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International Herald Tribune
14 Thursday, February 23, 2006
Gucci does David Bowie glam rock
Continued from Page 13
was substantial take on a womanly
wardrobe that made a good show.
Emporio Armani had also come
down to earth from the haute position-
ing of the designer’s eponymous label.
In flat shoes, with smiles on their faces
and snug jackets over poufy skirts, the
models showed off in this second line
Giorgio Armani’s urge for feminine fri-
volity — without entirely betraying his
modernist heritage. The polka dots, fur
hats and froufrou hemlines were graf-
ted on to simple architecture that
proved, yet again, that the designer is a
king of jackets. Things that might have
been elaborate seemed cute, as Armani
played with a puffed shoulder or a curl-
ing lapel. And you could always pair
the jackets with Armani jeans, rather
than a fluffy skirt or ruffle-edged
shorts. This couture-lite approach
demonstrated how Armani has shifted
from rigorous to playful — even if the
rest of the fashion world seems to be re-
versing those moves.
Etro has such a history with fabric
that it seemed natural that it should
delve even further back into a courtly
world of gilded glories, gleaming bro-
cades and rich velvets gleaming with
jewels. Sounds like a costume party? By
some magic, Veronica Etro wove to-
gether ancient and modern in the way
her family creates their finely flecked
tweeds. The result was a pulled togeth-
er collection where the coats of arms
on tooled leather bags were updated
history while silver ring necklaces un-
der short, tailored jackets gave a mod-
ern edge.
So many different elements were fol-
ded in from graffiti patterns to Etro’s
signature paisley. The designer is fol-
lowing a path of her own, playing a
game of hard and soft that played out as
solid on clothes as on the magisterial
fabrics.
The return of knitwear is such a
strong story that Pringle got lucky with
its first runway show from the incom-
ing designer Claire Waight Keller. The
cabled cashmere sweater that swung
wide over soft pants to open the show
That’s creativity with a capital B: Berlin plumbs its own dynamic depths
By Andreas Tzortzis
BERLIN
f the former GDR kindergarten-
I cum-creative collective in East
Berlin typifies the unconventional
roots of this city’s fashion scene,
the label that occupies the bottom floor
of the two-story building suggests its
potentia l.
C.Neeon, the design duo of Doreen
Schulz and Clara Kraetsch, has
emerged as one of Europe’s top young
labels. Their asymmetrical, color-
splashed collections won them the
Grand Prix du Jury at an international
fashion festival in Hyères, France, last
summer. They have a showroom in Par-
is, sell in 23 stores across the world and
just made their second appearance at
London’s fashion week.
At least part of the credit, they say,
belongs to the city in which they live.
An absence of firm structures ‘‘gives
you a certain freedom,’’ said Schulz,
taking a coffee break in the make-do
kitchen C.Neeon shares with an archi-
tecture studio and two painters.
‘‘There’s another style and dynamic.’’
Berlin’s raw energy and commitment
to nonconformity has made it a wel-
come creative harbor for countless
artists since the Wall fell in 1989, from
the electro-rock singer Peaches to Hedi
Slimane, Dior’s menswear designer.
The atmosphere has given rise to small
high-end labels like C.Neeon and a
streetwear scene lauded in the pages of
Vogue and showrooms from Paris to
Hong Kong. Tens of thousands of buy-
ers and visitors descended on Berlin’s
two major trade fairs, Bread & Butter
and Premium Exhibitions, in January,
continuing an upward trend in atten-
dance since the two fairs began in
2003.
‘‘Paris is sad. Milan is sad,’’ said
Dylan Ross, a London buyer visiting the
Berlin’s Premium show, left, and Bread & Butter, right. At top, Doreen Schulz, left, and Clara Kraetsch, designers for C.Neeon, which is located in a former kindergarten, center right.
JUST CAVALLI
was a harbinger of varied creative ideas
as well as a roster of yarns and weights.
The designer even took her bow in one
of the runway looks: a fine knit
cashmere sweater, glimmering with
Lurex threads and with bugle sleeves.
‘‘I wanted to make a statement with
knitwear,’’ said Waight Keller, who
formerly did knits at Gucci. Her
concept was day-to-night knits getting
ever lighter until there was a spun sug-
ar concoction for a black cocktail top.
Between hefty and fragile knits were
the clothes, which seemed less sure, es-
pecially when loose pants turned
soggy. But it was a nicely done debut
and the knit focus is right for Pringle.
Premium trade fair this year. ‘‘Fashion
in those cities is not as hot as it used to
be. I’ve seen more innovative stores in
Berlin than anywhere else.’’
Well aware that such praise is all too
fleeting in the fashion world, the main
players in this city’s nascent scene are
now hoping to harness that hype and
perhaps eventually catch up to fashion
capitals like Tokyo, London or New
York.
‘‘The creativity needs to be commu-
nicated and marketed effectively,’’ said
Anita Bachelin, the co-founder of
Premium. ‘‘That’s Berlin’s and Ger-
many’s job.’’
Unlike London, where graduates of
the city’s celebrated design schools
have enjoyed the support of the British
Fashion Council since the 1980s, Berlin
only recently began taking advantage
of the buzz around the city’s fashion
scene. The city government launched a
Creative Industries Initiative that
brings together Berlin’s music, fashion,
media and art scenes. A fashion
roundtable, including trade fair and in-
dustry representatives and designers,
tries to come up with solutions to the
design scene’s problems, such as start-
up financing and marketing.
‘‘We had a problem communicating
the potential of this,’’ said Tanja Mühl-
hans, the initiative’s coordinator. ‘‘We
had to communicate it in our own
house first.’’
In the two years, city officials like
the economics minister, Harald Wolf,
and the nightlife-loving mayor, Klaus
Wowereit, have begun attending the
twice-yearly trade shows. In January
2005, the city’s trade fair association
launched B in Berlin, a lesser-visited
trade show that, together with Premi-
um and the show Fifth Floor, was pro-
moted as Berlin Fashion Week this
yea r.
‘‘The goal needs to be to catch up to
Fashion
PR INGLE
Photographs by Christopher Moore/Andrew Thomas
As its new CEO, Douglas Fang, put it:
‘‘We are not going to give up Pringle’s
heritage.’’
Roberto Cavalli had a message:
‘‘Freedom! Positivity! Happiness!
Fantasy! Creativity! Love!’’ You could
call it wearing your big bold beating
fashion heart on your sleeve, for arm
coverings were center front in this
over-the-top romp of a Just Cavalli
show. Sleeves were kimono-shaped,
fluttered like butterflies, ballooned in-
to a giant imperial puffa jacket that fol-
lowed a kitsch Chinese theme. These
were sleeves to get you literally in the
soup. But then why would you eat
lunch when you had to squeeze into
Tokyo and Paris,’’ said Mühlhans. ‘‘But
don’t ask me when that will happen, be-
cause I just don’t know.’’
Besides lacking the purchasing
power and big designer names of those
cities, the fashion scene here finds it-
self in a dilemma typical of Berlin:
competing visions of what the future
should look like.
Bachelin, in her designer jeans,
boots and snakeskin purse, represents
one of these visions. Since Bachelin
started the Premium trade fair in 2003
with Norbert Tillmann, the number of
exhibitors has risen tenfold, to more
than 600.
This year, the fair expanded from its
location in an abandoned subway sta-
tion at Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz to in-
clude an empty train station ware-
house. More than 17,000 visitors came
to the three-day event, featuring a mix
of local couture and international la-
bels like Marithe + François Girbaud
and 7 for all Mankind.
The focus on designer labels ties in
with Bachelin’s conviction that Berlin
will one day take its place among the
world’s fashion capitals. To lend her
event some glitz this time, she brought
in the British pop group the Sugababes
and hosted a small dinner that in-
cluded, among others, Barbara Becker,
the former wife of the tennis star Boris
Becker. But New York Fashion Week it
was not, something Bachelin acknowl-
edged.
‘‘It’s still coming,’’ said Bachelin.
‘‘We’re talking about three-and-a-half
years. New York had 10 years. Paris had
100 years.’’
But Bachelin’s hopes for a fashion
week to rival other capitals are any-
thing but unanimous. Karl-Heinz
Müller, a co-founder of Bread & Butter,
says Berlin should evolve naturally, and
avoid trying to be something it isn’t.
‘‘Berlin was never a marketing-driv-
drainpipe pants, jewel embroidered to
the max or made in brocade? Dresses
mostly had leggings underneath their
tiny ra-ra skirts. And if a lot of this non-
sense looked nothing like a winter col-
lection, there was fur on the shoes to
warm up dancing feet.
In a dramatic show, with a hint of the
1980s power woman, Miuccia Prada
embraced the modern urban jungle. A
video of trees sprouting among classic
buildings and flowers opening up erot-
ically made a compelling background
to models stomping out on platform
shoes, wearing animal prints or
patches of fur that clung to their
clothes along with hefty visible bras.
Prada’s show was exceptional in its
emotional buzz as the hip hop music of
Flash and the Furious Five rapped out
‘‘Don’t push me — cos I’m too close to
the edge . . . it’s like a jungle some
times.’’
It resounded as a Munch-like primal
scream of women in big varsity knitted
dresses, carrying bags shaped like an
armful of books. On this collegiate side
of normal streetwear were simple par-
kas — although they might have furry
backs and pockets or be tied by their
sleeves around a jaggedly cut black
dress. But Prada soon shook up her
wardrobe basics with the kind of ex- POLLIN I
ternal bras over sweaters that Vivienne
Westwood showed in the post-Punk
period. Then came a tribal drum roll of
animal print coats, complete with
furry motorcycle helmets, as seen in
Pollini’s happy ’60s moment
July’s men’s show.
What did it all mean? And was this the or Pollini, designed by Rifat Ozbek, it was a shiny happy fashion moment.
same woman who was both covered-up
as a student, sporty in a short, quilted
F As the models took to the runway with their hair pulled back in ponytails
adorned with sliver plastic and their eyes covered in Jackie-O sunglasses (a
blouson and a Valkyrie in a short black preview of the upcoming Pollini line), there was no doubt to where the de-
dress? Those dresses had brief pleated signer was taking his inspiration. The swinging ’60s of short shift dresses no
skirts and a touch of Azzedine Alaïa’s longer than their matching three-quarters coats were given visual punch with
1980s style, which is popping up every- a brocade in a flower motif (a favorite fabric this season) or jacquards in a psy-
where in the collections. chedelic graphic print. Fur collars or a double row of sliver spheres at the
‘‘It’s the idea of fashion taking a com- waist added another layer of texture to the mix — all paired with matching
bative spirit and women being rebelli- bags and boots. A nubby wool ensemble in sliver gray with embroidered
ous,’’ said Prada, who proved herself flowers at the hem was a quiet winner. And a black mohair jacket with patten
with this collection to be the biggest leather inserts looked both retro and modern. Whereas the thick stiff tiger
rebel of them all. print fabric somehow looked like it would feel more at home draped in front
of a fireplace than across the backs of models.
Suzy Menkes is the fashion editor of — Jessica Michault
the International Herald Tribune.
en city,’’ said Müller. ‘‘It didn’t need
marketing to reach a goal. It was always
driven by an idea, by the people.’’
Since he began his show in Berlin
with 230 exhibitors in 2003, it has
grown exponentially. Streetwear
brands from Levi’s to Lacoste exhibit at
Bread & Butter, which welcomed
30,500 visitors Jan. 27-29.
But Müller’s brusque manner and
unwillingness to join joint marketing
efforts, like this year’s Fashion Week
idea, have made him a controversial
figure. Many see his opening of an ad-
ditional Bread & Butter show in Bar-
celona last year as a threat to the
growth of the scene in Berlin. And the
confusing trade show schedules and
public spats with Premium organizers
is beginning to wear on buyers and de-
signers alike.
‘‘What they’re doing now is not help-
ing the buyer,’’ said Markus Kosseleck,
president of the label aemkei, which he
moved from New York to Berlin two
years ago. ‘‘There’s too many trade
shows, too many events, and the buyers
are too confused.’’
The sentiment is shared by many in
the scene, as is Müller’s conviction that
Berlin try not to alter itself too radical-
ly. Designers like C.Neeon see Berlin’s
future in a continuation of the present.
After all, without the city’s bound-
less experimentation, creative mix and,
of course, cheap rents, labels like
C.Neeon would have a hard time find-
ing their footing.
‘‘We’re both pretty sure that we
would be doing something entirely dif-
ferent if we lived somewhere else,’’ said
Kraetsch. Across the table, Schulz nod-
ded. ‘‘I think it would be unfortunate if
Berlin tried to form its identity by look-
ing elsewhere,’’ she added.
Andreas Tzortzis is a freelance jour-
nalist based in Berlin.
Mark Simon for the International Herald Tribune