How Berlin style keeps influencing fashion

That’s all everyone is talking about. Gucci and Givenchy chose Berlin as background for their latest collections: Spring Summer 2016 for Alessandro Michele and Pre Fall for Riccardo Tisci, who dedicated to the city a video on Instagram. Why did they choose this destination among many others? Perhaps the “poor yet sexy” city (as the former mayor Klaus Wowereit described it in a 2004 TV interview) is really becoming the mainstream symbol of rebel-cool or were they fascinated with the brutalist architecture of the former German Democratic Republic?

For those who watched the film, it probably wasn’t difficult to notice the striking resemblance: the images of the campaign of the Florentine Maison are in fact inspired by the 1981 German feature film We Children from Bahnhof Zoo in which the protagonist, the teenager Christiane F. has an extremely underground and super current style. A coincidence? Definitely not, we would say: Berlin is and will without a doubt be the European capital of subcultures.

Berlin style is very difficult to define. Fashion and functionality surely walk and in hand. Many use their bicycles to get around or simply stay outside for many hours, not knowing when they’ll be back home, so they need a spacious bag or even a backpack. Yes to flats and comfortable shoes, sneakers all the way, and white shoes as well. Yes to vintage and second hand, to mix fast-fashion and luxury items. And lastly, yes to pseudo unawareness of being avant-garde.

We selected images from the 2016 Spring Summer shows that are representative of what we think could be and idea of Berlin fashion, although street style is really varied just like the rest of the city, in an ongoing evolution. A kaleidoscope of art and culture, a city that keeps charming is in all its aspects.

Do you need any tips for a fun weekend in town? Check out our Berlin city guide!