After the menswear shows in Paris, Milan and Copenhagen, all eyes have been on the German capital in the past few days. Berlin Fashion Week has established itself as a hotbed of young talent, but also as a new contact point for international brands. They are the big names on the calendar in Berlin and not just one of many. These include the Berlin label GmbH and the Japanese brand John Lawrence Sullivan, which made its debut at the fashion week.
The highlights and buyer favorites at a glance.
Memories
This season, several brands delved into their past and memories. London-based designer Andrej Gronau interpreted the dollhouse as a concept of individualism and comfort. To do this, he recalled two memories from his family circle and was inspired for his colorful collection by the interior of an old villa where his grandmother celebrated her 80th birthday. Wall decorations and childish motifs such as unicorns found their place in it.
Meanwhile, Adebayo Oke-Lawal, the Nigerian designer behind the brand Orange Culture, recalled days spent playing in the garden with his late mother. In the collection, inspiration was evident in an eclectic color palette with intense tones and prints that outline mother and son. Flowing fabrics and different textures embodied the richness of nature. Macrame pieces made by a former headmistress in Nigeria particularly stood out.
Bobby Kolade, designer of the circular label Buzigahill, was inspired by the 1960s and 1970s in East Africa for his current collection. The focus was on the central question of why millennials from this part of the world become nostalgic when they see pictures of their grandparents dancing on a parquet floor or posing in front of a Citroën. The period after countries like Uganda and Kenya gained independence was characterized by a feeling of freedom and optimism. Textile factories flourished in both countries and wide collars and flared trousers were fashionable. Kolade carried this nostalgia into the twelfth installment of his “Return to Sender” collection, for which he worked with second-hand clothing from Ownio Market in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. They mostly come from Europe, the USA and Asia, where they will be brought back after his design process. Patchwork, knotting techniques and material mixes dominated the looks.
Fashionable sounds
The Berlin label GmbH looked back on its own history when it took its first steps ten years ago, which is characterized by “the refusal – or perhaps rather the compulsive inability – to remain silent in the face of atrocities in the world,” according to the show notes. The current collection is intended to harken back to its beginnings as a brand that is closely linked to music and club culture. She brings together her own thoughts and historical moments. The focus is on Berlin’s experimental music landscape of the 80s, which was characterized by synth music and resistance.
To these industrial sounds, the GmbH duo, which consists of Serhat Işık and Benjamin Huseby, showed a dark-looking collection in a former thermal power plant, which is also home to the techno club Tresor. Fluffy outerwear and large fur collars lined up alongside dark suits and body-hugging tops. Tailoring was paired with sporty elegance. Black floral prints were one of the central design elements, while the color palette was reserved with black, white and gray.
Musical influences also inspired Arashi Yanagawa, the Japanese designer behind the brand John Lawrence Sullivan, who made his Berlin debut on Monday. The former boxer combined his past career with stories from friends who are in the Norwegian metal scene and celebrate parties in the forest, explains the designer. The rocking collection was primarily based on long leather pieces such as coats, boots and gloves, which were combined with strong tailoring and transparent mesh elements.
Dagger also played hard guitar riffs. Founder Luke Rainey sent skaters onto the runway wearing ripped baggy jeans and accessories like Vans slip-ons and Eastpak backpacks “daubed” with drawings and sayings popular with teenagers in the 2010s. Rainey focused on growing up in Portrush, Northern Ireland, which was characterized by boarded-up arcades and harsh coastal weather. Various knitted pieces depicting a punk with a mohawk hairstyle were featured alongside patterns such as leopard, stars and stripes. In contrast to GmbH and John Lawrence Sullivan, different colors and pattern mixes played a central role at Dagger.
Big stage
Several brands in Berlin impressed not only with their collection, but also with an exciting backdrop.
The Augsburg brand OBS immediately set up three different sets, which were connected by door frames on the round presentation area. The runway was divided into a living room, a workshop and an outdoor landscape.
Outerwear and workwear paired with sets – including trousers and an overshirt – fit harmoniously into the overall picture. The focus was also on the brand’s various bags, for which it is known and which also aroused the interest of Shuhei Iwasa. The buyer for Japanese department store chain Takashimaya will keep an eye on the brand, he said.
SF1OG also played with a special catwalk production. In the middle of the industrial show location was an installation with several sinks from which water trickled. The collection presented, including skinny jeans, double-breasted jackets and large bags, analyzed the time when stars were chased by paparazzi to get the “perfect photo”. In this context, the Berlin label also addressed the question of who we are when no one is looking, it says in the show notes. Hiding and protecting are two central mechanisms that resonate here.
Meanwhile, Haderlump invited people to the Wintergarten variety theater and presented the collection on a stage and the attached elevated catwalk. After a piano solo, the red curtain opened and out came models in various large coats and pinstripe suits, but also various chunky knit pieces. Overall, the silhouettes were rather wide and pompous. Elements such as a sailor’s hat and historically inspired cuts in the jackets also created the feeling that you were watching a play and not a fashion show.
Richert Beil then prepared the crowning conclusion of the fashion week. The Berlin label invited some guests to a fashionable dinner, where they sat on chairs with mini tables and were served various courses as part of the presentation. The looks of the service staff played with details such as cloth napkins and maid aprons. Between the partly edible courses, models moved briskly through the rows of chairs, with silhouettes ranging from a tight-fitting latex look to a pompous dinner table. “The dessert” and thus the last course was an ostrich egg, from which the guests pulled a black frilly panty. The soundtrack played as well as individual elements such as a poison container that was presented while the guests drank a mushroom drink from a bottle leaning against it created a rather dark atmosphere.
Buyers’ favorites
Meanwhile, William Fan staged his store in the middle of the rectangular catwalk, to which the collection was also dedicated. The Berlin-based designer was inspired by his customers who have visited the store in recent years.
Fans Show is also one of David Smedley’s highlights. The head of buying at US menswear retailer SVRN said in a voicemail after fashion week that what stood out for him was the use of textiles, patterns, shapes and silhouettes. The movement in the clothes and the shimmering fabrics remained in his mind.
“I love layering, color, texture and pattern blocking,” says Smedley. “Although they were wearable garments, they all seemed as if they were made up of different parts and elements of other things, and everything merged into something seamless and harmonious.”
Smedley seemed so enthusiastic that he is also seriously considering adding Fan to the range. For him, the brand, which says it combines European and Chinese influences, would be particularly suitable for the location in San Francisco because there is a large Asian diaspora there, but also because of the “deep appreciation for artists and fashion designers with similar ethnic backgrounds”.
But it wasn’t just Fan that the buyer remembered for possible orders. The Berlin designer veteran Michael Sontag, who played with draping, various textiles and modular elements, as well as the Cologne label Marke are also included.
The brand, the menswear label from designer Mario Kein, has become more and more in the hearts of buyers and the press in recent seasons. Smedley was particularly impressed by the poetry of the collection, the shirt layers and the “masterful tailoring”.
Sunday, brand and fan are also on Stavros Karelis’ list. The founder of the London concept store Machine-A, which offers a mix of well-known brands and up-and-coming talent, is also considering adding these brands to its range. But other brands such as GmbH, Orange Culture and Buzigahill are also included. But who actually makes it to the space in the end still needs to be coordinated internally, said Karelis when asked by FashionUnited.
It is already clear to Iwasa that he will order Buzigahill for Takashimaya, he says between the shows of the Intervention presentation format by the PR agency Reference Studios, in which the label took part alongside brands such as GmbH, Dagger and John Lawrence Sullivan. But he would also think about brand and OBS.
