Designers to Watch: Neo.Fashion. 2022

We share our six favourite designers from Berlin’s annual fashion show dedicated to showcasing young talent in Germany.

A forever favourite in our Berlin Fashion Week calendar is the Neo.Fashion. show, serving as the largest platform for young fashion talent in Germany. Between 6 and 8 September, 6,000 visitors were invited to the industrial, brick-clad Reinbeckhallen in Oberschöneweide to watch fifteen shows.

The sixth iteration was dedicated to showcasing international fashion talent, kicking off by exhibiting the works of five Ethiopian designers in cooperation with the Adis Abeba and Fashion Africa 254. On 8 September, six Ukrainian designers from the Ukrainian Fashion Week were welcomed to present their collections as part of the project, Look into the Future. The decision to extend the talent beyond the German scope was applauded by visitors.

Besides the general graduate shows, there were also three award shows covering: Best Design, Best Sustainability Concept and Best Craftmanship. The jury for these shows was made up with the likes of Florian Müller, Carina Bischof, Timo Wolf, Sebastian Warschow, Neslihan Degerli, Claudia Hofmann and Leyla Piedayesh.

The Best Design award was granted to Hamburg University of Applied Sciences graduate Max Tautorus for their collection, Kinship. Nanyi Li from the University of Art and Design took the crown for the Best Sustainability Concept for their collection, Blumen im Nebel. Finally, Antonia Dannenberg from Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences was awarded Best Innovation for her collection, Melt Down.

Amongst the pool of talent on offer, we share six designers who made a lasting impression on us.

Max Tautorus
Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaft Hamburg

Max Tautorus was awarded with Best Design for their collection, Kinship, which urged us to think about the relationship between animals and humans in the Anthropocene. Max’s final project for their MA degree at the HAW Hamburg. In 2019, they finished their BA at the AMD Academy of Fashion and Design Düsseldorf.

In times of climate crisis, it’s essential to rethink the dichotomy between nature and culture. Kinship manages to balance playfulness and sincerity – on one hand, each outfit allows the wearer to dress up as an animal in a fun and child-like way – and on the other, by becoming the animal through clothing, the wearer is pushed to reassess their relationship to animals and nature in a much more intimate way.

What is so compelling about Tautorus’ choice to use animal embodiment is that it erases both the traditional boundaries between species but also human gender, demonstrating how clothing should remain non-binary.

Nanyi Li
Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle

The winner of the Best Sustainability Concept was MA graduate Nanyi Li. Her collection, Blumen im Nebel (Flowers in the Mist), pays homage to her Chinese heritage, particularly the Chinese proverb about complexities and ambiguities – things are not as they always seem and may at first be hard to recognise.

“I like giving people little surprises by hiding details in places that aren’t easy to find”, said Li, who creates a performance with her clothing – take the looking glass for example or the veiled bride. An exciting designer we look forward to seeing more from.

Liv-Pauliana Sailer
AMD Akademie Mode & Design

Liv-Pauliana Sailer relishes in diving into the polarities of nostalgia and its influence on today’s society. Her collection, Hiraeth, is a visual representation of the feelings we experience when we are stuck between old memories and transitioning into new beginnings. Ultimately, it urges us to question: ‘Why is the past taken as a basis to judge people, even though we all know that the past is intangible?’

Sailer believes that we are too attached to our biases to answer those questions properly and so we must remember to reinvent ourselves daily and reset our mindsets in order to make a difference. The bold prints, patterns and colours paired with the irregular cuts are symbolic of this back and forth between the need the change and the struggle of letting go of the past.

“My studies at the AMD enabled me to build up a passion and fascination that started very small with my grandmother. The realisation of ideas and thoughts through my own creativity with the help of unusual fabrics, surfaces and silhouettes”, said Sailer.

“The close collaboration with various cooperation partners such as Ludwig Beck or Liberty of London gave me insights into companies but also into later professional life. Also during my internship at a couture label in Amsterdam, I learned the best workmanship and tailoring, which I took with me into my collections.”

Livia Honus
Hochschule für Künste Bremen

Previous FASH 2017 winner, Livia Honus, revives the seventies with her roller-themed collection, Concrete Disco. She unpicks both disco culture as a sociological phenomenon and Brutalism as a style of architecture – playing upon their similarities and differences, which are bundled in a hedonistic longing for glamour, excess, and also decay.

What sets Honus apart is her ability to create and pair a variety of different materials from knitwear to glitter all into one collection – always paying attention to detailing and accessories. P.S. We love the roller bags!

“For me, fashion is a complete artwork made up of patterns, material and structure which only comes to life through the wearer’s movement. It is a way to visualise and communicate feelings and ideas. This power of fashion fuels my design process,” said Honus.

“In addition, as a trained tailor and pattern maker, I highly appreciate craftsmanship and quality which always inspires me in my work. During my art and design studies, I was able to complement and develop my craftsmanship with digital techniques.”

Jana Heinemann
Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin

Jana Heinemann‘s collection, VeBoDi, was not only created for aesthetic purposes but also as part of a project that promises a solution for more sustainable clothing, proving that we can do more with fashion than just look good. The fashion industry, which she claims focuses solely on economic profit and ensuring the cheapest selling price, is one of the biggest polluters of the environment, which in turn contributes significantly to the spread of vector-borne diseases and bacteria in many areas.

This collection plays on the idea of the spreading of disease and fast fashion can be broken and the lives of people in threatened areas can be improved and protected. Jana ensures this can be done by supplementing and partially replacing the conservative production chain with alternative technologies. The cyclical patterns and non-uniform patterns along with the use of mesh and netting over the face symbolise these themes. Pushing the message that this vicious cycle must be broken.

“I want everyone who wears my clothes to feel special, to be able to express themselves while feeling connected to other people and our environment”, said Heinemann.

Melina Weinrich
Hochschule Hannover 

Melina Weinreich‘s collection, Rue des Archives, articulates a unisex streetwear collection that couples masculine cuts with what would be considered typically feminine finishes – proving that fashion is nonbinary. By recontextualising the past and inspiring the future, it presents an independent attitude and contemporary fashion that provides answers for tomorrow.

The sportswear is fused with romantic floral prints that anyone could throw on and easily ooze style. The focus of this collection is on innovative working techniques, surface manipulations, print developments, unique details and high-quality finishes. Oh, and red roses as a finishing touch – how romantique!  

“My enthusiasm for fashion began as a child. I chose my clothes separately according to colours, patterns and shapes. I quickly realised I had a talent for it and was sure I wanted to shape my future with it to fulfil my creativity. Through my fashion design studies, I was able to immerse myself in the world of fashion and pursue my passion,” said Weinrich.