“I wanted it to feel like a teenager’s bedroom, with messiness and awkwardness,” said Gerrit Jacob, describing his show, which opened Berlin Fashion Week. The spectacle lasted around five minutes in the former premises of a multi-story fashion shop, which, with its rough structural condition, provided the perfect setting for his first physical show in Berlin. The setting was provided by the new showcase format, Intervention, by Mumi Haiati and his agency Reference Studios within the official schedule of Berlin Fashion Week, which has brought new national and international designers to Berlin.
Adolescence again played a key role in the gestation of Jacob’s collection, which focussed in particular on the personal development of young people. It was not the first time the designer has looked to the past and visualized such references in his designs. As always, the airbrush aesthetic was the common thread for the collection, which this time included not just unisex and oversized silhouettes, but for the first time placed a greater focus on womenswear, such as low-rise trousers and bustiers. Jacob knows how to romanticize with kitsch elements to the point where it is almost seamlessly integrated into his streetwear. “I was dealing with the time when you start to grow out of certain things and your interests change,” he said, which is why it almost seemed like he was hiding many of the airbrushed motifs of cats and horses behind hardware, accessories or just plain volume. However, he conveyed this idea most strikingly in the numerous jackets, which either revealed skin or left empty sleeves hanging down below the knees.
