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.
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