These Designers Are Redefining What Berlin Fashion Is
When the Berlin brand GmbH launched in 2016, they knew they had to first take it out of the country. “It was absolutely necessary for us to go to Paris and to show our work on the biggest stage in fashion… Berlin was not ready at the time, so we had to go there,” explains Serhat Isik, one half of GmbH, after the brand’s tenth anniversary show — and its fifth season on the Berlin Fashion Week calendar. “I don't think any of us would have been here 10 years ago.”
A lot has changed in the past decade. Berlin Fashion Week has grown substantially, acquiring the necessary pedigree to entice GmbH back to its hometown and also to attract international talent: The Spring/Summer 2027 season saw the return of the established Tokyo fashion house John Lawrence Sullivan, and the Mexican label Barragán hit the runway for the first time in four years after having previously shown at New York Fashion Week. At the same time, a strong contingent of smaller local labels has popped up in recent seasons and is quickly defining what Berlin fashion looks like.
An established local name kicked off the shows: William Fan founded his eponymous brand in 2015 following a stint at Alexander McQueen, where he started working a few weeks before the designer’s death. Fan’s experienced hand was evident in the figure-hugging drape of pleated dresses and sharply cut menswear that made clashing checkered prints and loose slacks with two waistbands (one belted and one elasticated, like on trackpants) appear effortlessly wearable.
The bar was set high for the younger Berliners who followed. Unvain, one of Germany’s fast-rising labels, built on last season's grungy and dark runway by expanding its palette, most noticeably through a red leather moto jacket detailed with zips running the length of the arms and matching low-rise red jeans, and including big fun fur coats that slotted effortlessly into its subculture-inspired, intentionally sleazy oeuvre.
A similar grittiness was present throughout Berlin Fashion Week, like in SF10G’s many sheer black tops and knitwear spliced together with panels of contrasting see-through fabric or in Milk of Lime’s fourth runway show — a season highlight for many editors I spoke to on the ground — where raw-edged leather belts sat alongside ripped and reconstructed silk tops. Meanwhile, Haderlump, another crowd favorite, kept to a muted color scheme of edgy distressed knits and cleverly reworked formal jackets where veins seemingly pop out from overcoats and panels of fabric form ripples as they’re buttoned down to the front of blazers.
Veering from Berlin’s famed penchant for black, however, was skate label DAGGER. As founder Luke Rainey explained to Highsnobiety backstage, “Normally, we have a lot of hardcore graphics, denim, and canvas, but this time I needed some romanticism, because I'm also a very soft person and I want that to be felt." Red painted jeans covered in stars and floral shirts came as a result, alongside ragged ripped denim worn by Rainey’s ragtag crew of bruised and sunburnt characters. It was a bright color palette only matched by Kasia Kucharska, known for her inventive 3D printing, whose show notes speak of a “twisted version of normality,” created by turning pastel shirting fabric into warped two-pieces and producing trench coats from layers of squiggly latex.
While the collections of Berlin Fashion Week refused to adhere to one cohesive look, taken together, they feel impressively at odds with the soft colors, slouchy suiting, and easy-to-wear everyday clothing seen in Paris’ SS27 menswear just weeks before.
What’s evident is that this cohort of young German-based brands is nurturing visions that are less clean-cut, more brash — but just as promising. That’s material that's putting Berlin’s burgeoning fashion scene on the map.
