Sustainability at Fuenf

Fuenf is a young and dynamic Berlin-based brand, that oscillates between street style and nonchalant elegance, bringing digital culture and fashion together. The first collection by Fuenf explored fractals, natural forms, each part of which repeats the whole. Being essentially natural forms, fractals have nevertheless been mesmerising graphic designers and digital artists with their hypnotic shapes and perfect proportions. Subsequent collections have expanded on this inspiration.

For Ekaterina Zdanowicz-Musina, founder and designer of Fuenf, fractals have come to symbolise the dystopia of today when the digital is continuously turning into our primary natural environment. The collections of the brand are thus dedicated to the clash between technologies and nature, the new and the old, the future and the past. Borrowing the motives of the goth subculture, Ekaterina tries to imagine the style of tomorrow – smart, edgy and understated.

Sustainable attitude and sustainable production are at the core of Fuenf Berlin’s DNA. The brand presents a welcome alternative to fast fashion with its deliberate attention to the methods of fashion production, fabrics and fairness of labour. The clothes are produced in Berlin and at small ateliers in Poland with transparency and traceability being the key aspects. Realising the importance of eco-friendly and ethical production at Fuenf we are trying to outsource sustainable fabrics by European producers and suppliers: we make sure we include recycled and eco-certified fabrics. While prints are important for Fuenf’s aesthetic, it is digital printing that we employ: more sustainable than screen-printing, for example, it allows to avoid the unnecessary waste of water. That’s why we headed to the Netherlands to have our fabrics printed. Championing gender equality and female empowerment in our collections, we are also making sure that labour is not being exploited unfairly at any stage of our production process. Focusing on the concept rather than the trend, we eschew the fashion seasons, which allows our customers a greater freedom of choice. Our made-to-measure approach does not only cater to the customer’s individual needs but also allows to avoid overproduction.