For the casual consumer of our content, it might have come as a bit of a random surprise when we recently dropped our mini collection. For those of you who have been following us a bit longer, you might know we do release the occasional physical product, but those were mostly books. So why switch from print to clothing you might wonder? Well, it’s a little bit back to the roots for us, because that’s how we first started our foray into the world of physical things. Between 2012 and 2013, we designed several small collections of clothes and accessories in collaboration with different brands.
The new collection is both in reference to these first steps of making products, but also an homage to our origins as Berlin’s number-one party blog. Nightlife is what made us pop back then, and it’s still what makes our hearts beat today so we wanted to capture that in our collection.
But that’s not the only reason why we got back into clothes. There is a more practical element to it as well which has to do with the state of fashion – or more specifically shopping for fashion – that really has us bothered. In the shops, it feels like there are only two extremes: clothes that are either quite expensive or ethically questionable. And online we’re bombarded with ads for clothes that seem initially appealing but upon further inspection, they come from fake brands with questionable sources that try to disguise their true origin (plus they often steal designs from young labels). You know exactly which IG brands I’m talking about…
We want to counteract that. This collection, we’re making it for ourselves in a way – and by releasing them we’re sharing them with you. Something fun, easy, and cute that gives club vibes without being too over the top. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, we’re not trying to break into fashion, but we wanna play with current aesthetics and express ourselves in a different way than usual.
We want to know where the clothes are done and by whom. We’re not just sending the designs off to one of the typical production countries for fast fashion. Instead, we used our personal connections in Colombia, sourced the fabrics ourselves from dead-stock markets, and worked with young designers who are friends of friends to actually create the patterns and sew each garment.
But wait… I’m actually kind of jumping ahead of myself with the story here. Let’s take a few steps back to how the idea actually came about.
The Origin of our Collection
Back in 2020, following the release of the Like A Berliner book, the idea first came about because an entire chapter of the book was about how to dress like a Berliner. We thought it would be fun if we actually came out with a collection reflecting that. I had started to develop some samples with a designer friend here, but in between various lockdowns, the project got stuck. The circumstances of the pandemic just made it impossible to move forward with it – the time was just not right.
It wasn’t until 2022, when I spent half the year in Colombia that I started to muse about creative ideas again in the back of my head. I felt really inspired by the fabric markets there and all the possibilities with printing, tailoring, and production. There is a thriving scene there of young designers and labels who do really cool things. Being so far away but still creating something inspired by Berlin actually made me feel connected to it again which I had lost a bit over the pandemic era.
Coming back with lots of research and design ideas, I decided to give the collection another go. In the meantime, iHeartBerlin had undergone a little editorial reboot with a stronger focus on nightlife and parties and I felt that should be reflected in the pieces as well. I created 6 designs using mostly black and neon colors that best reflected that Berlin rave vibe we all know. I created one print with a distorted pattern of our logo as a nod to the classic logo T-shirt. I wanted iHeartBerlin to appear, but not in a way that it felt like tacky merchandise.
The other pieces have more neutral designs because I wanted them to be able to be easily styled with other garments and accessories. For one piece, I found this cool stretch fabric with a neon camouflage print on black roses that almost looks like slime on the skin – it perfectly captures this rough messy slightly gross element of Berlin’s nightlife. It was such a fun process to put all these different elements together.
We created the photo shoot for the first drop back in February at Monopol when it was freezing cold. We wanted to catch those industrial club vibes we had envisioned which the space was just perfect for. And I love the results.
As it turns out, to actually show this collection to the world was not as easy and fun as making them. I held back on them for what felt like forever. It’s so daunting to put yourself and your work out there, especially if it’s about something new and a little different. I knew that selling clothes is harder and more complicated than selling books which made it even more of a dare to push this project forward.
But I have to say, I definitely caught some fire here. It is amazing to be able to manifest iHeartBerlin in a new way and I’m really curious to see what ripples this will create in the future for us. The ideas keep coming. I’m grateful for that. I hope you will remain on board to see what’s coming next. I have a few designs from the initial batch still left to release, so a second drop is coming soon… stay tuned!
