Lifestyle
While digital streaming remains the go-to option for most people when it comes to consuming media, a shift is underway as streaming fatigue, social media communities, and socioeconomic uncertainty are leading to the resurgence of physical media.
Black and African-owned brands took center stage at Berlin Fashion Week: redefining fashion and using it as a tool for resistance, sustainability, and storytelling. From Buzigahill’s powerful Return To Sender show to NOMMO’s visionary platform and AZEA ZALEA’s deeply personal debut, these creatives are shifting the industry’s focus toward justice, heritage, and innovation. This isn’t just fashion — it’s a movement.
While the fashion industry likes to perform diversity, it still lacks true inclusivity and accessibility on many levels. Not only is there a lack of disabled models on the runway or in front of the camera, but mainstream brands are missing awareness and consideration for the clothing needs of disabled individuals. Learn more about five adaptive fashion brands that are challenging outdated stereotypes about disability and are transforming the fashion industry one garment at a time.
“A Fidai Film" (2024) is Kamal Al Jafari’s act of cinematic resistance. Through the reworking of looted footage, he poses a counter-archive sabotaging the colonial gaze through the camera of the dispossessed.
As corporate Pride campaigns dwindle and queer visibility fades from the mainstream, it’s essential to reflect on fashion’s deep-rooted indebtedness to LGBTQIA+ creativity—particularly that of Black queer pioneers. From André Leon Talley and Edward Enninful to the rise of a new generation of visionaries, we explore how queerness has always been at the heart of fashion—even when the industry tries to forget it.
In this intimate conversation with artist and author Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju, we explore the emotional landscapes of arrival, memory, and intergenerational connection. Speaking from her exhibition Musafiri – Of Travellers and Guests at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, Ilupeju reflects on the quiet rituals that shape her practice, the tension between displacement and belonging, and how painting becomes an act of care, vulnerability, and ancestral remembrance.
Surrealism, saturated color, and a touch of humor define the visionary world of Eliška Sky — a photographer and art director creating vibrant dreamscapes that challenge beauty norms and embrace joy, movement, and sustainability. Sky's work explores body positivity and futuristic aesthetics through a lens that is both playful and deeply intentional. In this interview, she reveals the inspirations behind her bold visuals, her creative process, and how she blends imagination with purpose to craft art that speaks to the future.
The 16th Arab Film Festival Berlin (ALFILM) casts a daring gaze into the past and future with its spotlight on "Canceled Futures, Endless Pasts"—a theme that unearths archival ghosts and imagines alternative realities through speculative fiction. With a compelling lineup that includes To a Land Unknown and The Village Next to Paradise, this year’s festival bridges personal memory and political struggle, offering cinematic stories from across the Arab world that challenge dominant narratives and invite audiences to rethink what could have been.
As the lights dimmed inside Berlin’s Velodrom, a familiar silhouette stepped out: wine glass in hand, shades on, cool as ever. Kaytranada didn’t need a hype man, his set spoke entirely through rhythm. Within minutes, the crowd was moving as one. From start to finish, the energy never dipped.
Sometimes, the hardest breakups aren’t the romantic ones—they’re the ones that leave your group chats empty and your memories bittersweet. Friendships aren’t supposed to have expiration dates. But when they do, the silence can be deafening. Here’s to the ones we’ve loved and let go, and to learning that some endings don’t need closure to have meaning.
