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# BERLIN FASHION WEEK S/S 15
EXPLORE THE SUPERIOR SIGHT OF BERLIN DIGITAL
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Chief Editor V.i.S.d.P. Tom Felber / tom@superior-mag.com Photography Director Marc Huth / marc@superior-mag.com art Director Marc Huth / marc@superior-mag.com Graphic editor Franziska Raue / franziska@superior-mag.com PhotographERS Yannic Pöpperling, Kostas Fragos, Jan Neumeyer EditorS Carla Follesa, Marina Lacic, Tanita Hecking, Jana Wilms Editorial Department editor@superior-mag.com Advertising advertising@superior-mag.com PR Management press@superior-mag.com
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COVER DARE by JOHNY DAR Show at MBFWB S/S15 photo by Yannic Pöpperling
IF YOU DO IT RIGHT, IT WILL LAST FOREVER ewerk Berlin, 19 – 21 January 15
green showroom 19 — 21 January 15 Hotel Adlon Kempinski, Berlin
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BERLIN FASHION FILM FESTIVAL 2014
FIER VITRINE
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DESIGNER FOR TOMORROW 2014
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AFRICA FASHION DAY BERLIN
BERLIN FASHION WEEK S/S 15 SPECIAL GREENSHOWROOM & ETHICAL FASHION SHOW BERLIN
MERCEDES-BENZ FASHION WEEK BERLIN S/S 15 DARE by JOHNY DAR ROSHI PORKAR BRACHMANN IVANMAN GLAW DYN
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BERlin fashion film festival 2014 After Charlie Le Mindu last year Berlin Fashion Film Festival again presented an extraordinary international artist as show-act at its Award Show - SUPERIOR MAGAZINE talked to Andrey Bartenev backstage before his crazy performance at the Berlin Fashion Film Festival 2014 about his most exciting performances, Gogle Mogle and the heroes on the paper that inspire him most. -18-
text TANITA HECKING | photos YANNIC PĂ–PPERLING
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Born in 1965 in Norilsk, Russia on the Taimyr Peninsula near the Arctic Ocean Andrey Bartenev is holder of numerous international prizes and titles. He lives and works in Moscow. At Berlin fashion Film Festival 2014 he performed his ‘Bubbles of Hope’ which have been shown in numerous venues and festivals including at the Dumbo Arts Festival in New York in 2013. # You are an artist and a sculptor. When people ask about your job, how do you explain what you do?
# Interview Magazine wrote that a circle is your favorite shape. Why’s that? I was born in an area in Russia that is at the Arctic Circle. So in May the sun is not going down but going around in circles. If you live there for 16 years and see that every spring it finally gets stuck in your head. Even though you don’t necessarily want to, you draw that circle over and over again and include it in your sculptures. That’s why I mainly use balls and circles.
I’m an artist but I do another form of wearable sculptures as well.
# So that’s the reason you included it in your work again for ‘Bubbles of Hope’?
# What’s the most exciting project you have ever worked on?
Yes. But it’s not that I do it on purpose. It just comes naturally because it’s in my blood. And you can’t take it out.
The craziest thing I ever did was probably in Moscow. It was called Gogle Mogle like the drink where egg yolk is shaken with alcohol. For our performance we used 6ooo eggs and four tons of garbage and had 70 actors. Balconies surrounded the stage and we had a huge sculpture that was falling down and eggs where thrown around and stuff like that. Here in Berlin we do a very moderate performance. It’s more a sarcastic version of the usual catwalk show. # You are known for provocative work. What kind of reaction do you want to trigger? I don’t know. People smile and are happy. If something in the minds of the audience changes it’s enough for me. I don’t want to teach anything. I just want to show how beautiful, exciting and different life can be. And you can learn from the audience as well. As with Gogle Mogle, people started throwing eggs back to me. That was cool.
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# What’s ‘Bubbles of Hope’ about? Well it’s a series of objects. We originally created it for a very crazy event in London seven years ago, which is called Andrew Logan’s Alternative Miss World Competition. And my title was ‘Miss Bubbles of Hope’. I won second price. # What inspires you most? Music, the nature of my motherland, my drawings and sketches. They mostly are crazy faces that go ‘Okay, okay we are here. Surprise us!’ So I try to surprise them and make my heroes on the paper happy. # Who would you create a piece of art for, if you chose? I think it would be Nina Hagen and Peaches.
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ANDREY BARTENEV
# What do you think of fashion film? It’s crazy. It’s something between an advertising and a full film. Sometimes it is so good it could be exhibited in a museum. It combines music and beauty and fashion. If it is funny as well, it’s just perfect to me. Lufthansa should make a contract with the Berlin fashion Film Festival and show the movies on the plane. That would be a huge success. Sometimes the flights are just too long and you have to watch all these boring films. Fashion Films would be a lot more entertaining. # Has your art ever been featured in a fashion film? Maybe in Moscow. But actually I don’t keep track on that. Two years ago someone borrowed a costume from me and promised to give it back but they never did. I just saw it in a video and was like ‘Oh, that’s my costume!’ But it’s okay. Usually my wearable sculptures are not used in Fashion Films though. I haven’t met the right director yet. You know, nothing exciting happened in the industry after ‘Priscilla – Queen of the Desert’. We need another version of this -20-
story. Maybe there will be a young art director who will say: ‘Oh yeah, let’s do this craziness in our film. Oh yeah, that’s great. Let’s do it!’ # If you wrote your own fashion film what would it be about? ‘Happy Nails’ you could start by showing different kinds of nails. I could do huge fingers and then the faces of the actors are on the nails and they are like ‘Ahhh smile!’ Five actors could play one hand and then another five could play the other hand. Yeah, happy nails it would be. # Is your art accepted in Russia? Before it was. We performed a lot in Russia. For example I was invited to do ‘Bubbles of Hope’ in the Heremitage Museum in St. Petersburg which was like ‘Wow’. It’s not allowed to show any colours that symbolize the rainbow anymore. So now I work more on the educational site and draw butterflies and things like that with kids so that they learn how to paint and how to use brushes and paint. We do the crazy things outside
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of Russia now. For example I got invited to the Ballett Russes in Monaco to do a performance for the Grace Kelly Foundation. It was super successful. Afterwards I was invited by Princess Caroline to have lunch and she said: ‘Thank you so much. It was so enjoyable to have you.’ # What projects do you have planned for the future? We do a coloured carnival in Moscow with the famous Russian clown Slava Polunin. He is on Snow Show, which is the most famous comedy show in Russia. We will have numerous clowns and paper snow everywhere and huge white balls. But I’m very happy to do my performance here in Berlin. Dasha Marchik talked to Lisa from the Berlin fashion Film Festival and recommended me so I am very thankful she did that. I have never been here!
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AWARD SHOW view Award Winners
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WINNERS BEST FASHION FILM BEST FEMALE CAST VOGUE ORIGINALS (Directed by Matthew Frost)
BEST EDITING BEST MALE CAST BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY BEST MAJOR BRAND FILM MADE FROM COOL (Directed by Martin Werner & Co.)
BEST EMERGING ARTIST LET'S NOT MAKE IT COMPLICATED (Directed by by SamuJussi Koski & Joel Hypén)
BEST VFX MINE ALL MINE (Directed by Tell No One)
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JULY 2014
BEST MAKE UP BEST HAIR SNAKE (Directed by Gustavo Lopez Ma単as)
BEST LOCAL PRODUCTION BADTIME STORIES (Directed by Rob Blake)
BEST MUSIC BEST FASHION BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY JUMPER (Directed by Justin Anderson)
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BEST IDEA FIRST KISS (Directed by Tatia Pilieva)
BEST EDITING LONDON COLLECTIONS: MEN 2013 (Directed by Matt Lambert)
BEST FASHION BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN THE PURGATORY OF MONOTONY (Directed by Ace Norton)
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FIER VITRINE FIER Vitrine, which took place on July 8, 2014 at Lehrter Siebzehn, is a designer exhibition party with over 500 selected guests of the Berlin creative scene, including journalists, photographers, stylists and video makers. A curated selection of avant-garde and contemporary fashion and accessories designers from Europe, Australia, North and South America showed their collections exclusively through a series of presentations and installations.
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text MARINA LACIC | photos CLAUDIA DALO
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FIER Vitrine provides designers with firsthand experience in the fashion industry, giving them the chance to network and gain visibility through FIER management´s network. The event was born out of the need for designers to present their work officially, yet on a budget, during Berlin Fashion Week.
These designers participated in FIER Vitrine: 40 DECIBELS Franz Patrick is a Vancouver-based designer and the founder of 40 Decibels, who strives to create unconventional garments for people who do not follow the traditional system of trends. He believes that style always outlives trends, and that creating interest by breaking the rules will differentiate him and his audience from what is conventionally accepted. Franz Patrick goes clean and so there are no prints and no crazy colors in his collection. He uses flowing fabrics and forms loose silhouettes which swirl around the human body. The collection is pure and in many ways very elegant. It is not his creations which stand in the foreground, but the person who wears it. Alexandra Hackett Alexandra Louise Champion Hackett has a creative mind that transforms existing materials into new shapes. She creates wearable garments and accessories that aesthetically and technically re-explore sportswear. In her current collection she uses aluminum foil and high-grade steel to create shorts, sweaters and wide shirts.
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Karin Brettmeister Karin Brettmeister is an award-winning label based in Munich. The talented designer graduated in fashion Design and pattern making from the International Fashion School Esmod, then worked as a designer in a wellknown couture house in New York, before going on to found her made-to-order label in 2014. Her new collection called “fear and confusion” contains black and white handmade pieces which fuse couture detailing with streetwear elements mainly made of recycled or organic materials. She presents divine dresses with fringes and a low-cut back, transparency on coarse knit and wide silhouettes combined with slim. Extraordinary but still wearable. Laura Banfield Laura Banfield is currently studying at RMIT University in Melbourne and is known as a creative practitioner. She is completing her final year of Bachelor of Design and has participated in internships, exhibitions and runway events in Australia. In her collection for the FIER Vitrine Designer Exhibition Party she used fabrics like leather, acrylic and nylon to build abstract shapes. She combines leggings with transparent dresses and rounds out the looks with accessories, which remember of bastketball hoops.
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Laura Galati Laura Galati is an emerging designer from Melbourne. Her strong emphasis on structure and its materiality is influenced by a great interest in the structural properties of different fabrications and the potential these have to create architectural forms around the body. Her current collection called “Ceaseless Arabesque” contains feminine dresses that were made out of considered knot work achieved by hand. Maja Daphne Holzborn Hamburg-based designer, Maja Daphne Holzborn, is specialized in art inspired mini collections divided into exclusive showpieces and hand-drawn digital refined prints. Her current collection “Chymetika” captures the spirit of medieval alchemy and myths. She shows flowing dresses made of silk, which are mainly kept in brown and blue tones. Också Originally from Swedish language, Också means: being driven to contribute. It is exactly this spirit that best characterizes the brand, built through a constant desire for information on up-to-date fashion and different visual communication. Också proposes the creation of smart and contesting garments, thus creating a parallel that separates it from monotony. For its summer collection 2015, the brazilian label uses vibrant colors combined with the functional and urban esthetic restate the transgressive label identity.
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Ruins of Modernity This Vienna-based label, founded by Maria Steiner is something between concept and reduction, but for sure elegant and sophisticated fashion for women. Ruins of Modernity stands for a confident woman with a clear vision of herself. Her collection is based on strong architectural shapes juxtaposed with minimalistic elegance and modest colors. Senhor Prudencio Senhor PRUDÊNCIO is a portuguese brand that aims to be the personification of the Portuguese shoemaker from the 50’s, combined with the design of today. Operating in footwear and accessories for men the brand presents two seasonal collections per year and smaller limited collections. Materials were chosen to establish the dichotomy of velvet and plastic and to give products their "own light", like a halo. Colors play with natural elements like earth, sea and air. Vasso Consola Originally from Crete, the label Vasso Consola does not follow fashion trends. Her first Origami piece collection consist of eight head pieces inspired by traditional origami shapes with the exception of the shell und spiral, which are variations of the Tomoko Fuse originals
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Premium DISSONANCE AREA S/S15
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concept/production MARC HUTH | photos Jan Neumeyer
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bergnerschmidt.com
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umasan-world.com
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fob-paris.com
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sopopular.net
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March BFW S/S2014 15
SUBMIT
Y O U R EDITORIAL
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DESIGNER FOR TOMORROW During Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin there is one event that attracts many people’s attention: The fashion talent award "Designer for Tomorrow" by Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf and its online shop Fashion-ID.
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text TANITA HECKING | photos YANNIC PÖPPERLING
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Ioana Ciolacu
The award comes with an individual sponsorship program that includes the provision of a studio and the production of a collection. The winner receives mentorship by an internationally renowned top-designer as Patron – last year Stella McCartney and this year US-designer Tommy Hilfiger - and will have their first solo fashion show at next year’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin. ‘I went backstage at Stella McCartney’s Show in Paris, met important people like Anna Wintour and had total freedom on my collection’, said Ioana Ciolacu, winner of the Designer for Tomorrow Award 2013 about her sponsorship. Every year there are five outstanding talents of which the jury, this year – John Cloppenburg, Anette Weber, Bay Garnett, Christiane Arp, Melissa Drier, Karen Heumann, Marcus Luft and Michael Werner – has to choose one. This year’s finalists came from five different countries and had their very own approach to fashion.
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Matteo Lamandini
This year’s winner: Matteo Lamandini. ‘My ‘Zoot Suit’ collection was inspired by the zoot suit movement in America.’ Combining different patterns such as tartan and Vichy Caro on formal menswear is creative and new but still wearable, which is important. ‘Clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them’, Marc Jacobs. And even more importantly ‘You have to become slightly commercially minded to sell the clothes to have the money to do the next season’, Tommy Hilfiger.
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That’s exactly what the sponsorship is offering the winner next to guidance in terms of producing a new collection. The Italian designer will get an insight into the market – what works and what doesn’t. ‘I want to dress young men in their thirties because it is formal menswear but in an ironic way’, Matteo Lamandini. And maybe after his sponsorship there will be a formal menswear label with an ironic twist called Matteo Lamandini? The award should help taking it into the right direction.
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Sylvia Roustcheva
But there were four other nominees. Among them: Sylvia Roustcheva from Bulgaria. Her ‘Cocoon Collection’ was inspired directly from a cocoon. ‘For me that’s a private area where you can listen to your inner voice.’ Since her family owns a knitting company – that worked for Tommy Hilfiger ten years ago, back to the roots! – she started knitted in her early years of age. Her entire collection is hand-knitted, taking up to fifteen days for one piece to be done. ‘I don’t think I would have had the work ethic these designers have. I couldn’t have created a collection in such a short time frame’, Tommy Hilfiger. It might take long to create her designs but using sustainable materials and techniques that have minimum ecological impacts is something Roustcheva set her mind to.
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Julia Winkler
Swiss designer Julia Winkler, graduate of ESMOD Berlin, was among the five nominees to present their collection at the Designer for Tomorrow Award as well. Her inspiration comes from music. ‘That’s what keeps me going.’ Especially abstract music is encouraging her to draw and design. For her ‘UTQC’ collection featuring a print she designed herself she was inspired by Until the Quiet Comes by electronic music producer Steven Ellison. The abstract sound inspiration can be seen in her print since moiré effects make the striped print move – even though they actually don’t. That vibrant feeling of her designs might come from her London background as well. She worked and lived there for some time but moved back to Berlin now, where she doesn’t have to escape the city to draw: ‘You can go outside and work in parks and start to design there.’
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Maria Lola Roche
Not as printed as Winkler’s designs but as abstract for sure: ‘Poetry of Dissection’ by Maria Lola Roche. The human body especially the rib cage inspired the Dublin-born Designer. ‘I multiplied the spines of the rip cage and placed them all around the waist.’ Not only the shape was inspired by parts of the body but the color scheme as well. ‘A picture of a blue eye inspired me. That’s the reason I used black, blue and white.’ The designer loves the avant-garde, which she also expresses in her designs.
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Yong Kyun Shin
The fifth nominee was the South Korean fashion designer Yong Kyun Shin who graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 2012. By combining different materials such as wool, lace and metal his collection ‘explores beauty that is born from both deliberate and accidental deconstruction.’ Inspired by war the designer first cut everything up into small pieces and put them back together again to create that destructive impression. For his collection ‘The Broken’ the designer only used black and nude to push the contrasts even further, creating a cool look for strong and modern women.
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Menswear. Womenswear. Inspiration from music, war, the zoot movement and the human body. This year’s Designer for Tomorrow Award again offered a wide range of what fashion is and can be. Every designer has their own inspiration and approach to what should be worn on the streets. With the help of the sponsorship program this year’s winner Matteo Lamandini has the chance to further elaborate his style. Because ‘If you have the base of style you can put trend and fashion on top of it’, Tommy Hilfiger. And inspire others with your work. Congratulations, Matteo Lamandini.
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view Show Report
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AFRICA FASHION DAY BErlin After a successful appearance in January 2013 at Hotel Adlon this time AFRICA FASHION DAY BERLIN sponsored by Breeze Berlin performed a runway show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin. On the catwalk the collections by Nigerian designer Samson SOBOYE, Nana K. Brenu from Ghana with his label 1981 and Maxhosa by Laduma from South Africa enthused the fashion lovers. SUPERIOR MAGAZINE talked to AFRICA FASHION DAY BERLIN Founder & Managing/Creative Director Beatrace Angut Oola about her initiative for African fashion. -62-
text CARLA FOLLESA | photos YANNIC PĂ–PPERLING
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# Maybe first tell us something about you what’s your background, where do you come from? I’m 33 years old and I was born near Düsseldorf, Germany and grew up here too while my origin is Uganda. At some point my parents decided to move back there and I lived in Uganda with them for four years. Now I haven’t been there since 2011 and sometimes I’m feeling homesick! Originally I studied Film and TV Management but then realised I was totally in love with the art department and this is how I ended up working as a stylist. And now I live in Hamburg, doing Africa Fashion Day Berlin. # When did you come up with the idea of doing Africa Fashion Day Berlin? That was in 2010 when I was in Uganda for a longer period. Usually you mostly hang out with your family but I was also curious about getting to know other Ugandan people – the designers, the film makers, the musicians. So I met a lot of interesting characters and great artists and I found it really upsetting that we in Germany are not aware of what’s going on in Uganda at all. That’s why I wanted to inform about great talents from the continent. When I came back to Germany I worked as Production Designer and Stylist. Visiting Berlin Fashion Week I thought, hey, we don’t have any events for designers of African heritage – how come? I did a lot of research and found out there are organisations like this in London, New York and Paris and so I thought it would be great to also have something like this in Berlin. I started developing a concept, talked with people, reworked it, changed a few things, people liked it and the first thing I wanted to do was a photo-shooting. So I talked to photographers and then it all started rolling -63-
somehow. I had the network but I didn’t have the funds since at the beginning it’s hard to earn people’s trust, of course. But sometimes you just have to start and then everything else falls into place. # What certain criteria have to be fulfilled by the labels to become part of AFDB? First of all the fashion should be African inspired. That can concern the cuts, the materials or even the patterns and colours of the garments. So if you use a traditional African cut and mix it with European fabrics and modern colours that’s cool. But it somehow has to be African related. The designers are not supposed to exactly come from the continent but also designers who are raised in for example in Germany and have an African background are welcome to present. Furthermore the designers should be innovative and they should be able to produce good quality and at least limited editions. It’s also important that the label is at least a little bit established which means they have a website, they are aware of a lookbook and they have done at least some editorial shots before. # What makes the labels you present so special? Is there a difference to German labels for example? I think the stories behind the African brands make a huge difference. The designers try to incorporate their heritage and African tradition and therefore they are concerned a lot with what fabrics to use and so on. Sustainability is of high importance for most of the labels and they try to use local materials from their home countries.
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BEATRACE ANGUT OOLA # How did it come about the co-operation with Mercedes-Benz?
# What happened after the first time of Africa Fashion Day Berlin in January?
When we did our photo-shooting in 2012 it was also shown on the TV channel ARTE and there was one journalist who mentioned that Africa Fashion Day Berlin would be taking part of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. I was totally shocked when I read it because, well, it wasn’t true. I was interviewed a few days before and had told the journalist that it would be great to be part of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week but he had twisted my every word.
The platform definitely gained a lot of attention from designers of African heritage and we were able to extend our network because from the first event on people knew we existed and they started taking notice of us. More and more designers were reaching out to us to participate seeing Africa Fashion Day Berlin as a great opportunity to get into the international fashion business. So I think we are definitely on the right way to be respected in the scene, to be a platform worthy to attend.
So I called Mercedes-Benz to apologize and told them what had happened and I think from that moment they started following us, watching what we were doing. And in October 2012 I received a mail from the Mercedes-Benz press department saying they were interested in Africa Fashion Day Berlin and they’d like to arrange a meeting and that’s how it all began. I couldn’t quite believe it.
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# Why did you chose ESCADA head designer Brian Rennie as a patron for this season? To me it was important that the person is respected in the fashion industry and can speak out for us. I talked to several people from the scene about who would be suitable and at the end I decided for Brian Rennie because from our first talk on the chemistry was right, he was really interested and impressed by the whole project and of course he is a highly experienced, well-known
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designer. People will listen to his voice, he is reliable and serious about what he does and this was exactly what we needed for Africa Fashion Day Berlin. # What happens with Africa Fashion Day Berlin when it’s not Fashion Week? When Fashion Week is over we commune with the designers, reach out to the industry and look for co-operation partners & investors for the designers. We try to improve and grow all the time, for example we like to do PR work for the designers, may be in co-operation with other creative agencies. Of course we have to plan the next projects and find new designers and so on. Generally I am looking for more partners who would like to push African fashion internationally. And I have to take care of my other job as well of course. It’s still a lot of work to do, but we are on a successful way.
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BACKSTAGE
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view Show Report
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GREEN SHOWROOM & ETHICAL FASHION SHOW BERLIN -68-
text TANITA HECKING | photos YANNIC PÖPPERLING
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Something must be done. And in terms of sustainable fashion there is a lot happening in Berlin. Especially during Berlin Fashion Week there are two trade fairs that focus on development: the ETHICAL FASHION SHOW BERLIN and the GREENSHOWROOM, both organized by Messe Frankfurt. This year even bigger and better. For it’s 10th anniversary the GREENSHOWROOM moved back to its venue at the Hotel Adlon Kempinski where the Salonshow was held as well. As an off-site event and highlight of the Berlin Fashion Week it presented a selected range of the exhibitor’s designs. This year students from ESMOD Berlin had the chance to show their designs for German hostesses and hosts for the world exhibition as well, taking place in Milano next year. But whether presented at ETHICAL FASHION SHOW BERLIN or GREENSHOWROOM certain criteria have to be met for every exhibitor. Those criteria cover ecological, social und transparent aspects like using only renewable resources throughout the supply chain, support of local markets and knowing and revealing all suppliers involved in the production to guarantee transparency. Especially GREENSHOWROOM presents high fashion and luxury goods from sustainable production including Farrah Floyd who uses a special zero waste system and Lillika Eden who uses GOTS-certified cotton and set her mind to transparent sourcing, just to name a few. Different from GREENSHOWROOM, ETHICAL FASHION SHOW BERLIN focuses on street and casual wear. For example Blonde & Bieber is experimenting with microalgae in textile printing. That means living, self-grown
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material is used for printing. Exposed to sunlight it changes its color over time. L’Herbe Rouge, another label at ETHICAL FASHION SHOW BERLIN, focuses on organic cotton and GOTS-certified bleaching and dying processes. As the costumers begin to question more and more where and how the products are being produced, it is important to have trade fairs such as ETHICAL FASHION SHOW BERLIN and GREENSHOWROOM as platforms for exhibitors to present their brands and spread their idea of ‘best practice’.
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GREEN SHOWROOM SALONSHOW
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MERCEDES-BENZ FASHION WEEK BERLIN S/S 15
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DARE BY JOHNY DAR
text TANITA HECKING | photos YANNIC PÖPPERLING
JOHNY DAR, American artist and designer, is known for his illustrations of women’s bodies and body paint art. SUPERIOR MAGAZINE talked to him about his work backstage before the runway show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin. # You studied filmmaking and got into fashion. In 2002 you turned your back against your fashion career though and travelled the world. What was the most inspiring moment you had along the journey? One comes up. First I travelled by myself and then I realized it’s more fun to travel with others and went across Canada a few times. When I got to the other side of Canada and was at the ocean, I came to realize it doesn’t matter how far I run or travel, at the end of the day all I’m looking for is inside. # On twitter your ‘DAR the BOOK’ account posted: ‘It’s a collection like no other’ What makes DARE so special?
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What’s so special about the collection is that I didn’t do it for anyone. I didn’t do it to sell to anyone either. I just did it because that’s exactly what I wanted to do. # You use body paint as a form of art. Why are you so fascinated by body painting? Well at the end of the day, what are we dressing? The body. So if you don’t get intimate with the body, you don’t understand it. It helps me understand the body so that I can design from a different perspective than just putting seams together. # You are an artist and a designer. What’s more fun? Both are fun. Because first I come up with a random idea, with an abstract idea and then designing helps me to put it into a constructed form. The two are valid and can’t do without the other.
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# If you chose to body paint anyone, who would it be and what would the body paint look like? Björk. And Björk. So I would paint her on her. # Your entire art evolves around women and their bodies. What makes a woman’s body so inspiring? It’s all about my quest to get back to where I came from. So that I can understand why I am here. # ‘DAR the BOOK’ is a pretty big project. You are publishing books annually until 2017. What makes those books different from one another? It’s about zooming in and zooming out. So the first one is really zoomed in and the second one is more zoomed out. # Do you listen to music while drawing? If so, what kind of music is it? I used to. But I don’t anyone. I really like to create something original and I cannot be inspired by another idea because then I just spin the idea further. When I do my art I like a quite space. # You talked about having a mission ‘mission’ in several interviews. Do you feel like having accomplished it already? Yeah, well if I die tomorrow, I’ll be happy with my work.
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# Do you have another mission to accomplish? That’s to bring it to the world and inspire others. If I do that it’s all that counts.
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ROSHi PORKAR
text CARLA FOLLESA | photos YANNIC PÖPPERLING
Every season Mercedes-Benz and ELLE present a young designer at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin. This time it is the Austrian designer Roshi Porkar. SUPERIOR MAGAZINE talked to her before her great show. # First of all please tell us something about yourself, maybe your history, where you’re from, how you came about doing fashion design? I come from Vienna and after my high school graduation I went to the University of Applied Arts and started studying fashion design there. I finished last year and then attended the International Festival for Fashion and Photography in Hyères, France in April 2014 where I was lucky enough to win the Chloé Award. Subsequently I was invited by MercedesBenz and Elle Magazine to present my work at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin so I’m showing my collection here again. But afterwards I am ready to put this collection behind menow, I don’t want to be known for only this style you know. -78-
# What inspires you and your work? I’d rather say I am swayed by certain things maybe. Nowadays it’s hard to focus on only one area really because you are under the constant influence of social media and all. I have periods where I’m obsessed with things and I am a product of what surrounds me and who I am surrounded by. My generation in general is like this because we have access to everything, we can witness everything and unconsciously we soak it all in. # Do you still live in Vienna? Yes, for now. It’s where I have a lot of room on hand to work in and I know many people there. I don’t know where I’ll be going in the near future though. I never make plans too far ahead! Also I try not to expect too much. The fashion scene is fast moving and there are so many young talents emerging. This might sound a little downbeat but I think it is realistic. When you start working in fashion you appreciate
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these phases of success and build on them but you have to learn not to be disappointed in tougher times. # Your collection is inspired by the Bactrian Princesses, a 4000 year old group of miniature sculptures made of soapstone and dressed in voluminous robes – What is this all about? In 2012 I went to Kassel, Germany to visit one of the most important international exhibitions of contemporary art, the DOCUMENTA. They had a cooperation with Afghanistan that year and therefore these Bactrian sculptures were shown. They are tiny but have such a great appeal and a sense of calm authority - seriously, they’re beautiful! Their appearance reminds a bit of depictions of Buddha and each one has a different distinctive hairdo! The dresses are perfectly geometrical, you can see how neatly the outlines are worked into the soapstone. Originally, these costumes were made of fur and wool so I decided to work with these materials, too. # And how did you implement this idea in the end? I dealt a lot with feminine shapes and proportions. I played curves and big shapes and so I enlarged the hips and emphasised the shoulders. This is how it began. The princesses build the basis but the collection is not all about them. At the end it’s about the finished product and not the story behind it. # Can you describe the target group you have in mind fort his collection? What type of women would wear your clothes?
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This collection was an experiment. Some of my garments could definitely be worn but that was not the intention of the collection. In the first place I focused on this image I had in my head which I wanted to express. But right now it is becoming more and more important to me to actually create wearable pieces...if people want to wear your work it is pretty much the biggest compliment you can get. # What are your future plans? Are you working on your next collection already? To be honest I’m not planning to establish my own label. I want to design for someone else, for another brand. There are so many young, talented labels out there but it is so difficult to run a company properly, especially when you are young and lack experience. Of course I have great houses in mind that I’d love to work for but you never know what the future brings...
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BRACHMANN
text CARLA FOLLESA | photos YANNIC PÖPPERLING
The German menswear label BRACHMANN was founded by sociologist Olaf Kranz and designer Jennifer Brachmann in 2012. After graduating in architecture Jennifer Brachmann decided to additionally study fashion design in Halle, Germany. “While architecture, from the idea to the final result, is a really time-consuming procedure, the allure of fashion is how comparatively quickly you can put a plan into action“.
“Taking traditional costumes as an example builds an thrilling contrast to the fast moving fashion business. You create something new yet it contains something already seen before.“ By creating timeless designs that don’t follow current trends, also a certain sustainability of the garments is guaranteed. The collections are produced in Germany and all used fabrics come from European highquality mercers.
With her label Jennifer Brachmann manages to combine both of her fields of interest. As she dealt a lot with the Bauhaus movement and Walter Gropius during her studies, her way of thinking is shaped by this era’s construction principles and procedures. “I try to use these architectural design principles when designing new pieces, too. For example, I disassemble a garment in its components and combine them in a new way“. Known for a mixture of timeless architectural shapes and dynamic, modern design, BRACHMANN is as well guided by traditional menswear pieces like cutaways, vests and shirts. -82-
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IVANMAN
text CARLA FOLLESA | photos YANNIC PÖPPERLING
All good things come in threes. That’s also true for designer Ivan Mandzukic who presented his label IVANMAN for the third time at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin. SUPERIOR MAGAZINE met him right after his show..
and as a child I always watched the soldiers in their military uniforms. These pictures are etched in my mind and I think this might be where my disposition to clear, uniform-like cuts comes from.
# Are you happy about how the presentation of your spring/summer 2015 collection went?
# What else inspires you?
I am quite uncomplicated when it comes to Fashion Week and my show, to be honest. I design the clothes but backstage I efface myself. But I think it went really well, I’m happy with the presentation. # How does your heritage influence your work? I come from a family full of computer scientists. They never had anything to do with fashion or art so everything I learned about these topics I learned here in Germany. When I lived in Yugoslavia there was a war going on -84-
I rather have motivations instead of inspirations I’d say. I work really intuitively, this always makes it hard to explain what I did afterwards. This time I mostly went by my surrounding and the photography from the thirties. I chose blue as one of the collection’s key colours because it kept appearing in the form of little accents wherever I looked. # What do you like about working in fashion the most? I love the creativity but I am actually pretty unimpressed with all the fuss about the fashion business itself. I try to stand off
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of that and focus on my work as I am more of a quiet, restrained kind of person. #  In a few words: what characterises IVANMAN? The clothes are recognisable and graphical, clear and pure but also a little playful in the details. I don’t have specific mottos for my collections - people should wear my clothes because they like them, not because they like the motto. For this collection I used a lot of cotton, shearings, mohair and worked with a bit of silk, too.
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GLAW
text JANA WILMS | photos YANNIC PÖPPERLING
SUPERIOR MAGAZINE met the GLAW designers Maria Poweleit and Jesko Wilke before their spring/summer 2015 fashion show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin for an interview. In 2011, after graduating from the international college of art and design ESMOD, the Berlin-based designer duo created their own label called GLAW. Urban elegance with a slight touch of psychedelic femininity and refreshing cuts are the basis of their designs. Each collection displays their vision of the strong, yet also fragile, 21st century woman, who enjoys high-end fashion that is still easily wearable though. "Our new collection is magic, love and unicorns. It's a little playful, sporty, but still elegant" says Jesko Wilke about their spring and summer looks. And looking at the whole collection, we see white, baby blue, lilac and other purple tones that fit right into their design orientation. The origin of the nameless collection were “childhood memories and
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fantasies mixed with unicorns, purple clouds, flowers, all that fantasy stuff”. Intending to stay in this playful theme, but getting rid of the kitsch image, Maria Poweleit underlined: “We put a cool edge to everything, making it more elegant, less child's play”. When asking, if they oriented their collection towards the on-going Nineties trend, both stated that they came up with the ideas and design, while listening to 90s music, just like they usually do. Therefore the spring and summer designs have a “throwback” touch, but GLAW brought it to a new, sort of revamped, level. “I really like the pieces, where we created our own prints. The ones with the unicorns are really beautiful”, answered Maria Poweleit, when asked about their favourite designs. Jesko Wilke added: “Oh and the leather pieces are stunning! Same with the sweaters that we just added new to our line. To sum it up: we like everything”. And they should. Being relatively new to whole business, they were
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able to establish their label quickly, gaining a huge amount of attention over their creative material combinations, such as batik leather. In general, GLAW’s designs are often made out of silk, patent and regular leather, neoprene and of course batik leather, as well. During studies, they were able to play with a lot of other fabrics as well, but when entering the free enterprise economy they had to scale back a bit. “We just needed to get more commercial, as were are not students anymore, but we still stay true to our own styles and follow the path derived from that”, so Jesko Wilke. Maria Poweleit added: “I think we found a great balance, while still being artsy. And we have so much fun!”.
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photos shooting KOSTAS FRAGOS | photos backstage YANNIC PÖPPERLING
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Magazine for young vanguard fashion & art photography • www.superior-mag.com
coming out on August 8th 2014
# AUGUST 2014