What’s on > Life in Germany > Trends and fashion Creative and Dynamic: Labels from Berlin
Germany's capital is home to thousands of small labels. With its comparatively cheap living costs and a huge network of creatives, Berlin exerts a pull on designers from all over the world. We speak to two young Berlin-based labels to find out about their work.
 Fashion shooting in Berlin. Photocase kallejipp/Karsten Jipp. Mazooka -- T-Shirt design from Berlin
The young Berlin streetwear label Mazooka (www.mazooka.de) stands for distinctive graphics that represent part of a creative process, says the company’s 35-year-old founder, Hanno Bäucker.
The collections are uniquely characterized by their new and evolving abstract graphics, many of which utilize the three-dimensional shape of the human body. Collection titles include “I Love Berlin” depicting famous architecture in the German capital, and “Olympic stadiums” which portray geographic silhouettes of the stadiums at Athens, Munich, and Barcelona.
Bäucker, who founded the company in 2003 after studying in Cologne, spoke to Young Germany.
1. Tell us a little about your label. How long has it been around? How did it all begin?
We’ve been around since 2003. We started as a T-Shirt label and now we are changing a little bit into the category of a design label. We don’t want to be a fashion label just like any usual fashion label – we are designers. We are mostly interested in graphics and try to find different mediums where we can use them. Mainly we use the T-Shirt and now we also want to produce more posters and paintings and things like that. And some accessories too.
What’s different from other fashion labels, or from other T-Shirt labels, is that we are interested in finding a theme for our T-Shirt series. We don’t usually make just one shirt, we may try to find a theme or a topic and then find different ways to work with these topics. So we have the “I Love…” thing, where we have different works of architecture represented. Or the “Heroes” collection, [where the shirts] use graphics with triangles and parallelograms. You can create your own style with these different icons with graphics and styles from the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.
 2. Why did you call your label Mazooka?
Before it was Bazooka, because of the chewing gum Bazooka Joe. I was a fan of it as a child. Then somebody came and said Bazooka is my name and I have the rights. So I had to change it.
3. Why did you choose Berlin? Is this the only city where you display your collections?
No, we have shops in different places. We stopped distribution two years ago but now we are starting again. We have one shop in Belgium and one in Greece too. Before we also had one shop in L.A., one in Tokyo and one in Melbourne. At the moment we are just in Europe though. But we’ll start distribution again this year.
4. At your online store, you have everything from stools to T-shirts to pvc-tape. How do you decide what to design? I mean, why did you decide to design tape?
The inspiration is in the space around me. Where I live. I see things. You see something and you think, ”You know this is ugly tape, I need to make it better.” That’s a logical development. You have an idea that you develop. What do you call that – Weiterentwicklung? Mostly it’s the world around me, that is my biggest inspiration.
5. What were some of the first articles of clothing your label ever designed?
The first collection was the dove. It was during the war in Iraq and I designed the dove and also a tank for the boys.
6. What kind of people are you trying to reach with your clothing and apparel?
People like me. And people like my friends. It’s not like I decided at some point to come up with a label and be successful and earn money. It’s just an idea of mine. And it was because it’s fun for me to create these shirts. So Mazooka is not a label where you go and say “this is my target group so I have to make these [kinds of] shirts.” I just design the kind of shirts that I like – that I want to wear. The people who like it – perfect. The people who don’t like it – okay. It’s not calculated.
7. How do you feel about fashion in Germany?
For me it’s perfect, because you have a lot of space. Architectural space. And you don’t have to care about this or that or money. It’s very international – we have these fairs where we can show our stuff very easily. It works for us because Berlin is something like a label [in itself] – it’s easier if people know we’re from Berlin, we have this kudos. I’ve been living here for ten years, and I love this city.
Introducing Berlin label Apfelsina
The story of the Apfelsina label began with an affinity for the unique paper of the orange tree.
 The Berlin designer, Ina Kerkoff, once used it to construct colorful loose leaf binders, until her then-small collection of dazzling objects began piling up too quickly. In 2003 an official textile label was born, as she decided to expand her creative horizons.
Kerkoff composes individual items from everyday, yet unexpected, materials: Insulated lunch bags and thermoses from the ‘50s, air mattresses from the ‘70s, even animations from the science fiction series “Perry Rhodan.”
1. How did you decide to create Apfelsina?
At some point I thought I should start doing something else with [my] tiny works of art other than just piling them on top of each other.
2. Where do you get your inspiration?
Every day I come across objects that fascinate me, because they have a great design or an interesting surface.
3. Who designs the clothes for your label?
I am the designer but we also work with other designers for special collections –
the latest instance was with an artist [named] Petra M. Kessler, who takes photos of Berlin subways.
4. What kind of people are you trying to reach with your clothing and apparel?
Our customers appreciate individuality, innovation, functionality, sustainability, exclusivity, perfect materials – and quality in our work.
www.apfelsina.de
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