Highly Gifted and with their own Signature Style: The Young Ones are Coming
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An atmosphere of new beginnings prevails, for at the Berlin Fashion Week in January 2010 there has been a real explosion of talent this time. A surprisingly large number of young designers have put on excellent shows. In Stefan Eckert’s studio everywhere’s filled with new fabrics: the tables, the floor, the walls – because after the show is before the show. Just a few days after exhibiting his Beauty of the Danger Signs collection at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Berlin, he’s already working on Summer 2011. But back in Autumn-Winter 2010, Eckert received very positive reactions to the show in Berlin. Beauty of the Danger Signs won the audience over with its sharply-tailored silhouettes, graphic elements with a light-dark contrast and shimmering metallic patchwork, which lent not only elegance to the knee-length dresses made of silk, velvet and cashmere, but also a substantial portion of power. “I love the re-interpretation of traditional techniques of workmanship in contemporary forms”, says the 32 year-old. It was not until March 2009 that Eckert established his own label in Hamburg, having completed a tailor’s apprenticeship, studied in Hamburg, worked under various designers including the recently-deceased Alexander McQueen, and done a master’s degree at London’s St. Martin’s College. In Hamburg he runs a salon for Christian Dior-style fashion. And takes inspiration from Jack Kerouac. The charm of French couture houses of the 1950s and the adventurous life of the American beatnik are not a contradiction for him: Stefan Eckert likes edgy contrasts and bases his collections on conflicting interests such as this. Inspired by the 1950s
Sascha Gaugel, the second Hamburger who has just made his debut at the Fashion Week, also runs a couture salon and has been inspired by the 1950s for his brands Hausach Couture and Hausach by Sascha Gaugel. Gaugel's brilliant and humorous show could be interpreted as a variation on the little black dress – with a petticoat, as an egg-shaped coat dress, with a huge collar, or with a floor-length cape – but equally as a tribute to Catwoman. Under their dresses all the models wore catsuits made from couture fabrics such as Taroni Organza and Duchesse, accompanied by blue and yellow brooches and bags with a cat motif. And a crescent moon as headgear!
Anyone who has a show in their own right at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week should no longer be termed a new designer but instead a young designer. The thing is, not only do you need plenty of talent, you also need plenty of power, in the design sense as well as financially. There is a huge amount of ideas and money behind the 25-35 looks that parade along the catwalk. Anyone who can manage that can also promote their label in the competitive fashion market. |
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It’s even more interesting to note that this time a whole host of young designers have put on a solo show, which demonstrated that they have a vision of their own, their own signature style. With no concessions to the taste of the masses.
“Jil Sander’s daughters”
Like the Perret Schaad label, backed by Johanna Perret and Tutia Schaad, who are graduates of the School of Art and Design Berlin Weißensee. They are so good that they were invited by Fashion Week organisers IMG, even though they only qualified a year ago. “In the last two months we have worked every day from 9 am until midnight, even at the weekend, but it was a really good time”, Johanna Perret describes the preparation phase. For them the working language is French, as Munich-born Perret is half French, and Tutia Schaad, who was born in Vietnam, grew up in Switzerland. In the run-up to the show they were dubbed “Jil Sander’s daughters”, because their style comes across as unfussy and wearable, yet is constructed with sophisticated tailoring and high-quality materials used in quite an unusual way. A beige knit, actually an old men’s favourite, becomes a bomber jacket for them. Rustic felt becomes an elegant coat. High-tech fibres become a pair of trousers, the sides of which swirl around the leg like a flag in the wind. “We like experimenting and we don’t impose any restrictions on ourselves, yet we also want to see women wearing our clothes”, is how Johanna Perret describes the balancing act that they pull off with perfect success. Their first collection will be in the shops in August 2010, as will garments by Michael Sontag.
A space for the body
He too is a graduate of the School of Art and Design Berlin Weißensee, and his second show is awaited with great anticipation. This is because the well-known fashion critic Suzy Menkes gave a neutral opinion on the Fashion Week in Summer 2009, it was only his show that she specifically praised. One accolade, and it is highly likely that the 30 year-old will continue along that path. “What’s important is the interaction between body and material”, says Michael Sontag. Many of his designs are created intuitively on the tailor’s dummy as a result of him draping the fabric directly on it – in winter it’s wool, cashmere and silk, in summer there’s lots of cotton too.
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“I create a space for the body”, he says, “and I want the body to be able to move around and feel comfortable within this space”. His soft, generously-cut dresses, trousers and jackets look as though he has taken huge lengths of material and folded and gathered them until they swirl around the body like a wonderful dwelling.
Explosion of ideas
Sam Frenzel is the second shooting star of the German fashion scene alongside Sontag. He won the “Designer for Tomorrow” sponsorship award, funded by Peek & Cloppenburg Düsseldorf, arousing the interest of the international fashion press, and he received sponsorship for an individual show as his prize. “I work to the Paris standard”, he says confidently. The 29 year-old broke off his fashion degree in Berlin-Mitte in the noughties (completing it recently) and headed off to Paris without speaking a word of French but with boundless enthusiasm for his work.
Chloé, Christian Lacroix, Dior – it was in these fashion houses that he had his practical experience, which has made him able to put on a fantastic performance now. Ideas explode with Sam Frenzel: knits with huge stitches are made into overalls and skirts, thin chiffon fabrics into floaty dresses – as if they are for queens from distant galaxies. The most impressive of the accessories were the big necklaces, woven from metal strands as thick as plaits. “I fight against clichés”, he says, “and I enjoy combining couture fabrics with materials that until now have had no place in fashion, such as industrial materials.” Not only is that dramatic, but Frenzel also has the technical skill to invent new cuts and working techniques to put his ideas into practice perfectly. Urban and natural
Fashion designer Patrick Mohr’s show also caused a sensation, but also perplexity. The designer from Munich sent body-builders onto the catwalk in extremely avant-garde gear, but also showed very unfussy streetwear. Mohr has been in the industry since 2007, while Christina Arend, also from Munich, presented her label arrondissement Aq1 for the first time in Summer 2009, immediately won the “Young Designers Award” sponsored by Modemesse Premium in the accessories category at her first attempt, and took another leap forward in January at the Fashion Week with her complete collection. Since then, the 26 year-old’s telephone hasn’t stopped ringing. She is successful in the art of creating clothing that can satisfy the needs of the city girl for “casual” and “evening” wear in a single garment: a mini-dress that reveals bare skin on one side and has a coat-style sleeve on the other. A simple printed T-shirt with a long black skirt. Skin-tight trousers with a super-imposed rainbow python pattern. You can just as well wear these garments on the subway as at an elegant reception. “The graphic styling of the garment is definitely part of the arrondissement Aq1 look”, says Christina Arend. “But with my second collection, flowing and coincidental aspects were important to me as well.” These clothes come across as being so urban and natural that you really want to put them straight on and walk down the street in them.
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Stefanie Dörre
is an editor for the Berlin city magazine “tip”.
Translation: Jo Beckett
Copyright: Goethe-Institut e. V., Online-Redaktion
February 2010
Any questions about this article?
Please write to us!
online-redaktion@goethe.de
is an editor for the Berlin city magazine “tip”.
Translation: Jo Beckett
Copyright: Goethe-Institut e. V., Online-Redaktion
February 2010
Any questions about this article?
Please write to us!
online-redaktion@goethe.de
