Fashion fever added extra flair to Berlin’s social calender during the Berlin Fashion Week, July 1 – 4. Hardly is there any other place in the world that has a trendier party scene and fashion community thriving on diversity and inclusion than the German capital. Music, fashion and night-life go hand in hand, attracting young designers who aren’t scared of trial and error. In the current world, torn apart by military conflicts and environmental catastrophies, radical renewal of fashion is a necessity. Berlin Fashion Week Spring/Summer 25 attempted to address the challenges that fashion faces today.
Once again, Berlin Fashion Week (BFW) was full of expert meetings, round-tables and gala dinners, with local and international guests, discussions with trade insiders and spectacular run-way shows presenting collections by an impressive variety of designers, brands and labels at different stages of evolvement and market success.
Special mention among this incessant kaleidoscope of events and locations, ranging from exclusive hotels and museums to metro stations, is deserved by PLATTE, a true fashion hotspot and a highlight of Berlin’s genuine fashion spirit that has preserved its innovative sprinkle throughout the recent couple of years and has continuously shaped style trends in this melting pot of cultures and life-style trends.
Situated in an edifice typical of the former GDR, in the city center near the famous Alexander Platz, PLATTE has evolved into a staple of BFW. It’s name, quite a derogatory reference to poor quality architecture for the masses common to East Berlin, has acquired new connotations, at least for fashion crowds that associate it with kind of a symbolic “plate” on which foods, drinks and fashion would be served to visitors hungry for the new.
As in previous years, this hub for non-traditional styles didn’t disappoint current audiences, and presented a carefully selected variety of Berlin-based and international brands and labels specialising in LGBTQ+ community dress-up trends, gender fluid looks, flamboyant summer outfits, street- and sportswear in its NEXT GEN POP-UP Concept Store. Collections of MAJÈRE, WESTERKOWSKY, WARA.H, JUN MAYERS, BZRKNA, with their androgynous, bold and expressive looks, were as hot as ever, fit for club wear and self-expression. This setup was the official format of STUDIO2RETAIL as part of the Berlin Fashion Week supported by the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises in cooperation with the Fashion Council Germany. With the slogan “YOU can be part of Berlin Fashion Week,” STUDIO2RETAIL opened up fashion to people at larg,e making it accessible to everyone without tickets or special accreditation required to get in. Subverting the strictly hierarchical and exclusive fashion establishment in this way, PLATTE sets new standards in going about fashion industry’s traditional routine.
At NEXT GEN POP-UP Store, visitors could not only try out the latest collections created by a daring new generation of designers, but relax or get free tooth gems from KRISTALL.Pearl, and, most importantly, participate in or watch the workshops offered in situ. The legendary Puma brand set up Puma Style Lounge in PLATTE as part of the NEXT GEN Pop Up, presenting the new inspiring version of the Puma Speedcat sneaker. The invited designers offered Speedcat customization workshops. Fashion as an open lab for exploration and insight into avant-guard clothing and footwear production methods, environmentally conscious life styles, and up-cycled accessories-making, works as a more inclusion-oriented alternative to conventional presentation modes of haute-couture and pret-a-porter collections for the priviledged few. The workshops on mending, re-cycling and DIY hosted by PLATTE are an integral part of this creative hub, forming the tastes and environmentally conscious approaches to fashion industry among its community.
Alongside Berlin Fashion Week, the city guests and locals this season got an alternative show program of designers presenting their newest collections at the About You-Fashion Week, which was also scheduled at the beginning of July. The abundance of celebrities, famous brands and well-known designers attending and participating in this counter event, which was organized in cooperation with the local Roncalli Circus, turned into an extra destination for fashion crowds, media and influencers, to the immense joy of all involved, because more style and fashion for Berlin can do this metropole only good.
The Georgian fashion industry, which is an integral part of the European fashion scene, also focuses on Slow Fashion, less waste and more diversity. Georgian designers based in Tbilisi have it particularly hard due to the ongoing economic and political crisis in this former Soviet republic, yet there’s much potential and promising talents coming from the region, among them less well known but inspiring Europe-wide successful labels and brands like RM ATU GELOVANI, Situationist- founded by designer Irakli Rusadze, VelTauri – producing hand-painted garments by designer Tata Veltauri, and KHAKO specializing in Teka accessories by Khato Kobeshavidze.
Luckily, Tbilisi Fashion Week has been generously supported by Mercedes Benz throughout the recent years promoting the burgeoning local scene and offering young Georgian designers access to international markets, more customers, as well as lavish opportunities to show brave new visions of fashions to come based on the local folklore costumes of the mountainous Caucasus region and inspired by healthy lifestyle and sports. One of the most talented female artists who turned into a designer and influenced contemporary Georgian styles is undoubtedly Tamuna Karumidze a former film-maker who later founded TAMRA label. Inspired by “When the Earth Seems to Be Light (2015), an award-winning documentary that she co-directed together with David Meskhi and Salome Matschaidse, Tamuna took to fashion design that she pursues to this day with much acclaim. In collaboration with artist and skater DRO (Sandro Popkhadze), born and based in Tbilisi, the Tamra Skateboards brand was born in 2017. Tamra Skateboards has become a keystone for the young generation’s quest for identity. The universe where TAMRA garments belong seems to lie in the deserted dry plains of some dystopia. Asian influences, at times bordering on exoticism, contribute to the mysterious appeal. Tamra is about interdisciplinary design, the relation between art, movies, music, skateboarding and fashion.
In spite of the success story of TAMRA, there are many queer designers in Georgia who don’t enjoy the recognition they deserve. Due to frequent cases of intolerance and violence against the LGBTQ+ communities in the Caucasus, these designers tend to be more underground and low profile, or turn to pursuing their careers abroad. Fashion statements and self-expression through the tclothes one wears are thus for the younger Georgian generation of special significance, defining who one identifies with and where one belongs. Clothes speak volumes about one’s identity, background and social class. As we know from the history of fashion throughout the centuries, only aristocrats were allowed to wear luxurious outfits that used to cost a fortune, or which were exchanged for villages, with peasants replacing cash payments as purchase. It was strictly prohibited for lower classes and common folks to wear anything else but work outfits or tattered rags. Looking classy has always been a matter of class.
By Lily Fürstenow
