We’re not in New York anymore, that’s obvious, though we are as sure as hell in Berlin. Specifically, an empty raw space located on Marlene Dietrich Platz—I am literally dying over the name of the street, it is so fabulous—that is being used for the spring 2025 show from Richert Beil’s Jale Richert and Michele Beil. The idea is that we are on a beach one summertime—clearly not this one, as Berlin in July is currently like NYC during a particularly meh April—with rows and rows of white plastic chairs lining the room, and what looks like a beach club drinks stand (the show notes call it a fischbroetchen stand, as imagined by local set designer and art director Stefanie Grau) sitting slap bang right on the runway.
Of course with Richert Beil’s ongoing aim to make their shows about the respectful intersections of different communities—this one had great casting, from gothy rockers d’un certain age to gym dandies—what could be more of a crossroads of life than the beach? All human life is here, a teeming mass of people trying to find their place in the sun. And in Richert Beil’s confident and imaginative hands, they all kept cool—way, way cool.
The whole idea of the collection itself, said Beil, “came from a very personal thing, that we just don’t feel comfortable in summer clothing.” (I can relate.) Beil went on to say that she and Richert came up with a “fantasy heavy metal vibe collection,” which in essence means a lot of black, a lot of fabulously dark yet washed denim, plenty of latex and rubber, and a bit of a sexual, fetishistic undercurrent strong enough to take you all the way out to sea—or at the very least, your favorite after-hours club.
The thing with short-handing a collection is you can kind of lose the nuance and the depth. And I’d hate to do this here, as this was a strong showing from Richert Beil, with all sorts of interesting and impressive ideas. Those inflatable gleaming black latex tanks of theirs were inspired by the water wings that some of the models came out in. The jeans meanwhile might have weathered and washed hems, as if you’d been wading in the water and stepped out, only for the combination of the saltwater and sand to start fraying and distressing the fabric, though here that was suggested by the use of a print.
Another approach, said Richert, “was to keep the regular clothes looking wet, and then sometimes if you were slicked in oil, having just come out of the sea.” It worked on a long-sleeve tee that looked as if it had been splashed wet, clung to the body of the wearer, and then slowly dried, over a pair of semi-diaphanous latex shorts. Much of what’s been on show these past couple of days in Berlin has drawn on realness and then refracted it right back into the world post-runway; that seems par for the course here, and so much of it has been good. Richert Beil’s spring did that too, but there was an extra twist or two that took what they did into very original and highly compelling territory.
