Berlin is more than magazines write.
She might not know it, but Sumi Ha defies the growing standard that fashion begets snobbery. Assuredly relaxed, with breezy airs about her, Ha has cultivated a personal look that’s more art-centric than glamorous, more Woody Allen than Edie Sedgwick—not surprising for someone who’s been quoted as saying she’d rather spend money on food than on trendy garments.
“People have more courage to do their thing in Berlin than somewhere else,” Ha wrote in an email, and one look at her role as the harbinger of Berlin’s flourishing fashion scene nails this point home. At IDEAL showroom for avant-garde fashion, founded in 2006, Ha started to feature the likes of Swedish knitwear designer Sandra Backlund, Romanian Rozalb de Mura and wunderkind Eric Lebon on the catwalk one year before the city’s Mercedes Benz Fashion Week.
Ha’s notoriously coy about what lies in the future, but it’s likely to involve staying put in Berlin: “It’s the only place I feel comfortable to live in.” In the meantime, find her at some of her favorite destinations in town.
