Based in South West Germany, close to its manufacturers and artisans, Milk of Lime is a brand built on the ethos of small scale production and individual pieces. Winners of the Berlin Contemporary Award, Belgian-German design duo Julia Ballardt and Nico Verhaegen presented their Spring 2025 Milk of Lime collection on the first day of Berlin Fashion Week.
The collection’s inspiration came from an old book found in a second-hand shop titled “Wie es Wetter wird” (English: “How the Weather Will Be”). The book, filled with illustrations and descriptions of farmers’ weather predictions, sparked memories of my grandfather’s own weather-forecasting methods – he believed that the weather on the 12 days leading up to Christmas would predict the overall weather for each of the 12 months of the year.
Ballardt and Verhaegen teamed up with graphic designer and artist Jeroen Van Den Bogaert to create three distinctive coats, each depicting different states of the Beaufort scale—a system used to measure and describe wind speeds. These coats, woven in beautifully textured cotton jacquard, were reminiscent of the intricate embroidery seen in Alexander McQueen’s Hieronymus Bosch-inspired looks from the brand’s Spring 2023 collection, and they were just as stunning.
Many other aspects of the collection seemed as though they had been swept and tattered by the wind – skirts were reduced to bare threads, edges were frayed, and necklines were askew. The designs skilfully juxtaposed heavy and light textures, combining rigid and soft shapes to create a captivating visual contrast. A compelling collection that proves Milk of Lime’s Berlin Contemporary Award is well-deserved.
Images provided by the brand. Runway photography by Andrew Thomas; finale and backstage photography by Ben Moenks.
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Runway Collection
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London College of Fashion alumna (PGCert Fashion Buying & Merchandising). 15 years in fashion across styling, buying & merchandising, trend forecasting, e-commerce, and marketing. Includes roles at Vivienne Westwood and multi-brand retail stocking 50+ brands including Adidas, Nike, and Puma.
