DELUXE FACES & PLACES
Heaven on Earth Hotel Adlon, a select circle: as part of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, Christina Duxa and Claudia Effenberg showed their new collection – with shoes designed in Mallorca chopenhauer has given us the following maxim: The great events in life are not heralded by drums and trumpets, but creep in quietly by the back door. But an event held in the ballroom of the Hotel Adlon in Berlin has little of the back door about it. And even less when it is attended by German celebrities from the worlds of sport, fashion and the media. Certainly, the show by Christina Duxa from Munich and Mallorca’s shoe designer Michaela Hüffer, which took place away from the runways in front of the Brandenburg Gate, was one of the undisputed highlights of January’s Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. What Hüffer, Duxa and her counterpart Claudia Effenberg brought together here was more than local high society. Alongside Stefan Effenberg and Karin Sammer were Simone Thomalla and TV presenter Verena Wriedt. Udo Walz was there, as jovial and in good spirits as always and Simone Ballack arrived in a Duxa creation, a jacket covered in red roses, which a little later on also made its appearance on the catwalk. It was all about fashion. Duxa and Effenberg showed evening couture for the coming summer – a trilogy of sophistication: at times extravagant in black, and in velvet, patent leather and silk, at others light and spring-like in cheerful pink, purple, rose and yellow – a riot of colours with a floral theme. They then went one better in cream with a line of classic couture in champagne and white, both innocent and sophisticatedly provocative at the same time. Everyone who mattered was there; it was absolutely metropolitan, absolutely Adlon and, in keeping with the collection, so were the shoes. “The designs were created with Duxa creations in mind,” said Michaela Hüffer. “Extravagant shoes that are still comfortable after hours of wear.” The designer, whose boutique ‘Top As’ has been in Mallorca for thirty years, now has branches in Puerto Andratx, Paguera and Son Bugadelles. She also has her own shoe collection ‘Heaven on Earth’. And
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Christina Duxa and Claudia Effenberg
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now her shoes have been seen in Berlin, in dialogue with Duxa Couture. And now to wedding dresses: Sara Nuru, the 2009 winner of Heidi Klum’s casting show ‘Germany’s Next Top Model’ (GNTM) and in great demand for Fashion Week as few others, closed the show with 13-year-old bridesmaid Lucia Effenberg. Model agent Peyman Amin had assisted in securing the German superstar of Ethiopian origin and in doing so swelled the numbers of VIPs at the Adlon. As did teleshopping guru Harald Glööckler. The Glitter Tsar turned up as loud as ever. But on this occasion, the father of opulence and founder of the ‘Pompöös’ label was full of praise for the quality of what he saw on the catwalk. “At last a show where fashion and shoes are in perfect harmony,” pronounced Glööckler. A veritable accolade for the shoe designer from Mallorca.
Above: Top model Sara Nuru with Dayte Bouissa. Below: Glitter Tsar Harald Glööckler