Last weekend we celebrated the 50th issue of our magazine with a series of screenings at Frontrose’s Rosegarden on Potsdamer Straße and in a suite at the Château Royal together with our partner Montblanc. Good German wine by Weingut Sturmfeder was had, fine dinners were eaten and some fresh fashion films were watched. Our aim is to bring the magazine to explore the next frontiers in media — for us that’s clearly the moving image and mixing culture categories like literature with movie makers. It started with a screenplay – Come As You Are – written by Leif Randt and got expanded by Austrian directress Jasmin Baumgartner with her short Der romantische Portier im Love Hotel (Coming to our website soon).
Come As You Are screening room at Frontrose’s Rosegarden. Video: Pablo Manrique
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What’s emerging here is more than an aesthetic trend. It’s a shift in perspective: fashion is increasingly becoming a narrative form. Instead of models, minutes, and music, there is now action instead of attitude. Fashion no longer simply wants to be seen; it wants to be understood — or at least to remain in memory as a fragment of a larger narrative. Fashion and film are no longer a banal love affair; they are a strategic alliance and the way forward for independent magazines to keep the upper hand in storytelling.
The two evenings brought together multiple platforms of entertainment and editorial thinking. At Château Royal, singer Sofie Royer performed a few songs live on the piano. Why? She is featured in Jasmin Baumgartner’s photo shoot for the magazine and in the clip. Who was her audience? Actress Marlene Burow who also features in our 50th issue shot at the Staatsschauspiel Dresden or film-maker Reiner Holzemer whose interview with Nicole Urbschat is a must read from the issue. At Rosegarden, the new cultural space by Hans Bussert and Tobias Holz our screen writer Leif Randt signed copies of a specially printed Come As You Are-zine. He is the writer of the moment with his new book Let’s Talk About Feelings which also has a heavy dose of fashion in it. So, we mixed a heady cocktail for our 50th issue featuring Montblanc pens and their passion for writing which showed in the beautifully calligraphed dinner menus, literature, directrices like Jasmin Baumgartner who flew in from Vienna and Julia von der Heide who directed Come As You Are, designers like ioannes’ Johannes Boehl-Cronau and Dirk Schönberger, models like Juho Lee, photographers like Laura Schaeffer and of course actors and actresses like Aaron Altaras and Pola Fendel.
Come As You Are-zines were signed by Leif Randt at our screening at Rosegarden. Photo: Leon Nevill Gallagher
Click the image to see the full fashion film. Photo: Leon Nevill Gallagher
Dj set by Iga Drobisz. Photo: Leon Nevill Gallagher
Hendrik Lakeberg, Adriano Sack and Markus Ebner. Photo: Pablo Manrique
Photo: Leon Nevill Gallagher
Leif Randt. Photo: Leon Nevill Gallagher
Countess Katharina von Bentzel-Sturmfeder who co-styled the Come As You Are film. Photo: Leon Nevill Gallagher
Screening suite at Château Royal
Montblanc calligraphy by Sophie Missall
Jelka von Langen, Dirk Schönberger and Aaron Altaras. Photo: Lilika Strezoska
Jasmin Baumgartner, Reiner Holzemer, Markus Ebner and Aaron Altaras. Photo: Lilika Strezoska
Intimate musical performance by Sofie Royer. Photo: Lilika Strezoska
Marlene Burow and Anais Zunk. Photo: Lilika Strezoska
Musical performance by Sofie Royer in Château Royal’s music room
Special thanks to Alessia Ascolese for joining us in Berlin, Catalina-Maria Graff-Peterson, Justine Dechow, Katharina-Sophie Wupperman and Stephanie Radl. Special thanks to Kirsten Landwehr for hosting us. Special thanks to Count and Countess Sturmfeder-Bentzel for bringing their wine to Berlin.
