Mercedes-Benz Bucharest Fashion Week F/W 2025

The first thing we realised upon landing in Romania and meeting the team behind Mercedes-Benz Bucharest Fashion Week was that their vision, their way of understanding the fashion business, goes beyond its borders. International press from many European countries, buyers from different continents, and brands based in neighbouring countries gathered for a few days in this city, which is striving to strengthen its ties with other nations and turn its fashion industry into a favourable place for undertaking new projects, as well as to consolidate a quality showcase with potential for both established and emerging fashion brands.

A good example of this was the lectures we attended on the first day before the fashion shows began. We had the opportunity to learn from various international and national experts who not only discussed the importance of creating new visibility platforms but also encouraged all the young students and creatives who have just started their fashion brands to pursue their dreams, think outside the box, and defend the personality of their projects because that's what makes them different. An exciting and optimistic message accompanied by a very exciting initiative, the Next Generation programme, opened the second edition of Mercedes-Benz Bucharest Fashion Week, which in the following days would become the epicentre of Eastern European fashion.

“We are very happy that we are being taken more and more seriously on the international scene and that we are achieving our goal of making the "Made in Romania" label an emblem that attracts more and more buyers and leading figures on the international scene,” said Roxana Voloșeniuc, the event’s co-founder, who is also the editor in chief and publisher of Elle Romania, the country’s leading fashion magazine. This industry professional is responsible for this promising platform, which she leads alongside Mario Antico, founder of the Italian International School of Bucharest. It is no surprise that this fashion week has established a very strong synergy with the Italian fashion industry, including institutional partners such as the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, the Italian Embassy, ​​and ITA – Italian Trade Agency, among others, as well as academic partners such as Polimoda.

It's no coincidence that Mercedes-Benz Bucharest Fashion Week has joined forces with Creative Market Agency, the only Romanian PR agency specialised in fashion, beauty, and lifestyle, to coordinate and communicate the different activations for its event. Working for leading fashion brands and serving iconic global brands, based in Bucharest and Milan, this agency's exceptional work, combined with the talent of the fashion week organisers, results in a perfect partnership where every detail is taken care of to make this event a unique experience to spread its message to the world.

On the first day, after the panels and presentations led by professionals, we headed to the first two shows: Almaz and NISSA. These two brands hosted their shows in locations specifically chosen for the occasion – most fashion shows took place in the Grand Hall of the National Museum of Art of Romania. While Almaz opted for the Nicodim Gallery, an exceptional venue that perfectly framed their proposal, which spoke about faith in a world of chaos and discord, NISSA, a family-owned brand founded in 1993 and which has shown its collections to buyers at major fashion weeks, hosted one of the largest shows of the entire edition. Creating a unique atmosphere that encapsulated the brand's DNA, its latest collection, Beneath the Blink, was an ode to the brand's signature features.

On the second day of Mercedes-Benz Bucharest Fashion Week, we attended the shows of two of the Ukrainian brands with the greatest international presence, which we've featured on previous occasions on METAL and which have proven to offer something different in the current fashion scene: Litkovska and Kseniaschnaider. The first one, which celebrated its fifteenth anniversary last year, brought its Fall/Winter 2025 collection presented at Paris Fashion Week titled 3 a.m. – traverse to Bucharest, demonstrating why its collections are so highly praised by the press and buyers. Exceptional silhouettes, experimentation with materials, and top-notch styling made this collection one of the most coherent and complete works we saw at this edition.

Ukrainian artist Ksenia Schnaider demonstrated a highly recognisable brand identity with her new collection, using denim to create new silhouettes and patterns. She also included the first-ever Kseniaschnaider bag, a unique piece we featured on METAL a few months ago, on the runway, masterfully completing the looks. Her vision of fashion is contemporary and fresh and has earned a well-deserved place on the international fashion map under their motto "rethinking denim, reinventing fashion".

We also learnt more about the work of Rhea Costa, who debuted their newest jewellery line and offered unexpected cutouts and fluid and fitted silhouettes. The brand just dressed Christina Aguilera for her Hollywood Bowl performance a few days ago. Medeea's collection was a manifesto that reconfigures elegance under new coordinates, making black its star ally and collaborating with Sonia Mihăilescu, a first-year student at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, to create masks that elevated the concept of the show.

Carmen Secareanu offered her signature blend of stylistic innovation, fabric mastery, and sculptural volume, and OK KINO, the Moldova-based brand we talked about a few days ago in this article after our visit to Moldovan Brands Runway 2025, presented its collection 06, elevating minimalism through a perfectly executed show.

Afterwards, it was Romeo Gigli and Ana Radu's turn, two of the brands that experimented the most with volume throughout the edition, and VOL (Vestiaire d'un Oiseau Libre) put the finishing touch to the second day of Mercedes-Benz Bucharest Fashion Week. The brand's staging, whose garments are designed to embody the union of contrasting yet complementary forces, dovetailing structure, and fluidity, was one of the most brilliant. Drawing inspiration from the mystical art of alchemy, its new collection was dyed entirely in black and white. While it worked well as a whole, the fabrics, the shoes, and the idea of ​​placing a fan at the end of the runway to generate movement in the garments were not entirely successful, causing almost all the models to trip on the catwalk.

Ami Amalia was the first brand to present its collection on the catwalk on the third day, adding a touch of colour to this fashion week with a proposal that eschewed the minimalism favoured by most brands and abandoned black and white in favour of bright red, purple, and green. Bucharest-based brand M.Marquise embodied elegance and sophistication, while Kata Szegedi offered one of the most functional collections of the entire season. Exploring the interplay of wool and denim, sculpting architectural silhouettes with collage-like compositions, contemporary streetwear, and music inspired the designs of this brand, which strays significantly from the trends we've seen most this fashion week to offer something different.

Rxquette also opted for the black and white combination, a favourite among the brands that have presented on the Romanian runway, as we saw over the last few days. Diana Milkanova eliminated all unnecessary elements in her polished and well-thought-out collection to offer exceptional, high-quality pieces built on minimalism and attention to detail. Alexandra Sipa, who dressed Charli XCX at Primavera Sound Festival 2024, went all in on colour in her Water Under the Bridge collection, her runway debut, which demonstrated a very personal vision of fashion that, despite being inspired by contemporary Romanian culture and post-Communist youth, is very different from what her fellow Romanian designers do.

Murmur, a brand that has dressed Pamela Anderson and Rita Ora, presented a refined and elegant collection, bringing together one of the best front rows of the entire edition and having the support of its entire community. And , the Ukrainian brand we last spoke to in 2022 in this interview, offered a special showcase based on their signature archives, featuring core elements and rare pieces from their 2018-2025 collections.

The final event of the second edition of Mercedes-Benz Bucharest Fashion Week was undoubtedly the most international of the season. Manokhi, a brand that brings a new vision to what a leather goods brand can be, partnered with Elle Romania to host a private dinner bringing together over fifty well-known fashion figures from around the world. Chiara Ferragni hosted the event, which was also attended by Jessica Goicoechea, who starred on the cover of METAL 46. This last event demonstrates, as said at the beginning of our review, the efforts of this fashion week, as well as of all the brands and agents that are part of the Romanian fashion industry, to continue internationalising and connecting with the world. A great goal that they will undoubtedly achieve if they continue working in this direction.