Kicking Off Summer with SLEEK x GANT

SLEEK teamed up once again with GANT to celebrate one of our favourite brand’s newest collections. Hosted at The Barn coffee shop in Checkpoint Charlie, SLEEK and GANT’s invited guests met up in the heart of the city to enjoy drinks, pizza, an artist talk by Otto Baum and a DJ set by Maddi Bu. The Barn’s new location is a calm location in the otherwise busy hub of Friedrichstrasse, occupying the ground floor of a building designed by celebrated architect Werner Düttmann. One wall of the light-filled main room served as a canvas for muralist Otto Baum, who was asked to design something around GANT’S SS 24 collection theme of stripes.

Otto Baum, a member of Berlin and Halle based art collective KLUB7, is a painter and graphic artist known for his distinct and colorful large scale murals. His work often features concentric or interlocking circles, geometric shapes and patterns, and vibrant braids of layered waves of color. Using a bold and complementary approach, the artist’s large scale works stand out in whichever venue they are installed. For this work with GANT, Baum constructed a large-scale wall mural of crisscrossing warm yellow and muted green vertical bands, inspired by GANT’s summer theme of stripes. The artist’s technique revolves around his signature “Ottotools”— self-developed brushes, angles, paint trays, templates and leveling devices—  and a lot of digital planning to achieve clean lines and precise color blending. He also thinks a lot about negative space, planning carefully how the white background space in between his brushstrokes will interact inside the painting as a whole.

Stripes were GANT’s muse for the summer 2024 collection, using a controlled color palette in muted vintagey shades that inspired Baum’s color palette for the mural. Their Pop Up at the Barn celebrated GANT’s efforts to finally launch the long-awaited “Summer Shop”, which focused on flowy, light silhouettes, and solid belts of color. On plush beach towels, big tote bags, and loose-fitting dresses, stripes played the biggest role in the collection: in deep blue, sunflower yellow, and a dusty green and rose pink combination. Their summer shop also offers a linen collection with lightwieght buttonups, breezy pants, and thin blazers. Many of the items from the summer collection were on display at the SLEEK x GANT popup, to showcase the new launch.

Guests arrived dressed for the early summer heat, welcoming in May’s warmer weather and sunnier skies. They sipped on aperol spritzes and snacked on treats from The Barn while browsing a selection of GANT’s newest collection, trying on their favourite pieces. As Baum’s artist talk grew to a close, a live DJ set by Berlin based artist Maddi Bu carried the group’s energy through the rest of the night. Her music is focused on customizing a good atmosphere for every event she plays, for the SLEEK x GANT party tailoring the mood to the beginning of summer and channeling the excitement of launching a new collection.