New York-born Ana Finel Honigman is an authority on all things art- and fashion-related in Berlin. She lends her wit and knowledge to her work for top style publications, such as British Vogue, Style.com and Dazed and Confused, just to name a few. She is also the Germany editor of fashion guide SHOP.
What are your favourite clothes shops in Berlin?
Andreas Murkudis’ concept store is a constant source of inspiration. Berlin has great fresh forums for emerging designers, like Voo and Happy Shop, but Murkudis remains the bellwether.
What three items should every woman have in her wardrobe?
A conservatively sexy dress, an enormous bag and a sentimental item that should be binned yet incomprehensibly survives every closet cull.
Do you have a signature item you always wear or style you always adhere to?
I’m hooked on memento mori. I am especially bound to my Don’t Shoot the Messenger’s leather jacket and a ring by a San Francisco taxidermist: “Loved to Death” frames a human tooth in a Vienna Secession setting.
What style do you admire on other people?
I most admire rangy, feral, sexy, intellectual-looking older women, jolie laide types like Marina Abramović, Tracey Emin, Marianne Faithfull and Kristen McMenamy, who have enough style and brains to not need a hairbrush.
What are your tips for dressing for the Berlin winter?
Fur is warm and super sensual. I love wearing second-hand skins. I am against supporting the fur industry, but I hate seeing fur go unused. Appropriate it and stay snug.
Is there a trend you can’t wait to see the back of?
Platform pumps make me puke.
What, if anything, defines the Berliner Frau?
Natural beauty. Women in other key cities are polished to a perverse sheen, but Berliners lack the same neurotic self-consciousness. Unlike New York or London, it’s still a city where plastic surgery looks freakish and flaunting expensive trends is uncool.