Berlin Fashion Week AW26/27: Dark Minimalism, Reused Fabrics and Protective Layers Set The Tone

Held from 30th January to 2nd February 2026, Berlin Fashion Week reaffirmed its position as a platform where fashion operates beyond trend cycles. Founded in 2007, the city’s biannual fashion week continues to reflect Berlin’s progressive cultural landscape, uniting fashion with art, music, and subcultural expression. Where sustainability, inclusion and talent development remain central.

For Autumn/Winter 2026/27, collections emphasised clothing as response, shaped by social pressure, memory and self-protection. Across the season, designers converged on a shared visual language: guarded silhouettes, tactile materials, restrained colour palettes and a focus on durability and reuse.

Key Silhouettes: Forward, Armoured, Inward

(John Lawrence Sullivan)

One of the defining silhouettes of AW26/27 in Berlin was the forward-leaning body. John Lawrence Sullivan articulated this most explicitly, engineering coats, tailored jackets, bombers, and biker styles to push the torso into a guarded stance. Exaggerated forward-set sleeves, shifted shoulder lines, and rounded backs suggested defence rather than ease, a recurring theme across the week.

Elsewhere, silhouettes rejected polish in favour of imperfect construction. Dagger’s disrupted forms and baggy proportions reflected psychological tension, embracing wear, fragility and lived-in materials. Oversized outerwear, elongated coats and compressed upper bodies dominated, reinforcing a mood of introspection and containment.

(Dagger)

Colour Direction: Black, Ice and Faded

(John Lawrence Sullivan)

The AW26/27 colour story was notably restrained. Black emerged as the season’s anchor, used not as minimalism but as emotional weight, particularly in John Lawrence Sullivan’s collection, where it evoked Nordic nightscapes and isolation.

Counterbalancing the darkness were ice silver, snow white and cold metallics, often used sparingly to suggest sharpness and exposure. Silver leather, lamé and reflective surfaces appeared across outerwear and accessories adding a clinical edge. While pops of crimson made a statement, flashing up as footwear, accessories, detailing, or the occasional jacket.

In contrast, collections grounded in memory leaned toward muted, worn tones. Dagger and Buzigahill introduced softened neutrals, faded denim blues, greys, off-whites and earth-influenced hues that referenced age, reuse and history rather than seasonal colour trends.

(Kenneth Ize)

Materials and Texture: Protection and Tactility

(Buzigahill)

Material choices across Berlin Fashion Week emphasised protection, tactility and longevity. Dense melton wool, second-skin leather, worn denim, flannel, wool-silk blends and heavy knits appeared repeatedly, reinforcing the idea of clothing as protective layers.

John Lawrence Sullivan’s use of leather and melton functioned as defensive layers, while metallic finishes added tension. Kenneth Ize’s JOY collection took a more tactile approach, layering aso oke, velvet, wool, denim, and lining fabrics to create garments that felt emotionally charged rather than pristine. Exposed seams and layered construction blurred the line between inside and outside.

Buzigahill’s RETURN TO SENDER 12 further expanded the material conversation through reuse, referencing second-hand garments reshaped and localised through repair and alteration. Sustainability here was embedded in process rather than presentation.

Footwear and Accessories: Function Over Ornament

(Dagger)

Accessories across the season rejected decoration in favour of utility and resistance. Studded elements in John Lawrence Sullivan’s collection created visual tension rather than embellishment, while long combat boots emphasised durability and grounded silhouettes.

Dagger’s collaboration with Vans introduced hand-customised Authentic and Slip-On sneakers as consistent styling anchors, reinforcing authenticity and wearability. Eastpak backpacks recreated from personal memory highlighted bags as carriers of identity rather than status.

Cultural Memory as a Trend Driver

(Buzigahill)

Several collections positioned memory as a design tool. Buzigahill’s RETURN TO SENDER 12 connected 1960s and 70s East African silhouettes, wide collars, flared trousers, to contemporary practices of reuse, while Dagger drew on youth culture, punky elements and community.

Kenneth Ize’s JOY translated dialogue and collaboration into textile form, with garments functioning as emotional surfaces. Across these shows, fashion moved away from novelty and toward continuity, authorship and cultural belonging.

Berlin’s Take On AW26/27 

(Kenneth Ize)

Berlin Fashion Week AW26/27 was defined by defensive dressing, restrained colour palettes and emotionally driven construction. Key trends included heavy outerwear, tactile layering and a material focus on protection and reuse. Black, ice tones, and faded neutrals dominated, while metallic and crimson accents added sharp contrast.

Rather than forecasting trends for mass adoption, Berlin offered direction: fashion as response, clothing as protection and sustainability as lived practice. In a season shaped by pressure and uncertainty, Berlin Fashion Week positioned AW26/27 as a moment of inward focus, where strength, memory and material integrity defined the moment.

Thanks to Berlin Fashion Week and Intervention

Catwalk images by Finnegan Koichi Godenschweger