As we enter a third week in Berlin, I continue to find myself incredibly inspired by my surroundings. The buildings, streets, parks, cars, clothes, and art are all a pleasure to look at. Especially having done my fair share of shopping at fashion, stationery, and book stores all around the city in districts such as Kreuzberg and Mitte, I’ve been able to see a wide range of creativity in this place. One word I keep coming back to as I reflect on the Berlin aesthetic is “refinement.” People here are more conservative, reserved, and direct than in the United States. The culture is just a bit more straight and sharp rather than oblong and blurry. This was further revealed to me at a concert I went to earlier this week, where a heart-warming Texan musician was encouraging a crowd of Berliners to dance to his New Orleans inspired music, and it seemed as though the polite crowd was just stepping out of their comfort zone to feel and express the soulful sounds. Alas, I digress.
The total sense of refinement is evident in German design, more or less across the board. I’d particularly like to focus on clothing and the emphasis on street wear/street style here. Something that I’ll hone in on in one of my classes for a research project will likely have to do with the “how” and “why” of street style in Berlin. It is a huge trend here and will have you paying up to 150 Euro for a t-shirt. The style here that people generally exhibit is quite toned down and often casual. No women are really wearing loud statement clothing nor showing a lot of skin. The style is cultivated, well-mannered, urbane, genteel. This reflects of history of German design that prefers clean lines, exact and sometimes avant-garde proportions, and neutral or even detached color schemes.
My insights are naive and unsophisticated so far, though I am excited to learn more about German design through experience and observation. I am also looking forward to our classes which should further inform me as to why, culturally, socially, and aesthetically, German design exhibits such a high level of refinement! Image is from an advertisement for a popular German brand.