Even with the current S-bahn chaos in Berlin, it was a pleasure to get to Berlin late at night on Wednesday. Kastanien trees lining Berlin streets are gorgeous in this season, by day but also by night, the strong graphic pattern of the trimmed leaves against the nordic sunset sky. U-7 actually had just a bit of a “pendler” traffic pattern (umstiegen 3 times), but the only inconvenience was extra 10 minutes for the journey from the airport to our Kiez. The air was full of flowery scents from the neighboring park…

Once more a busy 72 hours of ticking to-do lists while hopping on and off the U-bahn, one moment with sun and blue sky, at the following station with heavy rain and strong wind shaking the linden trees vigorously. Always have a waterproof jacket at hand, was the takeaway of these 3 days in Berlin.

On Friday morning I allowed myself a break and went for a trip to Mitte. First of all I stopped at Gendarmenmarkt, I was curious to see the Shan hairstyling cafe’, but I forgot the look up the address and ended up visiting Joop’s Wunderkind store. The first time we visited Berlin 7 years ago, Quartier 219 and Jean Nouvel’s Galeries were the newest additions, and since then I didn’t particularly fancy visiting the boutique street, with so much to discover in Berlin. An illycrema and I moved on.

Like a country mouse going to visit the cousin city mouse, I went to have a better look to the gallery streets, Auguststrasse and the like. Had a look to the Do you read me? magazine-store, where I could discover more about a new magazine called Abstieg und Fall whose advertising haunts Berlin streets in these days. I was curious but I preferred to have a look at the beautiful AKRIS book. We need beauty in our lives. Especially with such capricious weather.

Talking about beauty, I was lucky not to miss the work of Nanaé Suzuki at the Stella A gallery…beautiful watercolours staging Kapuzinerkresse, flowers which flood the blaconies of our neighbors in the Kiez and which I used to grow with success (also to the benefit of my salads) when I still had a garden in Triest.

I was curious to explore Gipsstrasse after the Monocle article and talking about Made in Berlin, I found something I like a lot: the atelier (in the real sense, ie the laboratorio) of Claudine Brignot. I love the skirts and jersey tops she creates. Especially this black heavy satin and gray sweatshirt trimming skirt of the Berlin Maritim collection. To me what she does is “distilling powerful German aesthetics”! Moreover her clothes seem also very comfortable. Ok, I am not on the way to “memérisation” but I love clothes in which you can move around in the city, work, go for an aperitivo, catch a plane or a bus or even hop on a (motor)bike, not those merely decorative clothes and heels who are suited only for being (trans)sported in air-conditioned cars. Because form follows function etc etc!

Tacheles, Clärchen Ballhaus, everything is around the corner, but my journey in German design was far from over, I went back to work in the afternoon. You will know more by visiting our sister blog, Aflatinberlin…