Susan is definitely a designer to keep an eye on. Her website features more of her works and designs (including some accessories, tops, and bags).  The swan dress is like a fairytale in fabric form and her carousel creation is equal parts gothic glam and high fashion.   

There is something about the environment of Berlin that breeds serendipitous happenings. Case in point: On Tuesday night I found myself enjoying a glass of wine at CCCP bar and as I came out of the bar to sit at an outside table, a well-dressed gentleman smiled at me and jokingly pretended that he didn’t know which way to go. A half hour later, that same man was sitting across from me at the bar at the LEE Jean’s fashion part at Kitty Cheng Bar.

Let me set the scene for you. The streets were busy with various fashion week parties along Torstrasse, but inside Kitty Cheng Bar one found Heisskalt waiting to perform as Lee Jeans hung from the bar and the ceiling alongside a blinding discoball; it was clearly the choice of the evening, which was noted by the line out front.  From the coasters to the napkins, the event was branded. Even the bartenders were wearing their best denim outfits.

As I was sitting outside enjoying a whiskey and cola, a man came outside to usher everyone inside “The band is starting. Come inside. Come inside.”  No hesitation was present, the entire outside crowd crammed into the tiny Kitty Cheng Bar: a space not particularly made for rock concerts.  The front row of the room was filled mostly with the band’s fans and not Berlin Fashion Week attendees, already proving a desirable, if unlikely, combination as the energy was quickly shared between the two parties.

Heisskalt jumped right into their set. The drums vibrated the entire room and I could literally feel the music from my cowboy boots to the glass in my hand. Heisskalt’s vocalist, Mathias Bloech, has crafted the stereotypically harsh German language into a version of musical poetry, only allowing for it to be harsh when he wishes it to be: the screams that take one by surprise in the midst of “Schatz”, a fairly calm love song or in the chorus of “Hallo”, where the screams couple with the bass drum to create an noticeable impact.

The band’s motto sums it up well in several lines: “Wir sind das eine Bier zuviel. Wir sind die Zigarette danach. Wir sind der Kuss im Regen.Wir sind der gute Rat von Mutti. Wir sind der Döner um Fünf. Wir sind der Föhn in der Badewanne deiner Schwiegermutter. Wir sind wie Sex, nur lauter. Wir haben heute Nacht mit dir geschlafen. Wir sind Heisskalt!" Or, roughly, in English: “We are one beer too many. We are the cigarette after, We are the kiss in the rain. We are the good advice from mother. We are the Döner (late night food) at 5 am. We are the hair dryer in the bathtub of your motherinlaw. We are like sex, only louder. And tonight we sleep with you.  We are HeissKalt!”  The evening did go a bit something like that. No one left the building without sweating or without a ringing in their ears. I happened to come home still humming the melody of “Dezemberluft”.