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Sunday, March 8, 2009
Berlin Welcomes Eastern European Style
By Cathrin SchaerBERLIN: White and red fluorescent tubes dangled from the ceiling, and art depicting male genitalia rested against the wall. Strange videos flashed across spray-painted computer monitors, and weird gold fabric caught the eye amid the racks of one-off fashions, mainly black, by young designers you have never heard of.
Gundega Lasmane-Gecs, the boutique's owner, stood in the middle of it all, surveying her domain. "Sometimes I wake up in the morning, and I wonder what the hell I'm doing here," she said in her perfect but accented English. "But then I think, well, it just feels right."
Four months ago Lasmane-Gecs and her husband, Agris Gecs, opened a trendy little boutique called Talka in the fast-becoming-fashionable Friedrichshain district of Berlin. Such places are far from unusual in wildly inventive, uber-creative Berlin.
What is different about Talka's owners and its stock is where they come from: Latvia.
The Gecs and the designers they work with are part of a small but growing movement of fashion designers from Eastern Europe coming to the West.
And, for many, the first logical stop is Berlin.
"Milan does not have an avant-garde scene, Paris is very expensive, and New York and London are so much further away," explains Ulrike Möslinger, who directs marketing for the French department store Galleries Lafayette in Berlin and is on the board of Create Berlin, an advocacy group for local design. "Düsseldorf has more industry, but the infrastructure for young designers is better here in Berlin. The rents are not expensive, and it's very easy to open a store."
Retail rents in central Berlin are around €2,600 per square meter a year, or $310 a square foot, while similar space in Paris could be as much as €8,000 per square meter - and it is likely that startup stores or young designers would seek even less expensive property, further out from the center into what was formerly East Berlin.
"Berlin sees itself as the middle-European capital, a bridge between East and West and, although I don't know if all Eastern European designers see it that way yet, I think it has that potential for them," said Silvia Kadolsky, director and owner of the Berlin branch of Esmod, the private international fashion school founded in Paris in 1841.
At least one Eastern European designer agrees. "I think there are more possibilities for me here," says Agné Kuzmickaité, a young Lithuanian with three collections to her name, who won a year's accommodation and use of an atelier here in a competition last year. "I think in France it would be very hard for someone like me. To me it feels like Paris is yesterday - and Berlin has the potential to be tomorrow."
And while the streets of Berlin are not lined with stores stocking the latest from Lithuania or the Russian Federation quite yet, there is plenty of evidence of the trend.
Labels like Penelope's Sphere, whose designer, Tamari Nikoleishvili, is from Georgia, and Mareunrols, created by Marite Mastina and Rolands Peterkops of Latvia, hang next to the work of designers from Germany, Sweden, Japan and England on racks around the city. And new boutiques like Talka, Access and Redspective specialize in Eastern European design.
"For me, starting a store here was a really easy decision," says Cynthia Carson, co-owner of Redspective - where alongside fanzines from the Czech Republic and music compilations from St. Petersburg nightclubs, they stock what they describe as "urban clothing" designed in collaboration with street, graffiti and other artists from Eastern Europe. "There is no other city in Europe that draws such a line between East and West."
But, as with any fashion label in any big city, it's not all easy going in Berlin.
"It's a good place to live and work, in fact, it's a great place. But not such a good place to sell," says Nikoleishvili of Penelope's Sphere, who worked for Vivienne Westwood and Marjan Pejoski in London before coming to Berlin.
"I have people who love my stuff, but the most expensive things are always bought by tourists," Nikoleishvili says. Her top-end designs sell for several hundred euros, an extravagance for many in a city with slow economic growth and high unemployment.
Mastina and Peterkops, who design Mareunrols, understand the problem. "On one hand Berlin is possibly the best city in Europe for young fashion labels to be based as it has a thriving arts scene and relatively cheap rent," they said in an e-mail interview. "On the other hand Berlin poses many challenges to a label like ours, which is catering for the top end of the market."
Monday, February 9, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Rani Jones: Fabulous, Eco-Friendly Fashion
Rani Jones is the brainchild of designers Rani Patel and Lucy Jones. While it seems that eco-friendly fashion should be an oxymoron, these designers have managed to meld the two to create a collection that is as fashion-forward as it is socially responsible. Their clothes are sharp, inspired by geometry, and the of the type that can punch up your everyday wardrobe. Read ahead to see how these two designers came to create their unique label, and then let me you what YOU think!
—Rebecca Suhrawardi Austin
Can you tell me a bit about your background and how the two of you became a designers?
We both feel that dressing up and make believe played a huge part in both of our childhoods. We had vivid imaginations from a very young age and so design was inherent in both of us whilst growing up. We graduated in different years, both with First Class Honours in BA Fashion Design from the London College of Fashion, by April 2008 the rani jones label was born.
How would you best describe your label?
Rani Jones is a London based eco-luxury womenswear label. Our designs are based on simplifying and modifying conventional pattern cutting techniques to create strong geometric shapes. This approach combined with our exacting attention to detail produces innovative, progressively designed womenswear and accessories.
I'm curious as to why you went the partnership route rather than to start your own independent labels?
We met a year and a half ago whilst designing for the same company and realised that we had similar beliefs and styles of working. Past work experiences opened our eyes to the reality of fast fashion, we had spent time in India, sourcing materials and working with factories and it became apparent to us that our focus had to be on slower fashion. The partnership developed naturally due to our close working relationship.
The cornerstone of the Rani Jones brand is social responsibility and eco-friendliness. Does staying true to that ever interfere with the final design of a garment?
The Rani Jones philosophy challenges pre-conceived thoughts about ethical/environmental fashion, to prove that great design can be enhanced by an eco-approach. We incorporate socially responsible principles and eco-sourcing throughout all decision making processes. Of course this can be quite limiting but it can also be very exciting as due to our research being much more in depth and considered, it can lead us to discover fantastic fabrics etc and things that we wouldn't have come across otherwise.
What sort of woman do you envision wearing your clothes?
The Rani Jones woman is independent and stylish, edgy and sophisticated.
What sort of inspiration did you pull from for this current collection?
Geometry is the basis for all Rani Jones designs with main inspiration derived from Brutalism. The Brutalist architectural style sees buildings formed with striking repetitive angles to give a raw unadorned concrete appearance. We take the rough blocky Brutalist aesthetic and transform it into something that speaks of luxury-resulting in beautifully constructed wearable garments that retain a sexy feminine edge.
What do you think makes London so special as a fashion capital?
London encourages very expressive, creative fashion which is supported by the amazing fashion colleges which are here. London as a city is saturated in history and has an amazing cultural diversity and so is always bursting with inspiration.
What advice would you give to aspiring designers?
We absolutely support and encourage any avenues that allow people to be creative, generate and share their ideas. Make the most of your surroundings and never take things for granted.
See more at ranijones.com