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subscribe to style file blog via RSSBerlin Dispatch: At Joop!, Schönberger Does Naughty Nicely
February 2, 2009 5:17 pm
Few nations are masters of sleek kink like the country that created Helmut Newton and Marlene Dietrich. And Berlin loves its status as Europe’s capital of “poor but sexy” chic. But sometimes playing that role can become merely cheap and raunchy. Last season, when Joop!’s Dirk Schönberger ventured into club-land with looks that recalled adolescents in fancy-dress fetish gear as “kinky nurses” or “bad bunnies,” the outcome was as unsexy as a lame dirty joke. These limp looks were all the more shameful because Joop! is one of the few brands with legs outside the local market. And despite being one of Europe’s biggest markets and an emerging scene, Berlin still needs its established brands to be role models. So, this season it was a real relief that Schönberger’s vision of “adult fashion” hit full maturity, and the results were properly pulse-quickening. The models walking through the Hamburger Bahnhof museum’s temporary runway were styled with wet crimson lips, long straight hair with blunt bangs, and clean skin, all of which highlighted the sharply sculpted but not overstated cut of mostly black dresses, suits, and skirts. The looks called to mind the dark connotations of leather and latex, but only enough to entice the properly smitten audience.
tags: Berlin Fashion Week, Dirk Schonburger, Joop!
