Berlin Fashion Week to Showcase City’s Unique, Non-Commercial Creativity This Weekend
Berlin Fashion Week begins Friday and will take place over a weekend for the first time, running through Monday.
Scheduling clashes with the larger, more established events on the global fashion schedule is one of the major challenges for showcases that are more peripheral but still want to attract international attendees.
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“This time [for Berlin], there was a risk of coinciding with New York Fashion Week due to a scheduling shift,” Michael Biel, Berlin’s state secretary for economic affairs, said of the reason for holding the shows over a weekend (NYFW begins officially Feb. 6). “I am confident it won’t be to our disadvantage.”
Weekends in Berlin are “just a bit more exciting,” Biel continued, referring to the creative culture and nightlife the German capital is famous — and even infamous — for.
Over the next four days the city will host more than 30 shows by everyone from previous Paris menswear regulars GmbH and local sophisticates Richert Beil, to drama-queen dresses by Maximilian Gedra and elegant looks by Berlin stalwart William Fan, among many others. There are also dozens of side events, including talks on virtual reality and the environmental toll the fashion industry takes, as well as multiple exhibitions, parties and open ateliers. It also includes Berlin-based agency Reference Studios presenting the third incarnation of a series of showcases named Intervention. Last year, Intervention made headlines due to surprise attendance by the musician Ye (formerly Kanye West).
The four-day event is supported by city authorities to the tune of 4.8 million euros annually.
Berlin Fashion Week has been running since 2007 and has been through a number of changes, going from being closely linked to various, now defunct, apparel trade fairs to becoming more of an independent showcase for the city’s live-and-let-live culture and wild creativity.
This season, attendees include representatives from U.K. department store Selfridges, London retailer Alta Store, online platforms Ssense and APOC, GR8 from Tokyo and Hypebeast’s retailer HBX, among others.
Meanwhile, some of the newcomers showing at the event seem happy to forgo commercial imperatives in favor of producing handcrafted one-offs that cannot always be easily recreated in large numbers.
That attitude might well come down to the fact that the cost of living and running a small fashion business in the German capital is still less than in the world’s leading fashion cities. The most recent report from Numbeo, a global cost-of-living database, puts Berlin at number 95 on a list of 327 cities, ranked in order of expense. New York is at number four, London at 14, Paris at 35 and Milan sits at number 68.
It may also be because Berlin’s looks and labels are often forged in the sweat and heat of the city’s legendary nightlife and its edgy, rough-and-ready, ’90s-heavy street style. Collections commonly reflect how local designers value independence and sustainability, producing handmade one-offs while not worrying too much about the rent.
It’s also a sign of the times, said Stavros Karelis, founder and buying director of concept store Machine A, who was on the jury that selected the Germany-based designers eligible for state-supported runway shows this weekend in Berlin.
There was a time when younger labels tended to have more commercial ambitions and moved away from the handmade, Karelis told WWD. “But I am happy to see that this is now switching back: To prioritizing craftsmanship, one-off handmade pieces that show skills and unique ideas. Emerging designers all over the world are making this a priority.”
You can see it in the younger brands that are winning international fashion prizes and in what customers are wanting to buy and wear, added Karelis, who is part of the expert panel advising on the annual LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers. “That’s what’s wonderful about Berlin,” he noted, “there is a true sense of this value.”
“Younger brands are questioning all distribution models, especially the wholesale model,” added London-based stylist and creative director Kk Obi, who was also part of Berlin Fashion Week’s jury. “The luxury market is in a downturn so traditional modes of sale should be rethought. Not everything needs to be available in variables and multiples, some things need to be the one and only.”
This weekend, several newcomers to Berlin Fashion Week join other locals like Lou de Betoly, Plngns, SF1OG and Horror Vacui, that have already won praise for going heavy on the handmade. Here, a look at some of them.
Kasia Kucharska
Berlin-based designer Kasia Kucharska, together with business partners Wanda Wollinsky and Reiner Toerner, recently won a Fashion Council Germany/Vogue Germany prize worth 25,000 euros for garments cast in biodegradable latex.
“I’m not very good at sewing,” Kucharska admitted, laughing. “When I started to work with this technique as a student, I just wanted to find a way to make clothing that no one has ever seen before, to create something new. But because I’m not very good at sewing, I also knew I’d have to invent something new,” she confessed.
The result is a series of eye-catching garments, often in bold colors, that partially mimic handmade lace but are the result of a sculptural technique using latex, all made to order, to avoid any excess waste.
Some of the pieces are one-offs but others could be produced in larger numbers, Kucharska told WWD.
“I see us as a bit like ambassadors of change,” she continued. “You know, we want to create pieces that are different and better than their predecessors, but that are also desirable, that people want to have fun with. It’s really about dreaming, I think,” Kucharska concluded, “dreaming about creating a world we wish to live in. It’s very optimistic.”
Laurin Schuler
Munich-raised and now-Berlin-based designer Laurin Schuler is most interested in sculpture and exploring different materials. His offerings include dresses hand-woven from tulle and hand-stitched, skintight pantsuits.
“For me, working on these garments, it’s about finding new context for a material that everybody already knows, in a very over-packed, over-stimulating world,” the designer, who’s recently done stints with London-based designer Linus Leonardsson and Viktor & Rolf in Paris, told WWD about his complicated tulle silhouettes. “To be honest, I’m just fascinated by this kind of cheap-looking stuff that we all usually know best from big wedding dresses.”
Vanessa Baernthol
Tired of disposable fashion and the grind of seasonal trends, Berlin-based stylist Vanessa Baernthol has concentrated on a more sculptural way of making what she describes as gender-neutral, slow fashion.
“I work closely with the body and I like to create new, almost architectural forms,” she said. Much of her latest work wouldn’t look out of place in a Goth-flavored sex club, and the collection includes harnesses, bralettes and collars. Baernthol describes the looks as landing somewhere between jewelry and a garment or accessory, explaining that much of her latest collection is entirely handmade.
“No machine was involved,” she asserted, “which allows us to produce made-to-measure pieces for each individual body.”
But that’s not to say the brand couldn’t be more commercial, Baernthol was quick to point out, noting that she’d love to expand internationally and could work with her network of freelancers in order to produce selected pieces in greater numbers.
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