An address (pun intended) that probably every fashion lover has visited or heard of before: Adddress, in Mitte—a carefully selected curation of designer pieces from underground and avant-garde brands such as SAN 263-1, JOE CHIA, La Haine Inside Us, Keta Gutmane, and of course, the in-house label Adddress by fashion designer Andreea Vrajitoru.
An extraordinary and unusual selection, consisting of Berlin underground labels, as well as Scandinavian brands and red carpet labels, and even some selected vintage pieces from Comme des Garçons, Rick Owens, and Martin Margiela, ranging from a monochrome, dark, club-ready look to more extravagant, futuristic pieces, characterized by timeless elegance and uniqueness.
With three different stores in Berlin (one in Bikini Berlin, two at Weinmeisterstraße in Mitte), the founders Andreea Vrajitoru and Marcel Mietzel have built their own empire for those who share their passion for underground and elevated everyday fashion.
According to Marcel, sustainability is no special criterion in the selection of brands but a fundamental requirement. The brands that Adddress collaborates with are hand-picked, particularly for their high values and production standards.
Adddress has been around since 2003, but from now on something new awaits us for the showroom in Mitte: a concept store is being created here, with fashion, vinyls, a live DJ (who is sitting opposite us), and an in-house espresso brand.
We’re sitting here in the sunny backyard with André Galluzzi—DJ, vinyl lover, and a Berlin (and international) club scene original—and now also the brains behind the new concept ‘ACCESS ALL AREAS’ for the Adddress concept store in Berlin-Mitte, where André’s own espresso brand is available, too.
Here he tells us more about it, his own story of fashion and nightlife, and why the concept store is the vinyl of fashion.
André, your musical story starts in the nineties, from the beginnings of the Berlin techno scene, in the Bunker (which today holds the Boros collection), the old Tresor, to Ostgut and Berghain. You are still active as a DJ and are launching ‘Access All Areas’. What can we expect from this concept store?
‘Access All Areas’, as the name suggests, aims to bring together the three areas that I personally love—music (vinyl), coffee, and fashion. Until now, I don’t think there has been a store that offered such a thing, with music, live streams, DJ performances, so I personally wanted to build a bridge here.
It’s also about bringing DJ colleagues into the store who share my understanding of the kind of fashion we have here.
After partnering with Technics and Teufel Audio, the showroom is fully equipped for André playing his records on-site—the store also houses André’s record collection, over 20,000 vinyls that he has accumulated over 30 years and from which he plays live every Saturday. He has also curated a selection of new records that can be bought in the store.
Fashion and music, especially in the underground scene have always been intertwined and have influenced one another. I’m personally thinking of the anti-fashion movement and punk. What is your personal story with fashion and what has influenced your style?
It was the nightlife that ultimately shaped my style the most. What always inspired me back then were my first visits to Ibiza, that hippie style really appealed to me. When I was playing, I always wore a crazy piece combined with a minimal piece and that’s still the same today, it changed a bit with age of course. But I’ve always been very interested in fashion.
Would you say that your style in fashion and in music are connected?
I have two hearts in both music and fashion.
Back then I played a lot of techno, but always very broad. I always built up my sets, played long sets, and loved to take people on a journey from ambient to deep house, more dubby sounds and at some point hard, hypnotic techno. It’s similar to the clothes—I have this light side, a bit hippie, wearing light colors, linen, and chains.
And then there’s this other side, at night, it’s a bit darker. That’s also my personality: I need these polar opposites.
Adddress represents a very special, modern yet timeless, minimalist yet expressive, elegant yet non-conformist selection of brands. How is the music selection you play in the store connected to that?
Adddress is very open and colorful, as is the music I play here. I would describe my sound like a soundtrack that is played with the given situation. At the beginning of an evening I play a very slow and spherical sound (almost ambient), then I slowly go into a very hypnotic deep house with sometimes weird vocals, acid lines, tribalistic but very minimal, sometimes monotonous house. The most important thing for me is the groove and the basic mood. I like to bridge the gap between good and evil, or day and night, always mystical and trippy.
You are known to be a big vinyl fan, and always play vinyl yourself. Is vinyl in music like the concept store is in fashion? Especially in times of fast fashion, is the experience of buying, searching, finding, the personal encounter—perhaps also a different consciousness, the countermovement to it?
Yes definitely, I think that’s why playing vinyl fits well into the concept here. Vinyl is a real craft, it’s really technically challenging and unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer DJs who really still play vinyl. Even if many people find it old-school—I mean, it is—but I want to preserve that and bring it into the present day. And I also see this connection to the garments we have here—the selection places great value on craftsmanship, everything is sustainably produced and of high quality and everything follows this concept.
What can we look forward to seeing at Adddress in the future, any fun events coming up? What significance do these events have for you?
My wish is to turn this into a kind of meeting place for people interested in fashion and music to engage in exchange, networking, and creating connections.
We are celebrating the re-opening of this new concept soon with a launch party on June 15th with food, drinks, a bar, and of course music, some DJs will play and everyone is invited to come and join us here.
A concept store where the full experience plays an essential part, an experience for all the senses: visual, acoustic, and taste. What does the soundtrack of Adddress sound like?
I created a playlist of my personal favourites for Adddress and you can listen to it yourself. We’re also planning to record podcasts and live sets here in the store—so that will be the soundtrack to Adddress.
The Adddress showroom is open and the release party will take place on June 15th at their showroom at Weinmeisterstr. 12-14 in Berlin-Mitte. More info here.
*Header: courtesy of André Galluzzi
