The Berlin designer duo Jale Richert and Michele Beil like to question the mechanisms of fashion with their inclusive label Richert Beil. During Berlin Fashion Week only the production of the catwalk show was shown, the actual show will follow. In an interview, Richert and Beil explain why they chose the intricate concept of a two-piece fashion show.
What kind of concept did Richert Beil present during Berlin Fashion Week?
Jale Richert: On the last day of Fashion Week, we took the viewers behind the scenes of our fashion production in a five-hour live stream: We documented the creation of our new digital runway show, which marks the start of the new season, via our website and social media .
So the viewers could already take a look behind the scenes and the show that was produced will only be shown later.
Jale Richert: When the final digital runway show is presented, the looks will then be available directly via social media and the web shop. With our concept, we make the entire production of a show transparent and give viewers the opportunity to buy a piece of clothing they love immediately instead of waiting months for it. This type of shopping corresponds to the zeitgeist and the needs of our customers.
What was important to you in the current collection?
Michele Bell: We are building a community based platform online, custom designing and crafting our designs with a focus on gender inclusion.
It is also important to us to continue to develop and consolidate our very personal design language from collection to collection, while at the same time paying more attention to commercial influences, such as customer feedback, marketing and developments in fashion. Because almost everything has happened online in recent years, visual communication has become even more important and we also look at our own collection from a different angle.
Where does Richert Beil want to go as a label in the future – both creatively and as a company?
Jale Richert: We are currently focusing heavily on our own online channels, as these have become very important to us. Most of our target audience can be found online. That was also the focus of our concept for the Fashion Week – to connect different media and levels and to show something both live and online, as well as to offer the looks directly parallel to the final show via social media and the web shop.
In the future we will continue to work in this direction and combine digital and physical events and also sell them via stationary retail. We plan to expand our community beyond Berlin to other cities in Europe and worldwide with performances and shows and to make it visible.
