Berlin Wall murals inspire fashion collection

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The original article has several photos of the clothes being worn.

Berlin Wall murals inspire fashion collection
AP
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...060900907.html

BERLIN -- Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall some of its enduring murals, like one depicting East Germany's Erich Honecker engaged in a fraternal kiss with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, are inspiring a different sort of art.

Images from the East Side Gallery - a surviving stretch of the wall that artists decorated with colorful paintings after the 1989 opening of the border - are the inspiration for a fashion collection unveiled Tuesday called Mauerkleider, or "Wall Clothes."

Daniel Rodan has reproduced some of the images from the East Side Gallery on leather clothes ranging from evening gowns and trench coats to T-shirts and jackets. Honecker and Brezhnev, for example, are on the bodice of a mint-green mini dress.

"I tried to link the political and societal event of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall with the theme of fashion and art," Rodan said.

German celebrities are set to model the clothing at an auction late this year or early next year. The proceeds will go to charity.

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Berlin Wall graffiti returns as leather fashion
Tue Jun 9, 2009 9:48pm IST
http://in.reuters.com/article/entert...40196620090609

By Jacob Comenetz

BERLIN (Reuters Life!) - Daniel Rodan, Berlin's leather fashion designer to the stars, unveiled a new collection of Berlin Wall art-themed clothing on Tuesday as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations of the fall of the Cold War barrier.

The leather dresses and menswear feature art from the East Side Gallery, the 1,300 metre-long stretch of the Wall painted by 118 artists from 21 countries in 1990. Its graffiti art quickly came to symbolize the Wall itself.

One revealing mini-dress shows a famous image of the "Trabi", the classic East German automobile, breaking through the concrete landmark that divided Berlin during the Cold War.

Rodan, whose clients include television and singing star David Hasselhoff and singer Tina Turner, said tackling a political subject was something new.

"Bringing together these three things: the political event, fashion design, and the art of the East Side Gallery, and then making sure the clothes fit on the celebrities -- it was a real challenge," Rodan told a news conference.

The leather outfits will be worn by prominent musicians and athletes at events during the coming months, then auctioned off for charity after the 20th anniversary celebrations on Nov. 9.

"It's great that we can now have fun with things which previously were simply a catastrophe," said the Berlin cabaret artist Chin Meyer at the presentation. "We have to be artistically creative with things we find painful."

Other new designs presented by Rodan included barbed wire made of leather as a sexy fashion accessory.

Berlin's year-long celebration of the fall of the Wall in 1989 will culminate with a 'Festival of Freedom' at the Brandenburg Gate and the toppling of 1,000 giant dominoes.