19 July 2025 |
Text: Sandee Woodside
Amid one of the warmest weeks of the year, Berlin Fashion Week (BFW) lit up the pavements of the German capital for SS26. To mark the occasion, we caught up with the illustrious Christiane Arp, who co-founded Fashion Council Germany (FCG) back in 2015.
She reminds us that those early days were a transformative time for the industry, with “the rise of e-commerce, social media, and new digital platforms.” A decade on, FCG’s initial intent to focus on German design’s craft, creativity, and quality has remained steadfast. Establishing “programmes that support designers and enhance their international visibility,” the FCG gives space to “untold stories” with an emphasis on emergent, local talents — showcasing “fashion as a serious cultural asset within our society.”
The Berlin Senate recognises the importance of FCG’s work. Once Mercedes-Benz’s sponsorship of BFW was withdrawn in 2022, the Senate appointed the organisation to coordinate Berlin’s fashion week — with the goal of “offer[ing] something genuinely different”. Arp knew this meant they “had to support the designers not only financially but also through mentoring and guidance”. With the financial backing this collaboration has facilitated, more inclusive initiatives like Berlin Contemporary Prize have been born.
Of the 80 applicants this season’s Berlin Contemporary Prize received, a panel of esteemed jury members chose 19 winners. The €25,000 award has also recently undergone an expansion, allowing for more international recipients. Reflecting on this development, Arp tells us: “We want like-minded brands and designers to feel welcome in Berlin because it is a city rooted in diversity, openness, and constant reinvention.” And in this spirit, the distinctive value that BFW provides enables designers to give space to their most sincere motivations—and to do so in community.
With more international media attention than ever before, you’ve likely already seen the looks that defined this season’s runways, but backstage – with the likes of Orange Culture, Palmwine Icecream, David Koma, Ioannes, Marke, Richert Beil, Sia Arnika, GmbH, Lueder and Ottolinger – we delved deeper into dialogues with key designers as they revealed essential tips, humble honesty, key cultural insights and industry insider knowledge, sharing with us the possibilities and struggles encapsulated in the fashion landscape.
DAVID KOMA
David Komakhidze — partner of Berlin’s PR agency, Reference Studios — boasts a remarkable career that started in London, a place “where creativity always [came] first, encourag[ing] boldness and experimentation”. In Paris, as creative director of Mugler, he felt the “heartbeat” of “legacy and precision” permeate its Fashion Weeks; whereas in Milan, with Blumarine, he feels “glamour.”
Within this international landscape, he applauds BFW, stating, “Berlin has an honesty and edge [that is] incredibly inspiring.” For him, “Showing [here] is a way to tap into a different cultural current and reach a new kind of audience.” He also feels the experimental, subversive and unique qualities of the city “aligned with the energy of [their] menswear line”, offering a “space that felt new”.
IOANNES
Hailing from the acclaimed Central Saint Martins in London, Johannes Böhl Cronau started Ioannes in Paris in 2019, before relocating to Berlin during the pandemic. Having survived the struggles of launching an independent label in a fashion epicentre, he says: “Paris showed me the weight of the industry and how easy it is to disappear inside. London taught me to explode, and Berlin teaches me to integrate.”
Wanting his “work to touch, not just impress”, what drew him here was Berlin as the “unfinished sentence – a home that could hold both space and time”. The city’s openness, rawness and lack of diurnal distractions and demands grant focus, while leaving room for “process and imperfection”. With conveniences such as “less stress between showroom appointments [and] shows of mega brands”, a designer’s individual message can be centred. He states, “Here, I feel I can show a collection that’s both deeply personal and socially aware, without having to over-explain.”
OTTOLINGER
Swiss duo Christa Bösch and Cosima Gadient launched Ottolinger back in 2015. Of the capital ten years ago, they tell us, “Berlin gave us space — to work, to fail, to invent. It was raw, messy, affordable and full of people building things from scratch. It was political, experimental, underground.” Now, having shown at Paris Fashion Week since 2018, the iconic Berlin brand has returned. They say, “Paris is where the system is, so we wanted to confront it. It’s where technique, tradition and legacy live,” but this doesn’t mean they’re retreating: “It’s about reactivating the roots.”
Discussing their collaboration with Reference Studios’ Intervention, they celebrate the “fluid, open, unbureaucratic” nature of a programme based on intuition more than industry. Instead of feeling like a trade event, building with the team there “feels more like a happening. The energy is: show up, do it your way, no permission needed”.
ORANGE CULTURE
Adebayo Oke-Lawal launched his label in Lagos in 2010/2011, and by 2014 it was already a LVMH prize finalist. Having shown in London and New York with the purpose of injecting itself into global fashion discourse while “challenging narrow definitions of African design”, his brand has always championed inclusivity, challenged societal norms and emphasised ethical practices. While the lessons learnt in these fashion capitals reiterated how “authenticity always wins in the long run,” coming to Berlin “encourages” it—a city which represents, for him, “radical honesty”.
His essential advice is to remain true to yourself despite inevitable pushback: “The industry is full of noise; trends, metrics, opinions, but your purpose is your anchor.”
PALMWINE ICECREAM
Launching in 2018, and based in Accra and London, Kusi Kubi says Berlin holds meaning not only as the place where his creations reached a wider audience, but also for the resonance he finds with the city’s artistic dynamism, fostering a desire to create something more “personal and intimate”. At BFW, “there’s a growing momentum, a push for new voices and ideas, and an openness that feels exciting.”
Showing again after winning last season’s prize as well, Kusi Kubi relates to us the synthesis of preparing a runway as a grant recipient and the impact it’s had on his creative vision. He says, “It’s helped shape not just how I present the brand but how I think about its future.” The Berlin Contemporary offered far-reaching visibility and connected him with other creatives, while “reinforcing the importance of staying true to the community and story behind the clothes.”
MARKE
Mario Keine’s palpably poetic label has just won the €25,000 prize for the fourth time, thereby securing funding “for a full show in Berlin”. He tells us that the recognition and visibility afforded by the prize is remarkable when considering “high-ranked guests”. With the added international attention of buyers and press, he can use this spotlight to showcase in a “holistic” manner that lasts. He explains, “It allows me to create 15 minutes of a world and transport a feeling around my work. A picture is a picture. We’re over- flooded by them and they rarely leave an impact.” While a runway “creates an audience and a community”.
Further lauding the Berlin Fashion scene, he credits its ethos of collaboration as underpinning small labels’ success. The exchange of contacts and experiences between brands enables them to “grow sustainably”, while “avoiding mistakes, but also forming shared memories”.
RICHERT BEIL
Berlin-mainstays Michele Beil and Jale Richert were presenting runways long before the launch of the Berlin Contemporary Prize, which they again won. Likening their approach to the prize application to their manner in handling collections, they tell us they do so “with clarity, and without adapting [their] practice to fit a format”. With this uncompromised integrity as a constant, they further explain, “We presented where we are, what drives us and what direction we want to continue pursuing. The focus was not on creating something new for the sake of it, but on showing the consistency and evolution of our work.”
And with over a decade under their belt, they have now opened their first shop which hosted this season’s collection — where “continuity” and cohesion are central tenets. They say, “The runway has always been a way for us to communicate the atmosphere around the work. Opening our own space is an extension of that. It allows us to host the brand in a more permanent way and to make the values visible beyond a single moment.”
SIA ARNIKA
Sia Arnika’s eponymous label — famed for its memorable runways — just put on its fifth physical show this season. Awarded the €25,000 Berlin Contemporary grant, Arnika explains that the base layer cost is covered, but “thoughtful, aligned partnerships” are still paramount for the transportive setups the brand strives for. Emphasising the significance such a mode of storytelling has, her runways focus on “casting, light, sound, movement, emotion, tension, memory”. And as her production has evolved, further progress has been spurred. She says, “The biggest shift has been having a team that I trust completely.”
Her hot tips for young designers dreaming of starting their own brand are, “Know your craft. Romanticise the work — but stay grounded. Be obsessed, but be kind — to yourself and to others. And don’t wait for the right conditions. Just start.”
GMBH
Since their stirring BFW debut a year ago, Benjamin Huseby and Serhat Işık point out the perks of being where their own community is, which offers them “a great sense of support”. While the Berlin Contemporary grant “covers only a small part” of a runway of their calibre, pragmatically, they say, it’s a lot more relaxed being home “after a long day of castings and fittings”.
Some tips they have for the burgeoning scene here in Berlin include, “One issue is lack of experience with producing fashion shows,” so event production agencies are a huge boon. While “staging a show is very technical and specific”, they succeeded in bringing their close production partners Experiential/H from Paris to Berlin this time. And being able to work closely, such as they did with Intervention, on a location and platform certainly also has its advantages. Of course, their strong artistic team is undeniable too; from immersive set design and memorable movement direction to striking casting and standout styling — they generate an atmosphere unlike anything else at BFW.
LUEDER
Marie Lueder has delivered six runways between London and Berlin in the last year and a half — a prolific achievement that seems to be rooted in her love of the format. She tells us of her process, “My work is very much guided by show concepts and then I build the collection for it.”
As a consistent Berlin Contemporary Prize winner, she expresses gratitude for the ongoing “opportunity to work with incredible artists and creatives in a new simulation every time”. The ‘label’ of the prize also resulted in a push for the brand’s textile innovations, as it “received material sponsorship from iconic places” like Tintoria Emiliana, Pointex, and Stratasys.
Her tips for applying to (and winning) such a competitive contest: “You develop an intriguing concept which is fitting to Berlin fashion week, have enough stockists, and include interesting collaborators.” And for the young aspiring designers, “you need to be obsessed…[it’s] really hard” — advice we heard more than once in these interviews.
As we have seen, stepping into the unique world that BFW unleashes means embracing the imperfect, the conditions to create something new, and the liberation to do so with authentic, unconstrained style.
Creative Director CHARLOTTE GINDREAU
Photographer ISOTTA ACQUATI
Writer SANDEE WOODSIDE
Photographer’s Assistant ANASTASIJA KOCEVSKA
Fashion Assistant IKIU CAPOU SIRIPANGNO
