How sustainable fashion brands ruled the catwalks at Berlin Fashion Week
- Labels including People, Avenir, Haderlump and Rianna + Nina showed how sustainability and style could go hand in hand
As editors and buyers caught their breath after a busy Berlin Fashion Week (BFW) schedule earlier in July, attendees stopped by one final event: an opening in the centre of the city’s Mitte district by People, a fashion brand with a difference.
The brand works with young people between the ages of 13 and 27 who are homeless, have mental health illnesses or struggle with drug addictions to hand-produce clothing, accessories, ceramics and design objects.
“We started the project because of a longing to bring fashion back to people, to bring it into the middle of society and to have it more inclusive, more diverse and less elite,” said the brand’s co-founder, Ayleen Meissner.
Together with Cornelia Zoller, Meissner launched People in 2015 as a social fashion enterprise that is also dedicated to the principles of zero waste, upcycling, and gender and size fluidity.
“Connecting fashion with people who are struggling was really important for us,” Meissner said. “We are on the verge of fashion, psychology and social work … Always tiptoeing around these different fields but focused on our vision to empower young people by doing design.”
Together with fashion designers and creatives, disadvantaged youth work on collections called “editions”.
