\u201cI am actually more a day raver than at night,\u201d she tells me. \u201cI don\u2019t like late nights. We thought it would be great to combine the spirit of our knit studio \u2013 where we listen for example to FLOSS and many other punk feminist pop musicians \u2013 and meanwhile we knit.\u201d<\/p>\n
While she finds Fashion Week can be stressful, especially given the time pressure which contrasts with knitting\u2019s slower rhythms, she acknowledges, \u201cmy favourite aspects are to meet new people, show them what we are doing, surprise them almost.\u201d<\/p>\n TATi\u2019s show glowed with lurid pink and glittery tops crafted from spidery yarn; spiky leg warmers and asymmetric, holey skirts. The stitches formed avant-garde silhouettes, with protest slogans hailing from queer and feminist movements. The models danced as they knitted their own pieces. FLOSS, whose songs centre on feminist rage and power, warmed up the audience and performed her songs. On the Sunday, sustainable textile artist Geo Knits Slow led a bikini-knitting workshop at SXC Showroom in Neuk\u00f6lln. There, participants learned how to make yarn from old T-shirts and knit a bikini out of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n I found Helena St\u00f6lting<\/a>\u2019s brand years ago, while walking down a street in Neuk\u00f6lln filled with galleries. Intrigued by a pair of heels adorned with a slimy-textured, bright green slime, I was instantly hooked by her aesthetic aims and beautiful, grotesque clothes.\u00a0<\/p>\n The show was held in the basement of her studio. Titled \u201cI Love Dirt\u201d, the collection marks a shift away from the more lurid tones of earlier collections, and with a cup of sludgy brown edible slime in hand, I descended into the dingy, damp cellar. The audience watched models writhe around in copious amounts of soil mixed with grass and stones. Brown and silvery stripes of leather sewn into shorts and skirts caught the dim lights and gleamed, while gossamer gold tops crafted from vintage knitting yarn sparkled as the models slowly and jerkily made their way to standing. A \u201cbroken jaw buckle\u201d, a bone white irregular triangle with teeth, acted as a fastener. From a dress made from rosettes of glistening brown, copper and beige leather to mud-coloured leather trousers glimmered on another, themes of beauty in decay and uncertain territory abounded.<\/p>\n BBYAGA\u2019s<\/a> show took place in the avant-garde venue Studio dB, and was filled with drama, not just of the designer\u2019s making. On arrival, I discovered that a power cut had occurred only a few hours prior. The stuff of nightmares for a designer about to put on her show, she managed to limit the delay to just over an hour, getting hold of a generator and serving drinks by candlelight until it was set up. Later, Zola, the brand owner, tells me: \u201cas I\u2019ve learnt after the show, someone cut out a \u20ac1000 piece of electricity cable with a saw \u2013 to sell it. So we ran the show on generator \u2013 a third, maybe half power.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n An impressive turnaround, the make-up artist used a headlamp to complete the looks. The show still landed: a sultry gaggle of gender non-conforming models strutted and danced across the stage to heavy dance music mixing grunge and glamour through sky-high heels and pleasers alongside among tattered trainers and knee-high boots.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her work takes inspiration from the crone\/witch figure Baba Yaga in Slavic folklore, and embraces the idea that \u201cthe more complex our self-perception becomes, the more skilful we become\u2026at radically embracing the uncertainties and absurdities of the modern moment\u201d. She tells me that \u201cI always preferred to observe fashion in the wild. I practice it here in Berlin \u2013 at the parties, social gatherings, exhibition, afters\u2026\u201d She continues: \u201cI\u2019m not interested in what impression you want to make with your clothes. I\u2019d much rather see what you express with it.\u201d<\/p>\n I also spoke to Tessa, owner of fashion brand IVY Berlin<\/a> who also runs Shop Radical. Due to host a catwalk event at Cassiopoeia during fashion week, she had to cancel after the news of Cassiopoeia\u2019s eviction notice <\/a>made the event uncertain. \u201cIt was incredibly frustrating and sad, as we were planning to use this show to highlight small designers hand sewing their pieces in their own studios, influenced by Berlins clubbing scene. These are the type of designers not featured on huge runways from the Fashion Week itself, these are creators pouring their life and soul into their pieces, these are the makers living in Berlin\u2019s underground.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n She urges Berliners and visitors alike to \u201cgo to the bar around the corner that serves cocktails with homemade B\u00e4rlauch liqueur, go to the club that has the amazing sculptures in their courtyard, go to a local drag show, or buy an outfit from your favourite designer. The city only stays Berlin if we make it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n This spotlight mentions just a couple of independent designers working against the grain of seasonal trends and mass production, but as Tessa suggests, the melting pot of visionaries and artists are vital to Berlin\u2019s cultural legacy, even if you don\u2019t always see them on the catwalk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Berlin\u2019s SS27 Fashion Week is over, with haute couture designers making a successful splash. 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