Photo: Yaroslav Rashevskyi
If Berlin is going to cement itself as a leading fashion capital and divert attention away from Paris, Milan and London, it’s going to need to develop its talent at a grassroots level. In light of this, founder and organiser of Berlin’s young designer showcase, Neo. Fashion, Jens Zander created the platform to provide support to young fashion talents in Germany in the imprint of the British Fashion Council. This year, Neo. Fashion presented 75 graduate collections from 9 of Germany’s brightest universities, including HAW Hamburg and HTW Berlin.
Given the plethora of talent on display, the audience were treated to a variety of viewpoints from designers aiming to make clothes fit for the future. Some opted to present luxe collections with well-proportioned cuts and carefully tailored silhouettes which was particularly apparent in Rebecca Heine and Dinara Nenortaite’s co-designed collection entitled n’existant; whereas others like Mariam Mchitarian adopted a sustainable ethos of reuse, recycle and repurpose to reimagine what we understand as wearable fabric for her HANI HAKI collection. There were also conceptual collections which looked to engage with social issues such as Sandra González Leal’s Bruchgefahr which offered up new answers to old questions through clothing.
Exclusively for SLEEK, Yaroslav Rashevskyi went behind-the-scenes at Neo. Fashion to document the calm, the storm and the still of young designers getting their chance to flourish.
See the photos below:
All images courtesy of Yaroslav Rashevskyi.