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“Demure, Spicy, and Brat.” This is how Taiwanese designer Damur Huang sums up the essence of his Berlin-based fashion brand #DAMUR to me. With the choice of these cheeky words he not only reveals himself to be at the very pulse of pop culture, but also lightens the seriousness of the fashion world – which is just one of the many ways that he deconstructs and defies the rules of the industry.
For iHeartBerlin’s new feature series in collaboration with Squarespace – the iconic all-in-one website and commerce building platform – we get to meet some outstanding talents in Berlin showcasing the limitless creativity that the city harbors and the endless potential of a strong online presence.
When I sit down with Damur at his atelier showroom in Kreuzberg surrounded by his team and listen to his stories about the label from its conception back in 2015 until their recent event at Berlin Fashion Week I quickly realize: this is not a regular fashion brand, this is not a designer that likes to play by the rules. Hearing all these different anecdotes about a hybrid co-working space, a runway show in a nightclub, and a fashion delivery service via a food delivery app not only feels inspiring but also reminds me of our own quite unconventional history.
It’s the conventional that Damur wanted to walk away from when he founded #DAMUR. He wanted to redefine several parameters of what it means to run a fashion label. It’s not just about designing clothes and sending them on the runway. It’s not even just about selling products.
There is a layer of world-building here that envelops everything and that goes beyond fashion. Many designers aspire to this but misinterpret it as a mere marketing ploy. But in the case of Damur it’s something deeply connected to his personality. He thrives on “endless cross-creative and NAUGHTY collaborations, projects, and runway show presentations that merge art and wonder” as he describes it to me with a smile, “fun and spicy is always my promise!”
With excitement he opens his website and shows me his recent fashion film that he presented in a Berlin cinema along with a dance performance that translated a scene directly from the screen onto the stage. There are definitely some naughty scenes here as well. The whole project shines because of the strength of different creative disciplines collaborating with each other. I can tell this is fun for him to experiment like that.
When I look around the atelier I see a lot of that fun and spiciness he promises. The designs are bold, colorful, and experimental. There are cut-outs that leave little to the imagination. Patterns clashing with structures. Loud slogans and cheeky prints. There is a lot of character, uniqueness, and imagination. Most pieces are one-of-a-kind. It’s no surprise that Damur managed to cultivate an eclectic and daring community of customers around him that he takes on his wild rides through the tides of fashion.
While other brands rely solely on social media to engage with their community, Damur very actively uses his website for that in different ways. He built it with Squarespace back in 2014 even before he founded his label. “We’ve been actively using the new newsletter and member area features to offer a more personalized experience, bridging the physical and digital (“phygital”) realms. At #DAMUR, we do more than just sell a t-shirt or a suit—we grow alongside our community in versatile ways. By offering more intimate and playful ways to engage, like our made-to-order service, we can continuously support our fans with fresh ideas and services, wherever and whenever they need.”
But the features alone are not the only important aspect for his website. “As a fashion designer, it feels like a crime to spend hours on something that looks ugly! We need beauty, even when we’re working on tech-related tasks. It’s in our nature,” he explains. “Personally, I’m also in love with the creative visual design features. They take what could be boring 2D photos and transform them into animations that feel almost 3D—perfect for my naughty personality that boy just wants to have fun!”
With all the iterations that the brand went through over the years, all the different ideas, collections and projects, one constant point of connection was always their website. The new generations of the Squarespace platform released over the past 10 years often aligned with a new era for the brand, introducing fresh designs and new features each time. “#DAMUR is like a human—it grows with time and experience. Growth means change, and Squarespace gives us the flexibility to adapt anytime, whether it’s temporary, permanent, or simply when we want to experiment and have fun with a new direction.”
When I visit Damurs exhibition at this year’s Fashion Position – a subsection of the big Positions Art Fair during Berlin Art Week – I get to see one of those experiments he mentions in the context of the shiny art world. It’s an installation of accessories including shoes, gloves and ties that are intricately adorned and customized by him and his team with little pieces of scrap fabrics, left-over materials and little found trinkets. Each piece is highly unique and some bare a new function – such as the shoes that are turned into flower pots.
Damur describes these pieces as “something deeply intimate and personal from us—from me and my colleagues. It’s our individual creativity, which might only make sense to us, but from hand-crafted art objects to paintings to upcycling fashion accessories, we hope to share a special connection (lucky charm) that will only be special to one person (maybe it’s you).”
It’s already their 4th time at the Fashion Positions and it’s another cherrished opportunity for them to defy expectations and lean into their unconventional nature – may it be the dissolving of gender norms or redefining the concept of ‘Upcycling Fashion’. After all, it’s not art if you didn’t break some rules.
Getting to know Damur and his team has definitely ignited something within me. I’m curious to see what’s next for them – it’s all a big surprise of course and you just have to go on that ride. I’m walking home from my two encounters with them with a camera full of impressions, a head full of inspiring stories, and a belly full of cravings to break some rules myself.
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