Fashion, Berlin-style
All around Berlin Fashion Week, the German capital proves that it is a fashion metropolis with a difference.
Berlin may not have a Garment District like in New York, no upmarket ateliers like in Paris and no legendary names like in Milan. Nonetheless, all around Berlin Fashion Week and shows like Bread & Butter, the German capital proves that Berlin fashion is younger, fresher and wilder than the luxury international labels. It tends to be more original than commercially-oriented, and is frequently rather edgy. Berlin fashion makes a statement. Like German Garment for instance, a new shirt design label based in the capital that is well on its way to becoming very well-known indeed. The four people behind it already are: Kilian Kerner, Berlin’s shooting star in the world of fashion, Matthias Schweighöfer, the actor and director, TV presenter Joko Winterscheidt and music producer Sebastian Radlmeier. They are four friends who came up with an ambitious plan: to make products without exploiting anyone and without resorting to low-wage production. T-shirts for men and women, made entirely in Germany but affordable nonetheless – and cool to boot. Ever since Schweighöfer wore one of the t-shirts at a Kilian Kerner fashion show, demand has been high and the collection has been growing.
Handmade bikinis
“Think global, act local” would also be an apt way of describing the statement made by the fashion created by designers Anna Berger and Eva Swoboda. Their swimwear fashion, based on the cotton bikinis their mothers wore in the 1970s, is handmade in Berlin. They use the small ads board in supermarkets to advertise for pensioners who fancy doing a bit of crocheting. A needlework group from the Turkish cultural association in Berlin’s Neukölln district now also works together with “e.a. seawear”. To meet growing demand, the swimwear designers want to continue manufacturing in Germany, and are now cooperating with a family-run business in the state of Thuringia. The necessary capital was raised in a successful crowdfunding campaign – a means of financing that these days is also typical of the creative young designers from Berlin.
Berlin Fashion Week from 8 to 13 July 2014
Bread & Butter from 8 to 10 July 2014 in Berlin
