Brave New Fashion: This Is The Next Generation of Berlin Designers

Brave New Fashion: This Is The Next Generation of Berlin Designers

Berlin’s fashion scene and especially our local Fashion Week have gone through some fundamental changes in recent years. What we appreciate most about it is: It has shed the old veil of the past and presented itself in a new guise. What we have seen here in the past year brought together everything our fashion hearts desire: exceptional talents from Berlin, whose creations surprise us, captivate us, blow us away, and inspire us to dream. Believe us: we had more than one moment where we thought: “Wait, what’s happening right now? And is this really happening in good old Berlin?”

In our opinion, six labels in particular have the potential to be true game changers, not only shaping Berlin through their work but also re-establishing the city in the ranks of the international fashion scene. What impresses us most about them is their courage to break with conventions and rethink fashion. They say goodbye to superficialities and celebrate craftsmanship, individuality, sustainability, and diversity. And an equally new and fresh audience celebrated them during Berlin Fashion Week. We have the feeling that Berlin propelled itself into a new era and our favorite city is finally showing again why it can easily keep up with the big fashion metropolises of this world. 

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Berlin as a Grand Hotel: The Vision of Fashion Label Acceptance Letter Studio

Berlin as a Grand Hotel: The Vision of Fashion Label Acceptance Letter Studio

Acceptance Letter Studio is a fashion label established in 2021 by Jakeyoung Shim, a talented young designer based in Berlin.  

His strong dedication to fashion has helped him to pave his way into the business, which first started in Korea. Today, Acceptance Letter Studio has not only made a name for itself in the Berlin fashion scene, but it is also part of the Fashion Council Germany. I had the chance to have a word with Jakeyoung in his studio, talking about his label, his latest collection, and of course living in Berlin.

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A Brave New World: Esther Perbandt Dominates the Runway at Berlin Fashion Week

A Brave New World: Esther Perbandt Dominates the Runway at Berlin Fashion Week

photos: Sebastian Reuter/Getty Images for Nowadays. 

When I met Esther Perbandt back in 2010, she was one of the already quite established Berlin Designers that decided to join Designer Scouts – the runway show event at Berlin Fashion Week for avantgarde and upcoming designers that we hosted as a sister project to iHeartBerlin. I was pretty much at the start of my involvement in the creative scene of Berlin and I remember I was especially in awe of those who had already made a name for themselves in the city. I admit that I was a little nervous at first. But Esther was so approachable and kind, there was this instant familiarity that she builds with you that made her so many friends over the years.

Esther was always a bit of a wild child in Berlin. She rarely joined the official runway of Berlin Fashion Week, rather making her own shows and events, in the streets of Berlin, or in one of Berlin’s biggest theaters, the Volksbühne, and one time even as a concert where she performed herself. She never really fit in with the other designers, because her designs were always beyond any current trends or established aesthetics, nor were they particularly compatible with pop culture. Esther has always designed for the type of individuals that want to remain individualistic. She was always bending gender norms and mixing up male and female silhouettes and details – long before genderless fashion became a trend. She always stayed faithful to the avant-garde and artistic side of fashion.

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The Most Beautiful Form of Expression: A Tribute to Fashion

The Most Beautiful Form of Expression: A Tribute to Fashion

from Catalogue of Disguise at Trauma

Clothing; the second skin of mankind. Without a single word, we communicate through the fashion we wear. We express how we look at ourselves, what values ​​we stand for, and even reveal details, such as what kind of music we listen to, what profession we practice, what community we feel part of, and whether the Zeitgeist of today or that of another era accompanies us.

Fashion stands for liberalism, individualism, and open culture. It is an expression of one’s personality and a symbol of freedom.

Some dismiss fashion as superficial, and it suggests that those with this attitude have never given serious thought to the history and symbolism of wardrobe.

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PLATTE Brings Voguing & Ballroom to the Runway of Berlin Fashion Week

PLATTE Brings Voguing & Ballroom to the Runway of Berlin Fashion Week

Berlin has a new space and platform for emerging local designers and what better to put yourself onto the map with the most exciting fashion show during this week’s Berlin Fashion Week.  PLATTE is a project dedicated to supporting the fashion scene of Berlin in a sustainable way by offering space, structure, and expertise to upcoming local designers and brands. The makers of PLATTE are dear of colleagues of iHeartBerlin that have over a decade of experience in the field. Sevil Uguz is the founder of LNFA which is a network and fashion store for local brands at Bikini Berlin, and Arne Eberle is a Berlin Fashion Week veteran and co-founder of OE Magazine.

In their amazing space at Memhardstraße, they will host pop-up stores, workshops, showrooms, exhibitions, events and so much more. With their first event that happened on Tuesday, they gave a preview of what’s to come and their focus on working in an interdisciplinary way. They invited members of the Berlin ballroom scene to curate a runway show of a different kind. Housemother Ambrosia from the Kiki House of Angels brought together a cast of diverse performers who proofed that models can have any size, shape, and identity and look fabulous on the runway. And European housefather David from the house of Milan put together the choreography for the show that would have spectators gagging later on.

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More Than Ice Cream: Magnum Launches Unique Limited Design Edition by Independent Designers

More Than Ice Cream: Magnum Launches Unique Limited Design Edition by Independent Designers

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In the last couple of days, Berlin is finally starting to wake up again and feel like the multi-faceted and fun city that we all know and love. The sun is shining, people are outside and the Berlin vibes are slowly kicking in.

What better moment to come out with something new than now? We’re all craving some pleasure, and ice cream, and some golden sunsets. It feels like the perfect timing for what Magnum has in store for us. 

Recently I was lucky to get a glimpse of some shiny things coming up at the press event by Magnum. Of course, there was a brand new ice cream flavor involved, and some amazing bedazzled roller skates. Sounds like fun? Let’s dive in…

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These Fresh Young Berlin Fashion Labels and Shops are Giving us Summer Vibes

These Fresh Young Berlin Fashion Labels and Shops are Giving us Summer Vibes

It’s not a secret that Berlin fashion is one of a kind. Our streets are not accustomed to chic ladies in simple black dresses with a few expensive accessories to highlight their style and men who carry around their fedoras as they do in Paris, we rather like our style more gender non-conforming, unconventional, eco-friendly, and from time to time, serving a cause. Black isn’t necessarily a funeral color and we put on those pajamas at work on purpose. Berliners also don’t like to walk around like billboards. We don’t like showing off big brands and logos plastered on our clothes and we like to support local businesses that reflect us. This is why we chose these fresh Berlin fashion brands and shops to get you ready for this summer. 

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The Privilege to Party: Bottega Veneta Criticized for Afterparty at Soho House during Lockdown

The Privilege to Party: Bottega Veneta Criticized for Afterparty at Soho House during Lockdown

With lockdown being extended every few weeks and more intense measures implemented in seemingly fruitless attempts to minimize COVID infections, we’re all looking for a way to unwind. I’m sure everyone would enjoy a normal party right now; being able to listen to music, dance, and drink with friends without constant fear of the virus. We may all crave it, but that doesn’t mean it’s fair considering our current circumstances. And it definitely doesn’t mean a party full of famous people will go unnoticed in this climate.

Italian luxury fashion house, Bottega Veneta, is facing intense criticism after hosting a fashion show presenting their Salon 02 collection in the concrete halls of Berghain, followed by an afterparty at the Soho House in Mitte on Friday. Local celebrities like Oumi Janta, Honey Dijon, and Sven Marquart were in attendance, as well as more internationally known names such as rappers Skepta, Slowthai, and Burna Boy, American designer, Virgil Abloh, and Daniel Lee, creative director of Bottega Veneta. Photos and videos of the Soho House afterparty were shared on social media, showing no social distancing, masks, or compliance with the increasingly strict lockdown measures.

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The Black Universe of Esther Perbandt – An Interview with the Iconic Berlin Fashion Designer

The Black Universe of Esther Perbandt – An Interview with the Iconic Berlin Fashion Designer

One of the major highlights for me this year was watching our good friend Esther Perbandt, the iconic Berlin fashion designer, succeed on the new designer competition show Making the Cut by Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn. It was the first time for me to see someone I personally know on a hit TV show and it was such a thrill to follow her through the lens of American reality TV.

Those of you who have been following us now for a long time, know that Esther is very closely connected to us as we organized one of her early runway shows with our sister project Designer Scouts back in 2010 and co-hosted the two aftershow parties of her spectacular Volksbühne fashion shows in 2014 and 2017. She also curated one of our city guides for us showing her favorite places in Berlin. It is always so amazing for us to become part of her black avantgarde universe and we feel so proud of all of her accomplishments as a designer in all those years.

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Berlin’s Finest Clubwear Brands

Berlin’s Finest Clubwear Brands

photo: IVY Berlin. 

It only takes one look around the dance floor to know that Berlin is a city of absolutely fire clubwear. Harnesses, latex, collars, ass-less chaps, platform shoes, and fishnets are a Berliner’s bread and butter. And it’s not just the people in Berlin who wear these clothes, but designers, labels, and shops craft and sell these unique pieces that are handmade and often from sustainable materials.

Here are iHeartBerlin’s top picks for the best spots to update your techno wardrobe in Berlin.

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