Berlin based avant-garde designer Esther Perbandt presented her new collection “L’Atelier Dream Machine” at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Berlin in one of the most iconic locations of Berlin, the Kraftwerk in Mitte.
The new collection, both womenswear and menswear, presents a bolder, more grown up and at the same time more accessible designs, without ignoring the brand’s DNA. This season the designer drew inspiration from a half-burned ring binder she found in a cooled campfire back in 2017, on the small dreamy French town of Chomerac, an area known for its former silk production. This folder was filled with handmade technical blueprint drawings, yellowed photos and explanations of silk production machines.
The motifs found were used to create silk-linen jacquard fabrics in Lago di Como, Italy, wool
and silk jacquard foulards, and high-quality prints on silk. Likewise, they inspired a new
jewelry line of partially oversized gold gears as earrings, necklaces, arm cuffs and belt
hardware.
As Berlin’s “Queen of Black” the new collection is still primarily black, but is broken up by
black and white sepia tones of photo prints of machine components. The strict and uniform- and menswear-inspired pieces and sculptural pieces in wool and mixed fabrics known for the brand were broken up by playful oversized “pill” cutouts and “pill” drapes in silk organza and fine cotton, as well as shoulder pieces and accessories embroidered entirely with small gold chains.
Some of the looks were topped with oversized classic men’s hats, created in collaboration with renowned hat designer Fiona Bennett. She was able to enlist the help of former editor-in-chief of German Vogue, Christiane Arp, to style her new collection.
Images by Sebastian Reuter/Getty Images for Nowadays
