Berenika Czarnota is a Polish designer living and working in Berlin. A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz, she presented her debut collection in 2008. Wanting to create unique and original designs in the spirit of conscious fashion, she resigned from her job for a large clothing corporation and founded her own brand in 2015.
Berenika’s trademark quickly became handmade sweaters, hats, berets and scarves refined to the smallest detail. The wool and mohair used to create them comes from a small family-run manufactory in Florence.
The designer’s love for handmade sweaters came from her family home. One of her favorite childhood memories is a red sweater with colorful balls, which her mother made for her. In high school she gave her first knitted and crocheted projects to her closest friends. During her studies in the field of clothing design, she most often created projects from knitwear, because, as she claims, knitwear is much more malleable than fabric. “I would compare working with knitwear to painting pictures. I can freely combine colors, threads, stitches, create original patterns and architectural forms. This gives unlimited room for experimentation. And if I am not satisfied with the effect, I can always rip the project and start again from scratch’, explains Berenika.
Berenika does not follow trends when creating her collections. She is much more interested in how people from her favourite European cities dress than in current fashion trends. Her inspirations come from travels, the impulse to create may be color combinations found in albums about interiors, documentaries from the 1970s or 1980s or vintage photographs. The most original and colorful models are usually created from the leftover wool, which was not entirely used in the previous season. These designs are available in a very limited number of copies.
Focusing on the highest quality and functionality of her designs, Berenika does not forget about the fact that her brand operates in accordance with the principles of sustainable development and in the spirit of zero waste. The designer has resigned from using plastic packaging, and all the raw materials she uses are 100% recyclable.
