We live in an age of rapid-fire media consumption—most often in the form of social media posts about the young and famous. But what happens when the subject of Vogue magazine’s most-liked Instagram photo of the year turns out to be a pair of Berliners who are older than many Instagrammers’ grandparents and pretty much unknown outside their native Germany?
The Day’s own Joanna Toto found out recently when she was shooting street style photos for Vogue at Berlin Fashion Week. In the midst of a parade of twenty-something taste-makers, she saw a couple that truly stood out: an older duo who were perfectly dressed for the event with an ageless style. So striking were Günther Krabbenhöft (71) and his best friend Britt Kanja (67), in fact, that Joanna’s photo soon started accumulating likes—and more than 6,000 comments.
Although virtually unknown elsewhere, the senior scenesters are fixtures in Berlin’s art/fashion/club landscape. Günther, who became known last year as the city’s “oldest hipster” after a tourist snapshot of the stylish septugenerian on a subway platform went viral, is now a much-sought-after model whose favorite pastime is techno dancing. Britt, Berlin’s answer to Audrey Hepburn, is a legendary club owner, model and roller skate enthusiast who is the only person in history to have written permission to skate the floors of the famous KaDeWe department store.
Which leads us to wonder: are techno dancing and roller skating the keys to eternal youth and ageless style? Maybe, though Günther adds one more suggestion: “Live wild and dangerous.”
For more of Joanna’s street style photos from Berlin:
https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/berlin-fashion-week-fall-2018
I’ve been shooting street style images for Vogue—at Stockholm Fashion Week and also in Berlin. This was taken during Berlin Fashion Week FW18, right outside the main venue.
Even though there weren’t as many photographers lurking outside the Berlin venue as there at New York, Milan or Paris Fashion Week, the handful that were there did swarm the couple. They blocked my view in the beginning and I knew as I was shooting that I had not yet captured what I wanted so I sprinted down the driveway to shoot another round until I felt like I had captured the “one.” A big lesson I learned from shooting weddings is to trust your instinct. It’s almost always right!
I gasped because they were just so striking.
Yes and no. The mature group that attends shows tend to be amazingly stylish but there doesn’t seem to be that many of them, especially in Berlin and Stockholm. It feels like the twenty-something bloggers and “influencers” have really taken over, quantity-wise. Maybe it just seems that way since they are ones that seem to have the most interest in being photographed. I can’t recall any other older people peacocking.
I think this image was so popular because even though they define fabulousness, they seem to still be relatable—as opposed to a 6-foot tall 18-year-old model with a 115-pound frame. We are all getting older despite the quest for youth that is thrust upon us. What I noticed from reading the Instagram comments is that everyone wants to be Britt and Günther when they are their age. Actually, everyone wants to be them now! They have obliterated the notion that people become invisible as they age. As for me, I instantly felt better after spotting and capturing them, like it was suddenly OK to proudly be your age whatever it may be.
I think this image was so popular because even though they define fabulousness, they seem to still be relatable—as opposed to a 6-foot tall 18-year-old model with a 115-pound frame. We are all getting older despite the quest for youth that is thrust upon us.— Joanna Toto
