Warming Up in Berlin

LALA BERLIN, RISTO

Berlin was sweltering during Fashion Week. Yet loose-woven, porous knits were among the coolest pieces in sight, lending bounce and texture to collections from Lala Berlin, C. Neeon and visitor Risto Bimbiloski’s Risto label. Lala Berlin started the trend of sexy woolies, and sprinkled her
kaftan and brocade hot-pants-based collection with a few cream and sandy hued cardigans. Risto’s belly-baring knits were paired with more grown-up white, full-legged pleated trousers to produce sweet, girlish sex appeal. Barbara í Gongini’s collection defined its ethos as “diversity of a square in a fold.” Whatever that means, the results were lots of draped black and grey dresses and sheer, thin wool layers. At the .HBC Designer Scouts, which incubates emerging talent in a former Hungarian Cultural Center, George Bezhanishvili Rainer showed boys wearing cherry-colored crocheted sweaters which barely covered their bare chests, looking like tea-cozies turned into a sexy top. The results made some viewers flush from more than temperature.