Edged Showroom in collaboration with Fier Management opened again on time for Berlin Fashion Week to present the Fall/Winter ‘12 collections of various labels and gave the opportunity for dialogue with the people behind the clothes.
I admit to spending more time than I should have in the dark cellar with students of the University for Applied Siences Trier, where they presented their graduation collections using film and photography. Each designer presented one outfit from their collection, hung from the ceiling above three screens sunk in the floor showing images of naked people sleeping, shifting in small boxes. Small screens connected to ipads on one side of the room gave you the opportunity to see the complete lookbook, but what really made me stay down there for a long time was the lookbook in motion that was projected on the wall. Tobias Benz, “the master” as the graduates called him created all this. “It was more of a side project for fun.” he said. The fun he had was captured beautifully by the images, models danced across the wall, the clothes whirling around them.
“We didn’t need dialogue. We had faces. Why the faces?” was the title of their exhibition.
All five created unique looks. While Agnes Boleslawski covered her clothes, and for the presentations even walls, with entwined patterns, Paula Knorr’s collection “skin.” focused on abstract shapes, deforming the human body, turning it into something new, without losing the feeling of nudity. Elisa Damm experimented with protective forms and soft fabrics. Her collection “random noise” consisted of fragile armour and blurred the border between strength and fraility. While Raphaela Rose was inspired by the 1920s, Jennifer Koch created a post-apocalyptic world.
The choice of material was especially interesting. What seemed to be leather at first was rubber, what looked like sheep skin, was cotton and Raphaela Rose made high heels out of ice skates.
“We started by thinking about how it is possible to stay forever young.” Max Tan tells us and takes a skirt off the hanger. “The only way is through pictures, so we started to work with rectangular shapes to illustrate a picture frame. This skirt, for example, is square.” He holds it up to show us the shape. The entire collection is full of surprises. “I don’t like it when there are instructions telling you the different ways to wear a piece.” Many items in the collection can be worn in numerous ways, kimonos become maxi dresses, and a shirt turns out to be three shirts sewn together. The clothes take shape on the body, draping in interesting ways. Innovative design and material are what the main focus lies on. Max Tan’s fall/winter 2012-13 collection is one to get lost in and experiment with.
More Highlights:
wkndlvrs
Isabel Vollrath
Poppy.
Special thanks to Helen Arend and Anne Dehn.
