Neudeutsch Brings New Vision on German Design
The section curated by trend scout Julian Daynov spotlights about 20 brands across fashion, design, beauty and lifestyle.
MILAN — In sync with its ambition to maintain its position as a menswear authority with global scope, Pitti Uomo has long dedicated showcases to particularly buzzy and fast- growing countries and regions of the world with selections of brands that reflect the fashion, social and cultural transformations in those areas.
These have included the ongoing Scandinavian Manifesto section, which gathers Scandi menswear brands, as well as the spotlight on Ukrainian designers the fair hosted in 2022 and 2014, as well as a number of other guest nations, ranging from Australia and China to Finland and Africa.
The winter edition kicking off Tuesday features a section dedicated to German design curated by trend scout Julian Daynov, who is currently based in Berlin after working for premium retailers such as Saks, Harrods and Lane Crawford, among others.
Called “Neudeutsch,” which translates into “new German,” the showcase brings together about 20 brands across fashion, design, beauty and lifestyle at the Sala delle Nazioni space inside Florence's Fortezza da Basso, aiming to offer a compendium on how the country's creative scene is evolving.
The project tries to sum up “all the new wave of German society happening at the moment because Germany has undergone so many really interesting societal and cultural influences from everywhere,” Daynov told WWD in the weeks leading up to the fair's opening.
“The German society has evolved into a very, very huge and colorful patchwork of cultures. And what I believe is that each and every person living in Germany for a very long time working in design and the creative scene, they all bring a glimpse and a small piece of their heritage to their work. They still create in Germany, live in Germany, get inspired in Germany, but still somehow twist the typical German design with their original cultural heritage,” he said.
Brands on display include Frnkw,
Avenir, Haderlump, Marke, Hernán, International Citizen, J'ai Mal A Ta Tete, Acceptance Letter Studio, Oftt, Obs and Oor Studio. Many are run by Germanybased designers with culturally diverse backgrounds.
They bring in “a whole new visual language, a very modern, very new wave, a bit bolder aspect, which is incorporated into the classical, expected, default idea of German design…[which is perceived as being] purely functional, purely square, fairly basic, purely sleek or practical,” Daynov explained. “They quote and reference a lot of classical German design, which is sleek and pure and Bauhausdriven, but they give it a whole new twist, due to their own vision, heritage and how they see the future of design.”
In addition to grasping the international and melting pot vibe of Germany, the brands' selections hinge on subculture movements traditionally rich in Berlin, and a source of inspiration for established luxury houses and fashion designers, from Saint Laurent and Celine to Gucci, Balenciaga and Vetements, Daynov opined.
The showcase not only meets the purpose of establishing a cultural and creative frame to read modern Germany but it's primarily meant to give exposure to the up-and-coming names on display.
“The most important [thing] is that these brands get exposure and a chance to be at the most important platform for menswear and for lifestyle in general, because Pitti gathers everybody…a lot of people who are shaping the fashion industry in a way. And they're also looking for new and interesting talents,” Daynov explained.
Confessing the difficulty in narrowing down the number of brands he scouted as candidates for the Florence display, the curator said that together with the fair's organizers he defined certain criteria, one being “salability.”
“Pitti is a transactional fair, people come and write their orders. So to me it was very important to deliver brands and designs, which are aspirational and beautiful, but not crazy conceptual so people get the idea to buy the brand and try it in their retail environment,” he said, adding that all brands have been on the market for a couple of seasons and have already sorted out their supply chains.
“They are commercial brands, and I really hope that most of the world doesn't see commercial as a bad word,” Daynov said. “Commercial success is what we all want, the brands want their exposure, which is related to commercial success. This is the only healthy way to grow.”
Although Daynov maintained the menswear and men's lifestyle focus, he was eager to offer the best representation of German design by way of its frictions, too, which led to the inclusion of brands in the gender-neutral space.
The curator characterized the brands he picked as “representing and replicating the dimensions of new now, how fashion's being defined, how fashion basically happens beyond the stigmas of gender, beyond the stigmas of you shopping in the menswear department or you shopping in the women's department,” he said.
In addition to fashion and apparel, Daynov included beauty firms Equality and Muti, design and art players such as New Tendency, Budde, Sebastian Herkner and Sarah Illenberger, as well as a couple of companies from the food and beverage space, including the beer-maker Noam and chocolate firm Sawade.