Uncontrolled Mess or Girlhood?

Probably every girl you ask will tell you that getting ready with her friends to go to an event, whatever the occasion might be, is the best part of the whole evening.

In our case, it was Berlin Fashion Week in February ’24.

Loud music was coming out of a small speaker lying on the table in the center of our rental one-bedroom apartment, clothes were covering the whole floor and one of my friends accidentally just dropped her lash glue into the toilet. We had a second one of course, duh, because nothing could have been left to chance.

All gathered together, standing in front of the bathroom mirror, we were chatting and catching up on life and pop culture while applying blush and highlighter to our cheekbones with a constant eye on the clock. There was no way we could have risked running late for the show.

When Rhianna’s ‘Only Girl In The World’ started playing, for a second everyone stopped doing what they were doing, came together in the tiny living room space to join a little dance karaoke session, and sang along to the refrain of a whole generation’s girls’ anthem. Let’s be honest is there anything better than listening to a shared playlist full of mixed genres, every single song being a banger, and shouting the refrains together? Probably not.

I wouldn’t have wanted to be our neighbor this evening though, that’s for sure…

Completely forgetting about the rush we were in, and being the GenZ girls we are, there was obviously the additional need to shoot a random TikTok video. Said video will likely never be uploaded but was saved to drafts and in years from now, will be watched to reminisce and look back on the good old youthful times.

With only a few minutes left before having to leave the apartment in order to make it to the show on time, some finishing touches had to be made. Press-on nails were being applied, thoughts about the upcoming show were exchanged, some jewelry was put on to spice up the outfit, and last-minute clip-in extensions were being installed.

Everything to look good, right?

Of course, as always, the imposter syndrome started to slowly set in. Everyone was stunned about the fact that we, three girls in their late teens all coming from a small town, were about to attend Fashion Week yet again. With every second the excitement and chaos increased.

A hundred outfit changes later - because predetermined combinations turned out not to be as spectacular and groundbreaking as previously imagined - we finally managed to leave the apartment. Being fifteen minutes behind schedule, how else could it be, we were almost all a bit sweaty again from last-minute hectic but at least everyone was dressed in their cute little outfit, and our makeup slayed, as GenZ would put it.

All laughing and in a good mood, we stepped out into one of Berlin’s rather cold and windy early spring evenings. At that moment, nothing could have stopped us and we were ready to conquer the city, or at least the fashion show.

As someone watching the situation from outside you could think, what an uncontrolled mess that was.

But we girls call it ‘Girlhood’.