Over the years the city became an important location for B2B business. Starting in 1949, while Berlin, the former German fashion hub laid in ruins, the city of Düsseldorf decided to host the world’s first fashion fair for retailers, coordinated by a trade show organizer Igedo. Düsseldorf’s fashion fair reached its peak in 1999, as the trade fair was considered the largest, and best-selling of its kind on the international stage and offshoots being established in Hong Kong and Moscow. The business with dresses and accessories developed into one of the main economic pillars of the city’s industry. Now, Düsseldorf host multiple major fashion events and fairs each year and is home to over 600 fashion showrooms.
Düsseldorf Fashion Days, also known as DFD, is one of the city’s recent highlights. This year the event is expanding and adding a “Festival Edition” which runs from July 21st till the 28th. The Düsseldorf Fashion Days, originally dedicated to B2B activities of trade fairs and showrooms, will be accompanied by numerous activities also for the B2C community. In the city center 120 brands, retailers, hotels, and galleries have signed up to celebrate fashion, art and creativity together. The city will be buzzing with life: 600 showrooms, networking events, artistically staged shop windows and the first issue of its own DFD Magazine will be presented to the public. In addition, from July 22 to 25, pop-up shop windows will set the scene at Schadowplatz and the surrounding Königsallee. On Saturday, July 24, featuring the so-called Shopping Day with extended opening hours until 10 pm. The crowning finale of the Shopping Day will be an artistically staged light and water projection show that visitors can marvel at along Königsallee and the Kö-Bogen as dusk falls.
Furthermore, from July 23 to 25th the new Strike a Pose – a Festival for Fashion, Art and Style. 15 art galleries from Düsseldorf, Cologne and Bonn will showcase collaborations between artists, designers and labels from the Rhineland art and fashion scene. The festival center is the Museum K21 of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen with presentations from both areas as well as accompanying talks on the topics of sustainability, fair fashion and entrepreneurship.