In the SS26 season, the Berlin Fashion Week got additional upswing through labels such as Ottolinger and David Koma. With 37, the program may be even shorter than in other fashion metropolises, but the special feature of the German capital is that the designers: inside work close to the zeitgeist and manage to address important and current topics in their collections.
Even if some designers used the catwalk for clear, literal statements, introspection dominated the SS26 collections.
Introverted romance
The Berlin brand Richert often took up uncomfortable, current topics radically in earlier seasons. For spring/summer 2026, both the collection and the topic of soft are out. The founders take their move to a new studio: Inside, as an occasion, the view under the title and concept “milieuzutz” to focus on their surrounding area. They take the term as a metaphor to think about the protection of “values, methods and ideas” that are lost in the speed and surface of today’s fashion system.
Richert Beil’s collection tries to maintain poetry by staying both romantic and precisely. Tailoring returns as a central element with traditional cuts, uniforms and traditional costumes – and is often flanked by floral motifs. Seid pants and blouses with handmade lace create a feeling of intimacy. In the face of fragile times, it seems meaningful to reflect on personal values.
The concept culminates in the last outfit on the catwalk. The rain noises during the show decrease, an older model enters the damp room in a black, floor -length latex mantle dress, the black flowers on the sleeve and on the side of the heaviness. In these times, protection is needed, but at the same time poetry is also needed to maintain confidence.
With other labels, the search for romance also seems introspective. A choir of bell on a black lace-up top ring in the catwalk of the Milk of Lime label, further detailed look follows with poetic nuances, and at some point a T-shirt with the sentence: “I Demand Poetry”. In troubled times, the desire for poetry can be a political statement.
Romanticism is also an important topic in the SS26 collection of the label brand, because it explores the forbidden love stories of queer adolescents. But she gets a lighter and lighter note from designer Mario. The silhouettes become softer, flowers migrate to the jacket sleeves, and are no longer hidden on the secret love mail – small paper rolls that completed the styling of the first looks.
Role -playing game
The game with the codes of the menswear was not only found on the brand. David Koma showed the Menswear collection of his brand for the first time in Berlin and also played with the identities and the pictures of modern masculinity-and three times.
The title of the “I Love David” collection not only refers to himself, but also to the cultural icon and footballer David Beckham and the classic sculpture David of the Italian artist Michelangelo-as well as her styles. Low-seated, slightly washed jeans of the turn of the millennium, David-Souvenir aprons and a sequin-occupied pinstripe suit invite you to conversation about the male image between idol and individual.
In a subtle form, Berliner Label GmbH also declined the codes of the menswear-from capehemts and stomach-free T-shirts to delicate, pink cotton shorts. Designer Marie Lüder played with roles in her collection, but twisted the classic figures from fairy tales and legends in the context of a modern metropolis. The heroine may be the single mother, and the princess is a satire about masculinity, according to the explanations of Lueder collection.
The identities of women were also questioned. Clara Miramon dedicated her collection to the often invisible nursing staff and association uniforms of nurses from the 1960s and orthopedic design with gathered fabrics and laced corsets. Laura Gerte plunged into the complexity of female experiences with skin-tight mesh, torn jersey and draped T-shirts.
Visit to childhood
After a silence to commemorate the dead in Gaza and in view of the genocide, GmbH showed a deeply personal collection for which the designers Benjamin Huseby and Serhat Isik are deeply immersed in their childhood. “We tried to embody play and joy while we were confronted with despair,” writes the duo in her pamphlet for the show “Imitation of Life”.
The title of the show explains from the feeling that Huseby and Isik feel like sleepwalkers or spirits in the face of cruelty in the world. In these times of “moral collapse”, they no longer feel connected to reality, the designs are also made for all aspects of life, real or not.
From childhood they took elements of the costumes for the circumcision festival for the collection – such as sashes or the Turkish expression of Masallah. The saying is used to express gratitude for something nice or a positive event. It is also used to avert disaster-GmbH put the saying on the hem of abdominal-free T-shirts.
Some adults cling to childhood memories as a form of flight-this observation was part of the inspiration of the Sia Arnika label for the SS26 collection. The result was clothing that were too narrow and too freely, as if they were made according to memories and not logic. The SFO1G brand also looks at its view for spring/summer 2026 and wants to capture the collective nostalgia after the intensive teenagers.
Digital knight
The Lueder label showed its collection in a digital medieval world of legends, where knights fight against a metallic dragon monster. A bard singing introduces the show, gnome hats and streetwear armor belong to this world full of unexpected turns such as protective hoods or talismanic belt buckles. The catwalk blends in history, imagination and performance.
Medieval knighthood and digital world are also the sources of inspiration of the Idn label, which showed its designs as an installation during the Berlin fashion week.
