ESCAPIST GARDEN

The garden has always been a place of refuge for Marie-Louise Müller, a source from which she draws her inspiration.

“I lie in the grass, and the whole afternoon still stretches out before me. An insect lands on my hand, and I let it stay. Nothing is asked of me there. […] It is a place I go to so that garments can come to life”, the designer explains.

Her SS27 collection “Escapist Garden” came to life in exactly that place – shaped by spaces beyond fashion, by intimate corners of childhood, by grass beneath bare feet, by the creak of an apple tree and the quiet landing of an insect on an open hand. It is a collection that was not designed, but grown. The garden that inspired Marie-Louise Müller’s unique creations is older than the collection itself. It is the memory of summers spent barefoot until the soles of her feet turned green. A garden that, in the height of summer, gave back more than was ever asked of it: blossoms and colours, birds and insects, fruit on bushes and trees.

Around 20 looks, created in approximately 2,500 hours of pure handwork, were presented as part of the fashion show: embroidery, crochet, hand-sewing and upcycling elements, made exclusively from natural fibres. The colour palette begins in beige and cream white, and from there draws every shade directly from nature: the green of grass and treetops, the yellow of the sun, blossoms ranging from delicate pink to raspberry red, the blue of water and sky. Insects travel across the pieces as embroidery – just as they move through every garden.

FOUR HIGHLIGHT PIECES REPRESENT THE GARDEN IN ITS FULLEST BLOOM

The Flower Dress is a corset dress and, at the same time, a wearable flower bed. Each individual blossom was crocheted by hand and carefully sewn onto the light fabric by hand. The waist is accentuated before the skirt transitions into a voluminous, widely swinging silhouette.

The Weeping Willow is the heaviest piece in the collection. More than 800 bead-embellished fringes fall from the neckline. In total, 70,000 glass beads were used. The weeping willow was the tree the designer loved most as a child. Last summer, she encountered two old willows during a shoot and found in them the inspiration for this particular piece. It is her way of giving something back to the trees.

The Cabbage Dress is modelled after a single cabbage. The crocheted leaves were graduated in size, draped directly on the body and sewn together by hand. The dress is cut short and accentuates the legs. Cabbage grew in the first garden Marie-Louise Müller ever knew. She hopes it will grow in every garden still to come.

The Beetle Dress is made from blue silk. Two beetles crafted from glass beads face each other at chest height. Their antennae touch like hands folded together. They are deliberately oversized and catch the light. Insects are easily overlooked. Yet according to Marie-Louise Müller, they are the heartbeat of a garden.

ARRIVING. PAUSING. REMEMBERING.

The reception in the Urban Garden of Lobe Block already gave guests the distinct feeling, before the show had even begun, of stepping into another place – one beyond our everyday world. A place that radiates calm and peace and invites you to consciously take in the colours, sounds and scents of nature. With her subsequent show on the rooftop overlooking the city, Marie-Louise Müller transported guests, through fashion, into the garden of her childhood, allowing them to share in that particular feeling of lightness and carefree ease. It was a kind of refuge into a garden oasis shaped by childhood memories and a sense of belonging.

VOICES WITH PERSPECTIVE

Among the guests were personalities from fashion, art and culture who actively shape the spirit of contemporary Berlin. These included representatives of the Fashion Council Germany as well as editors and creatives who have been a fixture of the Berlin fashion world for years. Many were visibly moved by the precision of the handwork, the emotional depth of the pieces, and the ease with which this collection translates memory into clothing.