Anyone who was present in Berlin’s artistic circles in the 1970s and 1980s has worn garments by legendary fashion designer Claudia Skoda. Her knitted designs were new, breaking with traditional stitch-counting methods which had dominated needlework until then. As an autodidact, Skoda saw the loom as an experimental device: she combined wafer-thin woollen threads with lurex and elastane to make transparent clothes, dyed her fabrics herself and was radical in how she presented her fashion. Just how closely the city’s history is interwoven with Skoda’s work as a designer, artist and networker is the subject of the catalog Claudia Skoda: Dressed to Thrill, which accompanies an upcoming exhibition at the Kulturforum. Published by Kettler, the book takes you on a journey through time to pre-unification Berlin, with essays and archive material that ranges from Polaroids to posters.
At that time Skoda’s fashion shows weren’t just clothes demonstrations: they were happenings that the whole city was trying to get tickets for. While Skoda initially held her shows on the Kreuzberg factory floor where she lived and worked with artist friends, her work was soon welcomed in the city’s major cultural institutions, including the Haus der Kulturen der Welt and Gropius Bau. To design her shows, Skoda relied on her network, including then-unknown Martin Kippenberger who designed the catwalk, filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger who photographed the models, all-rounder Tabea Blumenschein who modeled and electronic music pioneer Manuel Göttsching who did sound. Clothing, art and music were thought of as a unit, and creativity was always a collective experience. Skoda’s interdisciplinary, integrative approach remains to this day: her latest collections have seen her collaborate with young designers and redeploy artists as photographers, resulting in knitwear that stands for much more than fashion.
Text: Laura Storfner / Photos: Verlag Kettler, Gertrude Goroncy & Rich Richter
Claudia Skoda: Dressed to Thrill (2020, Kettler, 248 pages)
The exhibition Claudia Skoda: Dressed to Thrill is planned for April 2021 at the Kulturforum, Matthäikirchplatz, 10785 Berlin–Tiergarten; map
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