On each of his visits to Berlin, Ronen Shaham senses the urge for freedom that drives the Los Angeles computer engineer to swap his work clothes for something more casual: a lace shirt, studded necklace and side-slit skirt.
Known worldwide for their extravagance, Berlin’s clubs have coined an uninhibited, fetishism-inspired style that makes liberal use of leather and latex, and uses accessories that pinch, pinch and pinch.
The so-called “fetish fashion” has its own shops and well-known designers and is the focus of the city’s two big summer festivals: the Technoparade in July and the Berlin Pride March, one of the largest in Europe, on Saturday.
This summer party season, Shaham and his partner Lulu Neel have decided to take their latest pilgrimage to Berlin.
The couple fell in love with the city three years ago when they encountered a community of clubbers “who dressed so much better than I had ever seen,” says Lulu.
“I wanted to be dressed like that,” says the young woman, who specializes in digital 3D design by day and is wearing a black necklace with metal rings at an event hosted by up-and-coming club label ‘The Code’.
Purple and Black
Shaham and Neel have refined their look over the course of several visits to the German capital. He says he has a thing for latex, lace and harness and likes to show off his tattoos. In Berlin “you can live like this and go out on the street, get in the Uber and feel free,” says the 45-year-old.
“The clubs, the nights, the magazines that you find here – our customers say there is nothing comparable in Paris, Rome, Milan, Argentina or New Zealand,” says Gisela Braun, whose boutique Schwarzer Reiter is one of the temples of fetish fashion in Berlin.
The shop, which opened 14 years ago, is decorated in purple and black and proudly displays its wares in the window overlooking a city center street.
“We wanted a place where you feel comfortable, where you forget your inhibitions, with a touch of luxury and elegance,” says Braun.
In their studio, the tailors from Schwarzer Reiter tailor and sew their own line of accessories – mostly made of leather – which has made them famous among the city’s night owls.
“When clubs reopened after the pandemic, we had queues outside the store for six months. People sometimes waited 40 minutes,” says Braun.
After three years of complete standstill, the demand speaks for a “great need to rediscover the carnal, the wild,” says Carl Tillessen, trend expert at the German Fashion Institute (DMI).
A rampant generation
The fashion world has not closed on the trend, and the biggest designers have thrown uninhibited shows: Diesel handed out sex toys and condoms in recent collections, while Tommy Hilfiger presented a model in full S&M gear brandishing a whip.
It’s “not a bad thing” that the fashion trend is finding a larger audience, says 34-year-old Argentinian jeweler Augusto Talpalar, who lives in Berlin.
“Anything that becomes popular is more likely to be accepted by society,” he says. The new generation of Berliners amazes Christopher Bauder, who says he’s spent more than 20 of his 50 years on this planet in the capital’s “dark techno clubs.”
“There’s something natural about the way they move, their sexuality and their fashion sense,” says the multimedia artist. “Wearing minimalist clothing or even being naked used to be something very unusual. You could only experience it in certain clubs and in certain situations. Today, completely normal in Berlin. Today it is possible at every party. I think it’s great.” (AFP)