Reference Studios: Berlins Style-Lobby

by time news

BerlinTwo huge panoramic windows in a façade made of polished stone slabs, next to a narrow door – this spacious shop on Potsdamer Strasse was once home to Behrendt Werbetechnik, a shop for signs and neon signs. At that time, they could also be seen in a variety of ways in shop windows. Today the eye falls on what is presumed to be a remnant from that time: a narrow LED display in Späti aesthetics, on which the brand name and the web address of the current tenant www.referencestudios.com can be read. Behind the display, a screen made of metal grids zigzags in front of the eyes of passers-by. Not everyone has to be aware of the visits of prominent personalities such as Lana Del Rey, Dua Lipa or Ufo361. Reference Studios is a communications agency that works with major international luxury brands. This also includes dressing celebrities and providing testimonials. And they are often guests here. Just like stylists, fashion journalists, managers, curators and other people from the fashion, music and art world who belong to the network.

In the former shop there are now clothes rails with coats, jackets and T-shirts, all new collection items from Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Adidas or Carhartt. The employees also represent style competence, they wear chunky boots and oversized black clothes. Everything is really on point here. And you can feel the spirit of the founder Mumi Haiati, an eternal traveler. Nothing is superfluous here, you can basically break up the tent at any time. Nevertheless, a few details reveal that this setting is well thought out. A pillar in the center of the room is clad in bright pink latex, encircled by a small bench in the same color. On the bench color blocking with orange blooming flowers. A counter made of brushed metal stands in front of a room divider made of black silicone. The rest of the room is painted white.

Style as an interdisciplinary space

An agency that works with brands and institutions today has to do more than classic PR. That means not only informing the conventional press such as magazines and newspapers about new collections or label activities. In a world where cultural genres are merging and where high and pop culture mix, things are a little more complicated. The mainstream influencer with millions of followers is losing ground in the absence of mega-trends, and the focus is shifting to small, high-end audiences hard to find in social media bubbles.

Timothy Schaumburg

High-ranking visitors often visit the Reference showroom on Potsdamer Strasse.

An interdisciplinary approach is therefore essential in the agency business today. “We may be an ultra-modern communications agency, but we are also a think tank and research and development platform,” explains Haiati. His voice sounds soft, but his look is loud. He is wearing a calf-length tulle skirt by Comme des Garçons, a baggy Balenciaga shirt over it, a Chrome Hearts cap and shoes by Rick Owens – all in black, of course. The man is a blessing for Berlin, because his contacts are worth their weight in gold. Still, support from the Senate is often lacking when it comes to grants. Haiati is not vindictive, on the contrary. He knows that fashion has always been difficult in Berlin. That’s why he didn’t really want to stay here, but then this city without style appealed to him.

“Berlin was an accident,” he says, “and initially thought of as a stop after I’d worked abroad for ten years.” Haiati was born in Düsseldorf with Persian roots. He describes himself as a “Persian Rhinelander”. But the Rhineland did not promise the excitement he wished for. “I went to London right after I graduated high school and wanted to be an actor first. That was in the late 90s, early 2000s, in the UK underground and garage era. As a result, I ended up in an eccentric fashion crowd, in which I found myself and who suited me, because fashion was always an issue for me.” After that, I went to Barcelona to study, but Haiati didn’t want to wait to start working and moved to Paris. He began his agency career in the fashion city and worked for designers such as Martin Margiela and Raf Simons. When he finally landed in New York, the financial crisis thwarted his plans there, and only then did he end up in Berlin. The network that Haiati had built up in the world’s metropolises was now the basis for his agency “Reference Studios”, which he founded in Berlin almost five years ago.

Timothy Schaumburg

Showroom detail: shoe samples on display on the pink bench.

But first he had to improvise: “Back then I was working as a one-man show from my Neukölln apartment. My living room was the showroom.” Haiati still seems like a person passing through, everything seems spontaneous and fluid. In his office on Potsdamer Strasse, too, there are no work materials on the table with the large, dark marble top. The room is a luxurious back room attached to the shop that could always be given a new, mysterious purpose. Haiati sits at the table, hands clasped in front of him as he talks about what made him stay in Berlin: “The fact that Berlin is not a fashion city was what drove me. I asked myself: How can I create a form of relevance beyond the DACH market? How can I manage to get the attention of top stylists and important fashion critics from Berlin?” says Haiati. “I had my international network and I started thinking about fashion in a more instinctive way, about new contexts and connections to youth culture.”

The World Wide Underground, the luxury industry and its own festival

So on the one hand it was the contacts to the luxury industry, but on the other hand also the deep understanding of fashion from the subculture. “The World Wide Underground was the school of my life. I met a lot of people on the dance floor,” Haiati continues. “Back then I often had a bad conscience after the long nights. Now I know that it was all right. That also explains my understanding of other genres.” Haiati has probably always had the ability to move in every social class, and everyone always feels addressed in the same way. In the end, it’s always the people you want to work with.

Reference currently has more than thirty internationally renowned customers under contract, mainly from the fashion industry. These include brands that belong to Kering and LVMH such as Gucci or Tiffany & Co., but also young rising Berlin labels such as the 44 Label Group or cultural customers such as the Schinkel Pavilion. 25 employees work on the projects in Berlin and in Milan, where Haiati recently opened a branch. Other cities could follow.

Timothy Schaumburg

The international reference team: As different as the CVs may be, (almost) everyone can agree on black.

“Because we represent an attitude and represent a form of representation, we are now even perceived as a brand ourselves. On the one hand, that’s an honor for me, but on the other hand, it also has to do with our identity, and that’s something that comes naturally to me.” However, acceptance wasn’t always that great, says the agency owner. “I’ve always been an outsider, you shouldn’t underestimate the subtle racism, it’s still very pronounced at the upper business level. The doors weren’t all open to me from the start, so I gave up my name Mohammad and called myself Mumi.”

It was this mummy who brought the “Reference Festival” to life with his brand; But the city of Berlin was not interested in that, so he initially had to finance the first edition of the festival in 2019 all by himself. The venue at the time was a multi-storey car park in Neukölln, where installations were shown for 24 hours and panels and parties were held. The list of participants from the fashion and art world included glamorous names such as Wolfgang Tillmans, Matt Lambert, Commes des Garçons or 032c. Haiati recalls: “People like Adrian Joffe, who owns Commes des Garçons and Dover Street Market, or the Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist were our supporters. But the Berlin Senate was not attracted by the names. They were intangible to her. For such a young company and for me personally, the festival was a very big challenge on so many levels.” The international press such as Monocle, Vogue, Dazed and iD were full of praise and saw the event as a future model for the presentation of fashion perfectly tailored to Berlin in general and in particular.

In the meantime, the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises has also shown some understanding and regularly supports the festival, which has become firmly established as part of the Berlin Fashion Week. To this day, the event brings together fashion shows, performances, panels and parties – and the participants in turn are united by a relevance that is secured by the reference seal. “There was no format for me in which I could bundle everything I do. The festival is something that goes out to the outside world. Much more than the work in the agency, which is not so tangible from the outside,” comments Haiati. “In June we are taking the festival to London and taking it to Selfridges, probably the most important luxury department store in the world, in the form of a takeover. We will use the entire department store, we are already very excited about that.”

But first of all, Berlin can look forward to a new edition of the festival, exceptionally for the Gallery Weekend. Corona and the Ukraine war had prevented Fashion Week from taking place. And who knows whether the audience this weekend might not be better than the Berlin Fashion Week anyway? Because when asked whether Haiati would not be a very suitable advisor for the Senate in this tiresome matter called Berlin Fashion Week, he replies with a smile: “Do we still need fashion weeks in this form today?”

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