With the demise of Bread & Butter, the Berlin Trade Shows landscape took on a new form this January. Last week, our analysts visited Germany’s fashion metropole and today we share our selection of top 5 brands from across Berlin’s wealth of shows.
Brands, which typically exhibited at BBB, dispersed across the cities’ ongoing trade shows. Of those, SEEK and Bright trade shows stood out as refined and well curated. It was refreshing to see fewer flashy, flamboyant displays from the larger brands, now occupying similar sized booths to all other exhibitors. With this, the attention switched to product and resulted in the likes of Converse and Cheap Monday on a level pegging amongst the lesser known brands. Let’s have a look at the top 5 brands.
Gegen Regen – Show & Order
The enterprise of elfin explorer Dorothee Pracht, ‘Gegen Regen’ translates literally as ‘against rain’. In a bid to redefine rainwear, Splendor has created a line of simple shapes with discrete technical details in neat fitted coats as well as more theatrical, oversized cloaks. These items lend themselves just as well to adventurers as to city professionals with contemporary cuts and a well considered and concise color palette.
Âme Sœur – Premium
It’s the shapes that strike you first with German sister act Âme Sœur. Borrowing the idea of “One-take” from the world of film, their “One-Cut-Piece” concept evolved, in which a garment takes form from just one single piece of fabric, thus becoming their signature. Subtle volume is created with intricate and carefully calculated folds, whilst further dimensions emerge with printing on wool. These techniques result in unique textures and depths within pieces, each of which are so beautifully complex and so like a riddle that they leave you in a state of wonder.
All Good – Bright
From the Kardashian clan to Snoop Dogg, California can kick up all kinds of cultural reference points. Lucky for us, the Kardashians don’t play muse to All Good. The lifestyle brand do however have a diverse range of influences looking to the golden state; from camping to clubbing, from the surf to the street (enter Snoop Dogg). Their color blocking applied to outerwear is reminiscent of 80s pac-a-macs and it’s this fearless palette that drew us in. Their playful but practical gear for grown-ups works best with bursts of swimming pool blues and faded peach.
Kommon Universe – Seek
Quite literally a Northern Star, Manchester based menswear brand Kommon’s story has a cosmic philosophy that runs through it, grounded with their mantra of ‘Local Roots, Interstellar Thinking’. Mirroring the moon’s movement in their ‘crescent bomber’, lunar inspired pieces are understated and in tune with their vision to ‘blur the lines between contemporary sportswear and finely tuned menswear’. Already stocked worldwide from Japan to Russia, the planets are nicely aligning for Kommon.
Whitetail Luxury – Show & Order
Our top brands aren’t complete without a nod to the Nordics, and this edition’s reference comes courtesy of Finland. Whitetail Luxury have rewritten luxury by focusing equally on exquisite design and sustainable materials. In line with these core values, you’d be hard pushed to find leather produced in a more eco-friendly environment than their Finland-sourced reindeer skins. Their messaging is slick – but not over polished, and for a label who are yet to reach their first birthday, Whitetail have their brand identity firmly in place. And it is one to rival the most established of fashion houses.
Rebecca Milne
