Vice Style

Amongst the paranoia and dearth of fresh fruit in communist East Germany there lived a small, but vibrant group of fashion visionaries, who endeavored to keep the torch of individuality burning in the shadow of a State controlled media.

During this time a young man named Marco Wilms began his first forays into the fashion world as a card carrying dressman (the GDR term for model), working for the country’s Fashion Institute in East Berlin. After the capitalist system annexed the GDR at the end of the 80s, Wilms opted out of fashion and spent a decade in the wilderness before returning as a filmmaker. In late 2009 he celebrated the release of his first feature film, Comrade Couture, revealing the secrets of the East German fashion scene by focusing on its two main protagonist movements; “Chic, Charmant, und Dauerhaft” and “Allerleirauh.” Among others, the film features designer Sabine von Oettingen, the first to use the eponymous strawberry foil in her outfits (the foil was also used on body bags), avant-garde photographer Robert Paris, and extravagant hairdresser/stylist Frank Schäfer, who was constantly harassed and arrested by the Stasi due to his glittering pink hairstyles. It‘s a real romp.

Currently Wilms divides his time between Berlin and Thailand, where he teaches film at Thammasat University, and is working on a new film about Peter Weibel, the Viennese performance artist. We caught up with him during a short sojourn in Berlin, where he still resides in the same house he squatted back in 1989.