From Pinatex To Pineapple, Veganism Walked The Runway At Berlin Fashion Week
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Time to read 3 min
AW25 Berlin Fashion Week was a love letter to innovation. The plant based evolution is real.
Berlin's reputation for rebellion
is well-earned—and this season, the resistance was dressed in cork, piñatex, and the sleek sheen of apple leather. For AW25/26, Berlin Fashion Week threw down a stylish gauntlet: who needs animal skins when you’ve got materials grown, brewed, and rescued from the waste bin?
Across the city, from industrial warehouses to heritage theatres, vegan fashion didn’t just show up. It owned the runway.
Rebecca Ruetz
Vegan leather has officially shed its outsider status. On the main runway circuit, four designers in particular used it not as a gimmick—but as a foundation for tailoring that turned heads.
Rebekka Ruétz sent out an autumn-winter collection that played with angles and volume, using high-shine vegan leather sculpted into structured silhouettes. Her statement? That cruelty-free materials can hold shape—and narrative—just as boldly as anything animal-derived. Think dominatrix meets Dadaism in a world where sustainability is standard.
Maximilian Gedra
Maximilian Gedra’s collection “Stalactite” was all jagged beauty and cavernous tailoring. Longline vegan leather coats and razor-sharp suiting echoed subterranean textures—sophisticated, brutalist, and weirdly sensual. There was a quiet power in it. Like nature reasserting itself in glossy black.
Kilian Kerner
Then came Kilian Kerner, always the provocateur. His “Shitstorm” collection was a biting love letter to the digital age—trolls, tears, and tweets included. But in the middle of all that noise? A series of blush-pink vegan leather pieces that shimmered like cyber skin. Sexy. Surreal. And, importantly, ethical.
Maria Chany
But perhaps the strongest message came from Maria Chany, who went deeper than aesthetics. Her use of local, plant-based leather (sourced near Belgrade) and upcycled rubber tyres put traceability at the forefront. “You can’t scream sustainability while importing plastic-based faux leathers from halfway across the world,” she told one panel. “Every seam in my collection has a postcode.”
NEONYT: The Vegan Playground
While the main shows dazzled, NEONYT—the ethical fashion trade fair at Kraftwerk Berlin—offered a more intimate, tactile experience. For three days, it became the heart of vegan luxury.
humour.noir was the breakout label. Their handbags—crafted from piñatex, cork, recycled paper, and even tree bark—dripped with drama. Some were accented with Murano glass, others with Swarovski spark. It was proof that sustainability can sparkle—if you let it.
The Blue Suit did the unexpected: office wear. Crisp, GOTS-certified denim suits with subtle tailoring and plant-based dyes redefined what vegan professionals wear to boardrooms. Wool? Who?
Accessories were strong too. Artelusa’s cork hats and belts were PETA-approved and editorial-ready. (Imagine a beige cork fedora with minimalist Berlin tailoring? Say less.)
PLNGNS
PLNGNS—an offshoot from Keyi Magazine—presented a Sunday night show that felt more like performance art than fashion. Their pieces, constructed entirely from discarded sneakers, told stories of waste, obsession, and reinvention. Every garment bled history—and every stitch rejected fast fashion.
Other standouts included Rehats, whose caps (made from old workwear and coffee sacks) felt distinctly Berlin, and TearOJoy, a Swedish label working miracles with cork, paper leather, and washable denim hybrids. One paper-leather tote? Washable up to 200 times. Perfect for the eco-girl on the go.
And of course, nuuwaï—one of the OG vegan accessory brands—continued to own the apple leather game. Their bags were punchy, colourful, and minimal. If Acne Studios went vegan and started making backpacks? This is what they’d look like.
The real revolution at Berlin Fashion Week wasn’t just in silhouettes—it was in the materials. According to trend intelligence platform Woven Insights, the shows were a lab of emerging tech-meets-textile experimentation.
Kasia Kucharska debuted algae-based bio-textiles that shimmered like oil slicks under light. Other collections leaned into mushroom leather, recycled nylon from fishing nets, and bioleather made from waste fibres.
Even labels not explicitly vegan (like SF1OG and Richert Beil) embraced circular thinking, using modular designs and repurposed waste to reduce impact. It’s not always about the ‘vegan’ label—it’s about the intention.
🎉 BEYOND THE RUNWAY: PANEL TALKS & PARTY MOMENTS
Berlin Fashion Week is as much about the conversations as the catwalks—and veganism had a seat at every table.
The Metamorphosis panel series—led by Fashion Council Germany—brought together thinkers like Marie Lueder (renowned for her plant-based techwear), Sophie Claussen (Avenir), and sustainability strategist Niki de Schryver. Topics? Greenwashing, the rise of vegan storytelling, and why traceability is the next big luxury.
Over at NEONYT’s after-hours mixers, Berghain-adjacent energy buzzed through networking sessions, where PRs and buyers discussed everything from vegan skincare to blockchain traceability between negronis. One insider quipped, “It’s the only place where someone will ask what your shoes are made of before asking what you do.”
📝 THE VERDICT
This season, Berlin proved one thing: vegan fashion is no longer the outsider. It’s the insider. Designers aren’t just proving that cruelty-free can be cool—they’re proving it can be couture.
And as the industry races to meet environmental benchmarks, Berlin is carving its own aesthetic niche—gritty, romantic, sustainably fearless.
You could say veganism has found its fashion capital. And she’s wearing recycled sneaker sleeves and paper totes to the club.
