"If you can't bet 'em, join 'em" should be Berlin designers' approach to contemporary art. Yet few designers showing during Berlin Fashion Week have the chutzpah to align themselves with the city's internationally intimidating art scene–except Vladimir Karaleev. This season, the Bulgarian-born designer launches his tenth collection. It will be his first catwalk show at the Mercedez-Benz tent, away from an obvious art environment. Here, we discuss art's evolving relationship to fashion, Berlin's future as a hub for both and what Bebelplatz can offer a great cross-over artist.
Ana Finel Honigman: What does it mean to you to show at Bebelplatz now?
Vladimir Karaleev: It’s my tenth collection and now, it is official. It just adds another dimension. I love art and those settings, but I want to have the collection really be a part of Berlin Fashion Week. Being on the official programme gives it that authority—it makes it real. I don't turn away from the other style but it's nice to feel official now.
AFH: Your collections are always conceptually driven. Is this new setting influencing the underlining concept?
VK: Although my collections are always conceptual, they are usually more abstract. This has more classical elements. There is more tailoring.
AFH: Is that because the setting is so grown-up, or as you're saying "official"?
VK: Perhaps. But I might be making it sound stiffer than it is. The collection is arranged, but disarranged. There are new tailored details, like pockets. And there is a more classical design. But it is still sculptural and not fussy. Last winter, my collection was very sculptural. But this season, it is melting. I want the feeling that these classical forms are melting. And there are lots of grunge aspects. There are long knits, long skirts and a grunge line—so it is not classical in a strict sense.
AFH: Why grunge? Is this a personal association or a reflection of broader socio-political conditions evoking the sensibility of the nineties?
VK: A few months ago, I found Nirvana's "Unplugged" on my iPod. I started listening to it regularly in the studio. I remember when it was released in 1994, but I was hearing it anew suddenly. I don't really know why. It just felt fresh and right. I don't really like references. I don't look at design as a mood-board to read the world. I just like the spirit.
AFH: Was it important to you when it was originally released?
VK: The aesthetic was inspiring. But I was never a grunge kid. That was never part of my identity. And I don't really care about historical references at all. I never "do the seventies" or take direct quotes from history.
AFH: But your designs do recall nineties' Japanese conceptualism. That aesthetic has direct historical roots, even if it never disseminated to a mass, pop-cultural level.
VK: Yes. But that is part of being sculptural.
AFH: Maybe the grunge reference has more relevance because you experienced it, even peripherally?
VK: Maybe. And maybe there is a sense that the economy is similar to what it was then. Maybe, I am picking up the mood of society. But I am not doing it too directly.
AFH: You're not illustrating it?
VK: No.
AFH: You know that Lala Berlin referenced Kurt Cobain last season?
VK: Really?
AFH: But in a more abstract and sci-fi way. She had a narrative that related Nirvana to the Sahara desert and aliens. Your collection is rooted in reality, right?
VK: The girls just look a little rough and wild. It just came together this way. There are all these pieces that I remember from the 1990s. The long skirts and the flowing dresses. All that makes sense now. Somehow, I just looked at it and thought: "I like that."
