Dagmar Bili: Burda World Inside Out

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The editor-in-chief of the German magazine Burda Dagmar Bili talks about fashion, style and, of course, the most important thing - the painstaking process of working on collections for new issues, hidden from prying eyes.

Dagmar Bili in his office

How to create Burda

We begin work on the collections of the next season with visits to fashion shows in Paris, Milan and New York. We study the catwalk models and try to guess - yeah, this may turn out to be a trend in a year.
Then I go to the Paris exhibition Première Vision Fabrics, specializing in fabrics, to get an idea of the actual colors and materials.
It is impossible to say exactly what the designers will do next year. Therefore, in our work there is always an element of the game, competition - guessed, not guessed? We sit with my fashion team for a long time and discuss styles, colors, silhouettes, until we finally come to an understanding of what the first six issues of the season will consist of. And then the turn of the designer comes, who receives a theme from us, and on its basis develops a collection. This takes some time, maybe four weeks.
Then we go to Offenburg (a city in the south-west of Germany, where the headquarters of Burda and Burda Fashion Factory are located, a place production of patterns and sewing patterns- approx. BurdaStyle.ru), we select fabrics, we meet with designers who make patterns, and after a month or two they show us prototypes that can still be adjusted - change the proportions, shorten something, extend something, add a button there, a flower here ... And when this is done, you can finish work on the collection and prepare for the shoot.

Workspace at the Burda office in Munich

In general, the path from design to a finished magazine takes about six months. So what about the issue that we are preparing now - it will be September, they started working in January, can you imagine?

About fashion laws

In order not to crash, you must constantly be immersed in fashion, catch the slightest trends, understand the mood of designers. However, there are some universal laws. For example, if this season there were a lot of miniskirts, then after a while, as a rule, a maxi fashion comes. And if this year the clothes are full of bright colors, then three years later everything will turn black.

About Burda Style

Burda is a special magazine. After all, his audience is women from 18 to 80 years old from all over the world - from Russia, Sweden, Italy, Brazil ... This is a unique case. And although it is believed that fashion is international, this is not entirely true. What is worn on one continent, it will not necessarily be pleasant to fashionistas from another. And we must keep this in mind at all times. 50 models of each issue should satisfy the tastes of all our readers - southerners and northerners, full and thin, tall and petite, young and mature. This need forms the unique universal style of Burda.

A collection of old Burda magazines in which Dagmar draws inspiration
for editions of "Burda. Vintage"

It seems very important to me that the whole fashion that we create is also a fashion for ourselves - the people who make this magazine. We should like these models, we should be ready to wear these clothes, and - with pleasure. And if this does not happen, then the whole collection is a complete mistake.

About own style

I do not like black and I love all other colors. Colors, prints, fabrics, textures ... And let it be something special, man-made. I do not like to wear the same as everyone else. If I see someone in the same blouse as mine, I will never wear it again. I hate it!
By style of clothing, I’m more Italian than German. I like to mix styles - for example, romance and masculine style. I like to dress feminine, but femininity should be opposed to something - brutal skin or men's trousers, or an oversized blazer.

About important in clothes

Clothing may not be sexy, but a woman should feel sexy in it. And for this it is necessary that the dress was not only beautiful, but also comfortable. A woman should breathe freely in him and not think every second about whether the tummy is bulging. And it can sometimes be difficult to convey to the designer, especially if the designer is a man. Well, this is my personal opinion ...

About work

Office on Arabellastrasse

I am a real lark. I work during the day, I like to go somewhere on the first plane. I love the early morning, when the streets are still empty and the birds begin to sing. This, for my taste, is the best time of the day.So I usually start work early. I come here on Arabellastrasse (A street in Munich where the office of the editorial office of Burda magazine is located - approx. BurdaStyle.ru), discussing plans with an assistant, writing down thoughts that came to mind over night. By the way, I spend a lot of working time not here, but in Offenburg, where the main work on the collection is going on, so my morning can begin there.
The day is usually very busy, and I really would like to have more time for new ideas, time for inspiration, which is always not enough ...
I try to have a few short meetings a day. I really love these little zhurfiks, when 3-4 people exchange opinions, ideas in a very intensive mode and always come up with something interesting. And I just love to come up with a new one.

About the dark room

Warehouse of sewn models

People rarely think about what happens to models sewn for the magazine after filming ends. And we, by the way, keep them all here, in a special room in the basement of our office on Arabellastrasse. There are a lot of things, and from time to time we organize sales of clothes from past collections, which are very popular with our colleagues and neighbors in the business center. Everything is sold at a symbolic price - 10-15 euros, but these are truly exclusive things.
Photo: BurdaStyle.ru

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