The 7 best shows at Berlin Fashion Week SS27 Womenswear

Berlin Fashion Week returned for its summer edition last week, and continued to prove why the city has become a major destination on the fashion calendar. GmbH designers Benjamin A Huseby and Serhat Işik celebrated 10 years of their brand with a show that paid homage to the history of German couture, while Victor Barragán returned to the runway after three years away for a sticky, sleazy show of full-throttle excess. But don’t worry, there was plenty more where that came from – scroll down for all the other collections that tickled our fancy this season.

This season, rather than staging a traditional runway show, designer Johannes Boehl Cronau hosted an intimate event in his own Mitte apartment. The SS27 presentation, called Salon 01, was made in collaboration with set designers Tor Studios, who packed a central table full of towering glassware, platters of fruit, dahlias and calla lilies, while furniture and shearling rugs created by Cronau made up the rest of the scene. Models meandered around the space in the latest creations from the IOANNES brand: delicate lace draping, halter tops that framed the clavicle, and clingy skirts and dresses spray-painted with geometric florals. “Salon 01 revisits IOANNES pieces from previous seasons,” said the label in the show notes. “The decision reflects [an] ongoing interest in working with what already exists, returning to garments through processes of transformation and wear.”

As well as the decadent set design by Tor Studios, this season was also a collaboration with the London-based perfumers Escentric Molecules, who provided the olfactory experience for the presentation. Upon entering, Cronau’s apartment had been spritzed with one of the brand’s foundational scents, Escentric 01, which is formed around the “inexplicably addictive aroma-molecule” Iso E Super, known for its unique ability to adapt differently on individual people’s skin.

The Ukrainian designer Kolya Bogatyrev launched his namesake label in 2021 and debuted at Berlin Fashion Week last season, for AW26. Bagatyrev’s brand is built on the upcycling of garments, working exclusively with existing materials and fashioning them into unique new pieces. On the SS27 runway, dress shirts were layered under see-through vests, their starchy forms pinned and placed to create swirling folds of fabric beneath the thin layer of chiffon. Ties and shirts were made into bandeau tops, city maps were cinched to make belted mindresses, and brightly coloured polos were made into mid-length skirts. “This process of reconstruction serves as both a material and emotional gesture. Clothing becomes a carrier of memory,” said the designer in his show notes. “A shirt is no longer simply a shirt . A blazer becomes a trace of experience. A tie transforms into an object suspended between function and symbol.”

Kasia Kucharska’s SS27 collection was centred on the idea of the trompe-l’œil, or “the subtle illusion between appearance and reality.” At her presentation, the designer presented a parade of familiar garments – jeans, trench coats, knitwear – but they’d all been handcrafted from latex. Baby blue hoods shrouded models’ faces, a standout pink look consisted of a collared top and pencil skirt, while an oatmeal coloured scarf wrapped around a neck and trailed all the way to the floor. After the presentation, we caught up with Kucharska outside, where she explained that, contrary to what you might think, the material isn’t harder to work with than regular fabrics. “It’s very instinctive and easy,” she told us. “It’s very much like drawing on paper. You draw the jacket with the liquid latex and then you glue the patterns together. It’s a very nice process.”

Entering the SF1OG show space this season was a sight to behold. Held in the Carl Schuhmann Sporthalle – designed by renowned architect Hinrich Baller – the entire floor of the gymnasium had been covered with a huge layer of plaster that ushers nervously shield from the footsteps of guests. When the show began and the models began to walk over it, the floor beneath them cracked and crumbled, leaving trails of destruction in their paths.

The collection itself took inspiration from a variety of different references. Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 remake of Suspiria was one, which was channelled through a “tension between attraction and discomfort”; another was the work of photographer Ari Versluis, whose “Exactitudes” series explores the visual codes of collective identity. On the runway, this was telegraphed through punkish references like skinny leather pants and see-through vests, while drop-waist ball gowns and velvet suits appeared elsewhere.

When guests arrived at the building housing Clara Colette Miramon’s runway show, they were greeted by a large, cordoned off hole in the ground, with a large tree and tropical flowers planted in the centre. Plumes of steam billowed from the hole, and once guests made their way into the venue, the runway was actually underground, around the base of the tree, separated by glass panels. On those sticky panels, love hearts, kisses and the letters ‘CCM’ had been scrawled into the condensation.

As suggested by the tropical climes, the collection this season was called Humid. “At the heart of the collection lies the idea of humidity – not only as a climatic condition, but as a metaphor for growth, transformation, memory, and desire,” wrote Miramon in the show notes. Silhouettes inspired by mermaids and sirens appeared on the runway, while the closing look consisted of a transparent corset with tropical flowers inlaid between its bonings.

Julia Ballardt and Nico Verhaegen returned to the runway after skipping last season, and the comeback didn’t disappoint. With a collection titled Ashes, the notes explained that the show would deal in the “contradicting associations the title suggests”, such as themes of destruction, but also the idea of rising from the ashes. On the runway, a naturalistic colour palette was used on the many draped skirts, leather jackets and belted t-shirts, while accessories came in the form of newspaper holders and leather-bound journals. “The narrative of the rural punk is a direct reflection of the rural space the Milk of Lime team lives and works in,” said the duo after the show. “Located in the provincial southwest of Germany, this location serves as unfiltered inspiration and allows [us] to follow the brand’s core values of craftsmanship.”

Irish designer Luke Raine made his runway debut after first showing via presentation last season. The show was inspired by Raine’s youth, growing up within a dedicated skate community in a small seaside town. On the runway, the 00s-coded clothes included plaid shirts, baggy jeans and slogan tees. Raine clearly has a keen eye for prints, too: the runway was awash with spray-painted stars, camouflage, lipstick kisses and animal prints, while the cuts and grazes all over models’ faces were another beauty highlight. At the end of the show Raine made his final bow wearing a t-shirt that said “Employ working class kids”, a worthy message for the industry to take heed of.