december-2012

crocheted wool features, selling
them to customers all over the
world. Teboul hopes that Berlin
fashion will one day be as famous
as its art scene. Berlin art
galleries are now well
represented at international art
fairs and fashion designers want
to follow suite.
Leonie Baumann is rector at
the Kunsthochschule
Weißensee, a source of
promising fashion graduates in
Berlin. She believes that the
interdisciplinary and
experimental art and design
scene has fuelled the city’s
creative atmosphere. The days of
cheap rents in the centre of town
might be long gone, but it’s still
the ideal place to start up a
fashion label.
International interest in
fashion design graduates from
Berlin’s art schools is growing
and trade fair visitor numbers
60—GW
B E R L I N
Im Studio des Labels Augustin Teboul wird
an einem Entwurf gearbeitet
Work in progress in the studio of
designer label Augustin Teboul
are increasing, as are the
number of fashion prizes
awarded to Berlin-based labels.
But, according to Baumann,
‘the scene here doesn’t get
enough attention except during
the big fashion events’. What
might change this, she says, is
‘funding for young fashion
designers, comparable with the
grants given to artists’. Despite
all the positive hype around this
‘The idea that in Berlin we could rent an
affordable, big studio and apartment
near the centre really appealed to us’
new creativity, young designers
still need to sell their clothes in
order to survive. In Berlin,
young fashion sells particularly
well in the area around
Torstraße. Jen Gilpin’s pop-up is
located just down the road, at
Rückerstraße 10. The young
Canadian chose Berlin as her
base, because setting up a
business in the city doesn’t
require huge capital. Time and
hard work however, are
essential. The clothes she
designs for her brand DTSM are
infl uenced by life in Berlin. She
combines dark, sexy, tight
dresses decorated with leather
appliqué with coats, and
champagne-coloured silk tops
with fi gure-hugging leather
skirts. The Berlin fashion scene
has ditched the casual jersey
dress look and grown up.
Another new label that
refl ects this change is Achtland.
Its founders, Thomas Bentz and
Oliver Lührs, studied in London,
but came to Berlin to start up
their company. ‘The idea that we
could rent an aff ordable, big
studio and apartment near the
centre really appealed to us.’
Their designs are elegant and
refi ned, without being old
fashioned. They design clothes
with elaborate pleats and
complex pearl appliqué, blouses
with coloured trims, and quilted
leather jackets. Their clothes
have a striking aesthetic and
have already earned them praise
from Christiane Arp, German
Vogue’s editor-in-chief.
This year, Anita Tillmann,
founder of Premium
Exhibitions, one of Germany’s
two biggest fashion fairs,
celebrates her businesses’s 10th
anniversary, a testament to how
long she’s believed in Berlin’s
potential as a fashion hub.
At the fairs, labels show
buyers next season’s designs, and
they decide what will be hanging
in the shops in six months’ time.
After a wobbly start, the show
has steadily grown in popularity,
and the aisles now teem with
visitors, eager to check out the
latest clothes. Tillmann is
convinced that Germany is the
best place to start a fashion label:
‘The whole world is watching
this city and the fruits of its
creativity. In Berlin, you can
wear what you like, without
many restrictions. You don’t have
to wear labels or follow a trend.
You can do what you want.’
But like everywhere else,
setting up a successful fashion
brand in Berlin requires
entrepreneurial spirit, a lot of
time and, of course, a good
collection. However, businesses
also need capital and there is a
woeful lack of investors in
Berlin. According to Anita
Tillmann, this demands a more
creative business approach
– a challenge for some, an
additional burden for others.
Nevertheless, Berlin has
proved fertile ground for young
and hungry designers. Vladimir
Karaleev moved from Bulgaria
to Berlin when he was 19,
attracted mainly by the city’s
subculture and the nightlife.
‘Berlin represented a certain
kind of freedom in all
disciplines,’ he says.
His designs refl ect this desire
for freedom, employing rough
wool cloth in bright colours and
rejecting conventional fi ts.
Despite this, or perhaps because
of it, he’s currently one of the
city’s most promising young
designers. Berlin, it seems, still
has the power of reinvention.