By this point you’ve seen the memes.
Split into two halves, one side shows a person in a nondescript outfit, captioned ‘Before I moved to Berlin’, and the other, a leather-clad technohead studded with piercings, skin etched with scrabbly, ill-advised tattoos, hand-poked at five in the morning at some dodgy Neukölln afters, labelled ‘One month after moving to Berlin’. But while it’s true that those landing in the German city do often have something of a style shake-up, and hard-edged style reigns supreme, there’s more to the aesthetic than the all-black stereotype that pervades the timeline via @berlinclubmemes et al.
Heading out onto the city’s sun-dappled Straßes to capture young Berliners going about their business is photographer Laura Schaeffer, whose images see logo baby tees and slashed denim come together with homegrown designers like Ottolinger and Sia Arnika, lingerie-like pieces matched with oversized tailoring, and okay fine: a smattering of heavy-duty vintage leather motorcycle jackets and trenches, even in the height of summer.
Click through the gallery above to see more Berlin street style and below to revisit Laura’s series from Athens earlier this year.