How an '80s-Inspired Silhouette Ended Up on a Berlin Runway
In IMPARI's FW26 show, an unlikely reference — the volume of an '80s bridal gown — became the anchor for a collection about repair, not nostalgia.
It is not often that Berlin's runways look backwards. The city's fashion identity has been forged on the future — technical, minimal, unsentimental. So when IMPARI sent out a look this season with the sweeping shoulder and cinched drape of an '80s bridal silhouette, it read as a deliberate provocation.
The reference wasn't nostalgic. In the show notes, the label described it as a study in "what a garment can become when it's cut apart and remade." The fabric was recycled PET — the kind of material most brands hide behind polished marketing. IMPARI put it front and centre, in a look that dominated the runway without ever raising its voice.
It is that combination — historical reference, contemporary material, radical process — that is making IMPARI one of the most closely-watched studios in Berlin.
