Ritual Unions

ABOUT THE BRAND

Ritual Unions is a Berlin-based couture label founded by Karin Brettmeister in 2017. With origins in bridal, the bespoke-focused brand has evolved through evocative collections and a dedication to high dressmaking. Brettmeister’s work gives form to unheard voices and unspoken collective sentiments, using couture as expression and provocation. The label is distinguished by its use of stark contrasts—black vs. white, rigidity vs. fluidity—rooted in bridal traditions yet transformed to challenge them. Through this tension, Ritual Unions seeks to dismantle antiquated infrastructures tied to oppression and discrimination. By reimagining old cues, the brand envisions a new societal role for couture: transformation, liberation, and radical beauty.

ABOUT THE COLLECTION

This collection emerges from a moment of awakening.
Not as a rupture, but as a recalibration.

It is a return to the core — to everything Ritual Unions has been, and everything it is becoming. Past and present coexist here, layered rather than replaced. What once felt contradictory now reveals itself as continuity. With distance, patterns appear. The handwriting becomes legible.

At its heart, the collection explores fluctuation: identity as something alive, shifting, and unfinished. Strength and softness, restraint and exposure, darkness and light exist side by side. These contrasts are not resolved — they are embraced. Change is not a threat to authenticity; it is proof of it.

Rebirth plays a central role. Not as reinvention for its own sake, but as the freedom to see familiar things anew. To forgive earlier versions of the self. To recognize that evolution does not erase history — it makes it meaningful.

Materials are chosen for their ability to hold tension. Structured elements meet fluid ones, containment meets release. Surfaces carry memory. The body is not hidden, but framed. Nothing is decorative without intention. Everything exists in dialogue with the wearer.

Ritual has always been the connective tissue. Not ritual as tradition, but as action — repeated, shared, charged with meaning. Ritual as a way of coming together. Of marking moments. Of belonging without conformity.

This work is for people who dress intuitively rather than consistently. For those who value self-acceptance over approval. For individuals who allow themselves to shift, to contradict, to evolve — and remain whole through it all. It is worn by those who understand that confidence does not need to be loud, and that care can be radical.

All images can be found in the official Berlin Fashion Week MEDIA HUB.