4ME4YOU features designer IOANNES during Berlin Fashion Week SS26.
DESIGNER: IOANNES
In a city constantly oscillating between grit and grace, IOANNES carved out a space for emotional rawness and sartorial nuance at Berlin Fashion Week SS26. Titled “Better Grow Thorns Than Thicker Skin,” the latest collection from Johannes Boehl Cronau offered a deeply poetic meditation on vulnerability, not as weakness, but as a radical act of resilience.
Staged in the Orangerie at Schloss Charlottenburg, the presentation unfolded within a romantic scene set between dinner and revelry—half-finished wine glasses, a table in suspended motion, the anticipation of something just about to begin. This in-between moment—elegant, melancholic, and charged—perfectly reflected the emotional ambiguityat the heart of the collection.
The clothes themselves walked the same delicate line. Body-hugging silhouettes, sheer fabrics, pastel tones, and ruffled details whispered softness and sensitivity. But Cronau is not interested in sentimentality without strength. Boxy coats, sharply tailored blazers, and floor-length leather and sequin fringes in bold black disrupted the fragility, introducing a controlled tension that felt both intentional and instinctual.
As the designer puts it:
“The collection is born out of that paradox: how to stay soft and strong at once.”
IOANNES’ designs pose a direct response to emotional shutdown, especially in a world overwhelmed by uncertainty. The garments act as armor, but not one that numbs—rather, one that responds, reacts, and feels. The collection’s title becomes a thesis: don’t grow thicker skin to survive—grow thorns, keep sensitivity intact, but protect it wisely.
After years of studying in Paris and London, and garnering international attention—including from global celebrities—Johannes Boehl Cronau has returned to his home city. And Berlin, in his eyes, is no longer simply an incubator for the avant-garde. It’s evolving into a more emotionally intelligent, open space, ready to host fashion that speaks beyond aesthetics to something deeper.
“For a long time, I felt I had to prove myself abroad — to find the right context for what I do,” says Cronau. “But Berlin has changed, and so have I. There’s a new openness here—a readiness for fashion that is both experimental and emotionally accessible.”
With “Better Grow Thorns Than Thicker Skin,” IOANNES offers not just garments, but a manifesto—one that champions the power of sensitivity in a hardening world. It’s a collection that reminds us: strength isn’t silence or stoicism—it’s showing up, scarred but still feeling, still beautiful.
