STREET SHOPPING -cruise through the city and find your own unique style.

What are you looking for? Is it a pair of petrol blue G-Star Raw sweatpants, that little black dress by Dior or one of those Calvin Klein sport bras?
Berlin’s most sustainable fashion label challenges fast fashion You may well find yourself inspired by discarded textiles or empty trouser legs. The path to your individual style takes you on a journey through the streets of the metropolis. Come along as we wheel our way around the place and enjoy the flow that comes with the circular lifestyle.

Join us and manoeuvre the streets with our mobile clothes rack.MHLD – Multifunctional Hybrid Laundro Drive – You may well find yourself inspired by discarded textiles or empty trouser legs. The path to your individual style takes you on a journey through the streets of the metropolis. Come along as we wheel our way around the place and enjoy the flow that comes with the circular lifestyle.

STREETWARE saved item makes fashion sustainable and accessible. For everyone! For all!

Our tour is approximately 90 minutes long and takes place every second and fourth Wednesday of the month from 4 pm to 5.30 p.m.. We are also happy to arrange individual tours with you.

Our guides are pros at STREETshopping - we roll along a life on the street, maneuver the clothes horse on the ridge of consumption and sustainability, ask about the people whose shells lay on the ground, and examine the traces of identity in the urban.

We will meet at the entrance of yard to the HdM- Haus der Materialisierung. The tour will circle around Mitte.

Please register at waschsalon@streetware-saved-item.net

Image: Ruth Faith Nalule & Purvi Dhranghadaryia ©Paolo Gallo

Auf Lumpentour: Jim  Joel Nyakaana | barbara caveng | Miguel Aguigah | Beatrice Lamwaka © Lotti Seebeck

„Aus weggeworfener Kleidung vom Straßenrand macht die Schweizer Künstlerin Barbara Caveng wortwörtlich Streetware. Die kann man kaufen oder ausleihen.“, schreibt Manuel Aguigah in der TAZ vom 9.12.2021.
Der Journalist hat uns  am 19.11.2021 auf einer Tour begleitet und sich beim gemeinsamen Lumpensammeln  mit unseren Gäst:innen aus Uganda, die Autorin Beatrice Lamwaka und dem Fotografen Jim Joel Nyakaana unterhalten. Mit auf Tour war auch Lotti Seebeck, die nebenbei noch fotografierte.
Der Artikel aus der TAZ gibt es online hier nachzulesen…oder zum downloaden Vom Bordstein in den Kleiderschrank_ Das wird noch gebraucht – taz.de. 

STREETWARE saved item - Berlin's most sustainable fashion label launched on September 15, 2021 its second pop up flagship store in Berlin Neukölln.

At the Helene Nathan Library, the store offered a spectacular selection of clothing from the streets of Neukölln for three months starting September 15 until December 15: STREETWARE at its purest! In our store, people can marvel at, try on and borrow genuine street clothes. 

Why borrowing clothes is fun and trendy? The saved items not only shine with an aestethic of diversity that meets the boldest demands for style people of all stripes will find it here - our clothes contain curiosities mesh wise. The textiles also tell a story: the faded jeans with a used look by Levi's, the leather skirt by Gianni Versace, the knitted jumper by Kickers or the little black dress by Dior take us to China, Bangladesh, Turkey. They recount transcontinental journeys of the people who made the clothes and the bodies that wore them. But they also remind us of the dark side of the fashion industry: low wages, poor working conditions in the Global South, the environmental impact of unsustainable raw material extraction and toxic dyes. 

STREETWARE saved item is looking for these stories on the streets of Neukölln, saves, archives and publishes them, so that people can get in touch with them like with the heroes of their favorite novel. 

At Helene-Nathan Library stories inform and inspire. This is where we tied in: Trough the narrative of textiles STREETWARE saved item explored the culture of 'discarded clothing' regarding its social significances: the garments shed lights on production methods, consumption and identity. 

PurviDhranghadaryia advised you on sustainable and stylistic issues between September 15 to December 15, 2021 - Mondays & Wednesdays from 1 to 7 pm and Saturdays from 10 am to 1 pm. Montag & Mittwoch von 13:00-19:00 Uhr und am Samstag von 10:00-13:00 Uhr.

The Vestitheque was realised in the frame of 'The Congress on the Clothes Dump' . These Congress described a series of events between September and November 2021 dedicated to an inclusive and participatory philosophizing about the meaning of clothes, their production, distribution and consumption. Invited guests and random attendees digged into textonic layers, searched for solutions, questioned the ethics of the second skin. Clothing protects and adorns. It represents basic aesthetic and existential needs, but its mode of production destroys the environment on a large scale and endangers the physical and psychological well-being of the people who cope with the manufacturing processes in socially intolerable conditions. How could sustainable production and economy look like - this is what we explored between November 16 and 28 together with author Beatrice Lamwaka, fashion designer Ruth Faith Nalule, photographer Jim Joel Nyakaana and Social Entrepreneur and environmental activist Kisitu Aloysius Musanyusa in a multi-perspective way. Venues for the public pondering were Bikini Berlin, the laundromat 115 in Torstraße and the Vestithek in the Helene Nathan Library.

The Vestithek's offer to borrow garments at the Helene-Nathan Library is accompanied by a framework program. Two lectures, a panel discussion and two hands-on workshops will serve as a starting point for an interdisciplinary exploration of the promises of clothing and fashion - the fabric in which we wrap our dreams and which, in excess, becomes a nightmare for people and the planet.

challenges fast fashion En Plein Air at the 48 hours Neukölln, forum for artistic projects from all sectors of the Berlin art scene. 
On the 19th and 20th of June 2021 | Installation featuring 48 laundry racks | Körnerpark Berlin-Neukölln
all photos © Paolo Gallo

Over the course of two days during the art festival 48 Stunden Neuköllnthe challenges fast fashion team transformed itself into true plein air painters.As location and motif for our painting sessions, we chose the magnificent landscapes of the Körnerpark in Neukölln.

Alice Fassina rings in the big wash!

On the early hours of a Saturday, on the 19th of June, we set up our unique easels in front of the Galerie im Körnerpark and began to paint using some very unusual colours: Our ‘saved items’ – clothes saved by our own team – were hanging over 48 laundry racks that were collected from the streets of Berlin or kindly donated by people from the community: The colour palette we could choose from was made up entirely of the wardrobes of Neukölln's inhabitants and came together to form a neo-impressionist tableau. 

The sculptural intervention 'En Plein Air' performed different roles:

A piece of art:
The laundry flowing in the open air created a distinctive contrast to the architectural design of the gallery in the Orangery and the overall look of the park. The domestic activity of laundry-making now took place in a neo—baroque green space, playfully experimenting both with social etiquette and washing instructions.

A participative installation:
Everyone was encouraged to take pieces of clothing home with them, contribute items from their own wardrobes or exchange garments for one another. During the two days, the installation continuously assumed new unexpected and unpredictable colours and shapes.

A cluster of a circular exchange of ideas:
Our community of ragpickers provided an open space to explore questions of identity and sociality, consumerism and modes of fashion production. The participating audience confirmed once again that not only the need for clothing but the joy of dressing up is something that unites us all, regardless of age, gender or language.

An unusual experience:  The most curious participants booked a STREET SHOPPING tour with us and got to experience first-hand how much fun a ragpicker has at work. As we cruised through the neighbourhood, saving discarded clothing, we contemplated the impact of fashion and the global textile industry on our lives and the environment. No tour ever ended without textile trophies on mobile clothes racks and many a garment already found a new owner during our city strolls.

The last STREET SHOPPING tour was led by Cryptida furry fairy-being: an entity without gender, she/he/it went searching for human 'i-thems', exploring them on his/her own body.

On Sunday evening, 20th of June, a concert by the event series 'Sommer im Park' accompanied the dismantling of our installation and we left the baroque park with the Citizen's new clothes, brimming with memories of interesting conversations and moving encounters.

We would like to thank all STREETWARE team members and friends who made 'En Plein Air' possible at a scorching 36 degrees:

 Alice Fassina | Hatim Alyafi | Céline Iffli-Naumann | Jan Markowsky | Stella Cristofolini | Lina Tegtmeyer | Aïcha Abbadi | Andreas Herbst | KDindi | Paolo Gallo | Daniela Sant | Jule Kox | Anneta Pap | Therry Konrath | Marie Lou Honert | Chiara Radina |

And one more thing: The journalist Hanna Komornitzyk  has written in art-in-berlin- about STREETWARE saved item En Plein Air at 48 hours Neukölln

En Plein Air' at the art festival '48 hours Neukölln ' was supported by the Creative Matterz Fund

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Die Lumensammler:innen von STREETWARE in guter Gesellschaft der Karnevalist:innen für die Zukunft auf der Tour durch Neukölln. Am Richardplatz laufen Franziska Welp und Jan Markowsky vorne weg.
alle Fotos ©Till Rimmele

Windböen, Regen, Kälte: So hat der Umzug für den “Karneval für die Zukunft”, organisiert von Artistania e.V., am 12. Juni 2021 angefangen.
Beweise für einen Klimawandel? Vielleicht…

Alice Fassina berichtet aus der Sicht der  Lumpensammler:in.

Das Thema Umweltschutz wurde von STREETWARE und vielen anderen Berliner Gruppen und Akteuren auf  kreative Weise verteidigt. Bunt und laut sind wir durch Neukölln marschiert um mit Musik, Performances, in Kostümen und mit Wagen gemeinsam unser Bewusstsein für Umweltfragen zu fördern. Wir haben bewiesen, dass diese Auseinandersetzung nicht immer ernst und anstrengend sein muss, sondern dass es auch Spaß machen kann! Falls ihr dabei wart – konntet ihr unserem ‘clothes horse’/’Kleider-Pferd’ widerstehen? Es brachte Jung und Alt zum Lächeln! Oder habt ihr uns als farbige Wirbel beim Tanzen gesehen? Haben eure Hüften gezuckt und eure Füße gewippt?

Wir haben die Figur der Lumpensammler:innen neu erfunden: Schicht um Schicht von der Straße geretteter Kleidung trugen wir auf unseren Körpern präsentoerten sie als als fliegende Händler:innen  den Zuschauer:innen . Die feine Grenze zwischen unsere Figuren und einem Menschen, der in der Realität gezwungen ist, zu wandern, von der Straße zu sammeln und auf der Straße zu schlafen, deutete einer unserer sechs fahrbaren Wäscheständer an: Es hingen keine Kleidungsstücke an seinen Leinen, sondern es lag eine Matratze darauf.

Dank an die Lumpensammler:innen:

Alice Fassina | Céline Iffli-Naumann | Jan Markowsky | Franceska Welp | Daniel Sant | Ines Tentscher und  die Schüler:innen der Willkommensklasse von  Sakine Akguel der Otto-Hahn Schule Berlin -Neukölln, die mit uns gelaufen sind.

Weitere Infos zum Karneval für die Zukunft >