NYLON - October 2007 - (Page 60) ACHTUNG, BABY! IN THE 18 YEARS SINCE THE FALL OF THE WALL, BERLIN HAS TRANSFORMED ITSELF FROM AN ANXIOUSLY DIVIDED, WAR-SCARRED CITY INTO ONE OF THE MOST FREE-SPIRITED—AND STYLISH—CULTURAL CAPITALS ON THE PLANET. HERE, SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM ITS FIRST-EVER INTERNATIONAL FASHION WEEK. BY EVIANA HARTMAN. PHOTOGRAPHED BY JONATHAN BECK LEDER BLESS Ten years after its founding, Bless continues to confound, steadily turning out creations that hover somewhere in the realm between fashion, art, and industrial design. Sunglasses are adorned with tiara crowns and giant dolphins; utilitarian fanny packs are attached to the body via bow-tied billows of fabric; photographs of the designers’ friends’ apartments are blown up into wallpaper; “electrical jewelry” consists of extension cords draped with beading and lace, so that the universal problem of a tangle of wires instead resembles a pile of treasures. The famously press-shy collective actually consists of just two German designers, Berlin-based Ines Kaag and Paris-based Desiree Heiss, and while they prefer to play down their connection to Berlin—“from the moment we started, it has been very important for us to be as international as possible,” they write in an email—Bless and its German home city do share a similar spirit: subversive and mysterious, yet unexpectedly humble. Asked what inspires their work, Kaag and Heiss respond, “We do not have to say much, since our all-day life and work feels so normal, organic, and boring.” Their aim, they say, is simply “to criticize through suggesting alternative products.” And why did they found Bless in the first place? “Because we had nothing better to do.” For more information, see bless-service.de. stylist: charles manning. model: dani at click. jacket by bless, hat by patricia underwood, tights by wolford, shoes by christian louboutin. http://www.bless-service.de
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.