It would be fair to refer to Lina Berg as the “edgy girl” on the runway; the 25-year-old flaxen-haired Berg walked a whopping 34 shows this season, adding a bit of angular flair to the catwalks of Dolce Gabbana, Burberry, and Chloé, among others. But though she may be capable of a studied no-nonsense gaze and can brood with the best of them, Berg knows how to crack a joke—especially when it comes to her pre-modeling days. "I grew up in a super-small village close to Hanover. And when you say the name, it means something like ‘horny’ in German,” Berg laughs. And so far, Berg has come a long way from her small-town life ("We didn’t have a supermarket. There were like 500 people, a petrol station, and a hair salon") and considers herself a new New Yorker, albeit one who enjoyed the glitter that rained down on the runway at Burberry this year firsthand.
One thing that s carried over from her youth? Her gray-on-black look (“I still wear dark stuff!”)—though back in the early aughts, it wasn’t quite comprised of the vintage sweatshirts and black skinny jeans that she is wearing today. “When I was twelve or thirteen, I was quite a rebel,” says Berg. “I wanted to look older than I was because my friends were older and I wanted to go to clubs and stuff, so I was wearing all of these ‘bitchy’ clothes.” If you re now wondering what "bitchy" clothes are, so were we: “It was those Miss Sixty Jeans that are super-low and have a zipper in the back. I also was always into these really short crop tops and push-up bras. Plus, those Buffalo shoes—I had two pairs. We always put socks in the front to make them look bigger and they had flames on the side.” But for a teen in the early aughts, there was also the more pop-culture-infused ensembles to feed off of, with inspiration coming from belly-baring Christina Aguilera and the sugary glitz of the Spice Girls. “I tried to copy Christina Aguilera. I remember that music video ‘Lady Marmalade’ and I loved it! I wanted to have all of the clothes they were wearing,” says Berg. “Also, some of the Spice Girls with the shoes, the jewelry, and the tattoo [choker] necklace. I think those were my two big idols.” With a seventies influence already rocking the fashion world and nineties grunge rearing up then and again, can it be long until we see millennial nostalgia take over? Let s hope Berg has enough of those tattoo chokers to go around.
