Ten years ago, no major brand would have chosen an abandoned concrete building as the location for a runway show and sent models down the runway in street style attire while loud techno sounds boomed in the background. In the past, all of this would have been categorized as part of a subcultural, underground scene, but designers like Shayne Oliver have now made it mainstream. Last night he closed the first day of Berlin Fashion Week with his new label Anonymous Club, which is also a creative studio and talent incubator. After five minutes of techno beats, the lights finally came on and the first model appeared on the catwalk. A relatively limited color palette of white, gray and black was brightened up by small splashes of red or blue in the form of rubber gloves or bags. Rubber plays a major role in Oliver’s new vision. Models wore complete rubber outfits, rubber boots, overalls and super muscular rubber leggings that almost looked like prosthetics under sporty short shorts. Hoodies and sweatpants form the core of the looks, but are accentuated with almost ridiculously disproportionate cuts. Some models wore prosaic makeup, while others wore large horned helmets of hair or hid their faces behind hoods. Oliver’s idea: “The people I chose were very big personalities and they influenced me in a visual way. I’ve tried to show you how I see them. The idea of developing unknown characters.” Oliver said he wanted to get back to where his fashion language started, even before Hood by Air, and that was the hoodie. “I thought to myself, OK, let me take the fabric and shape of a hoodie and go for it. And actually it was the best thing I could do, it was like a lack of influence,” he said after the show. “There was a purity that I’m really obsessed with, which has to do with how you feel pure and not perfect.” It was indeed not perfect, but that is what made it unique.
