Inside Berlin’s Fashion Positions

Berlin Fashion Week has been and gone. But that doesn’t mean the city’s style calendar is over — far from it. Across September’s fashion month, it continues to assert its credentials. This time, it’s Fashion Positions—a four-day event showcasing the creative intersection of fashion and art —that took center stage.

Now in its sixth year, Fashion Positions is devised by Positions Berlin Art Fair, which acts as a platform for international contemporary and modern art galleries. Given the city acts as “a crossroads between fashion and art,” the inclusion of fashion in the form of Fashion Positions was a “very organic” development, explained organizer Kristian Jarmuschek.

Berlin’s fashion sector is showing growth and resilience too. According to the most recent figures from the city’s Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises, the sector has over 5,000 companies employing almost 26,000 people which contributes to a turnover of around €5 billion.

The 2024 edition of Fashion Positions held at Berlin’s iconic Tempelhof Airport, curated 20 Berlin-based designers alongside work from acclaimed photographer Caroline Kynast known for her street style images. Under the evocative theme of a Kreuzberg High Tea, it invites curiosity and asks visitors to discover new positions, as it were.

Highlights included stylist Vanessa Baernthol, whose current collection sees her create dramatic lines and forms by adorning garments with delicate pearl-work. Claudia Skoda’s finely woven pieces that embrace the body as living sculptures were also notable. Inspired by the city’s subculture of the 70s and 80s (think David Bowie and Iggy Pop), Skoda’s work sits on the tightrope between elegance and provocation.

Damur, based in the city since 2015, presented an installation which demonstrated how it transforms fashion waste into art and streetwear: a collection of upcycled shoes repurposed into vases for plants and flowers. According to the founder Damur Haung, these art pieces emphasize the brand’s passion and dedication to fine art alongside its commitment to sustainability and innovation.

Originally from Taiwan, his upcycled pieces embody the overall theme which “seamlessly blended high fashion with art, drawing inspiration from the care, patience, and creativity of a traditional high tea,” Huang shared in a correspondence after the event. Damur, which is showing at this season’s Taipei Fashion Week later this month, saw the event as a fresh, innovative way to connect and share the brand DNA and design process with new audiences.

Close to 30,000 visitors attended over the four days and had the chance to purchase pieces from the brands from the Fashion Passion Shop—sales figures doubled compared to the previous year.

“We participate in events like this because they offer an ideal platform to tell our brand’s story and showcase our identity. Fashion Positions allow us to target new customer segments and interact directly with the audience, creating a unique and immersive customer experience,” Huang shared. It’s also an opportunity to “observe and engage with different customer behaviors, helping us better understand and adapt to our audience’s needs.”

This lies at the heart of what drives the fair, thinks Jarmuschek. Now in year 6, he wants to keep fostering creative exchange between different disciplines. “This edition, we felt the exceptional photography work of Kynast contextualized the work of our 20 selected designers. It brought fashion to life as a cultural narrative.”

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