de
Next: www.next-conference.com/next11
PREMIUM Exhibitions GmbH | STATION-Berlin | Luckenwalder Strasse 4-6 | 10963 Berlin | info@premiumexhibitions.com
