The ethics of BDSM lie close to Berlin’s philosophical heart; with her barren winters, imposing streetscapes and ‘Berliner Schnauze’, the city is doubtless a cruel mistress, and we, it’s inhabitants, prostrate before her as eager slaves. Berlin’s salacity is in fact celebrated, as proven by former mayor Klaus Wowereit’s now infamous statement, “Berlin is poor but sexy”. For a city in which sordidness is ubiquitous, it seems somewhat surprising that CHACA’s ‘Lockdown’ series has garnered the wide acclaim that it has.
Since her 2012 graduation, the Danish-born CHACA has leapt from strength to strength, with her collections now stocked at London’s Kokon To Zai, Tokyo’s Wut Berlin and at the Copenhagen flagship of Denmark’s darling, Henrik Vibskov. The ‘Lockdown’ collection itself gravitates around “the playful, the elegant, the dissenting”, clashing and contrasting elements of raw provocation and refinement. The harsh power of black rope meets the cool luxury of gold and silver hardware, producing pieces that are ambiguous in their identity, effectively giving full control to the wearer to play and experiment with the piece.
And this is where CHACA’s defining uniqueness lies, in the offering of such versatile creative potential to the wearer of her designs. The often-fetishised harness is thereby released from its habitual realm of crude salacity into a sensually engaged no-mans land, shaped and defined only by individual desires.
Both classy and kinky, this collection offers a much-needed shot of dark playfulness into the contemporary scene. If you’re not in the vicinity of the retailers listed above, you can also access the collection online.
Photography | Fede Rey
Editing | Carlos Khu
Stylist | Isabel Kibler
Hair & Make-Up | Francesca Maffi
