Soleil du Sud – Second Hand fashion for women

May­be you need the cou­ra­ge of a French woman to open a store for women’s fashion at Schwe­den­stra­ße. Rose­li­ne Rus­sell ope­ned ‘Sol­eil du Sud’ in 2006, lin­king fashion from Paris and second hand style from Berlin.

The traf­fic bet­ween Oslo­er Stra­ße and Bad­stra­ße is loud along Schwe­den­stra­ße. The­re are three of tho­se ubi­qui­tous pokies casi­nos right next to each other, spre­a­ding like a colourful ulcer. One can find a kiosk, a bar­gain and sale store, Tur­ki­sh bake­ries and more emp­ty buil­dings than in most parts of Wed­ding – you would­n’t belie­ve that there’s a fashion store out the­re, unless you’­re stan­ding right in front of it (or read about it on Weddingweiser).

Rose­li­ne Rus­sel is sit­ting on a litt­le pink bench in front of her store, tal­king about the bar that exis­ted at No. 15b befo­re. From the out­side, it is still cle­ar­ly visi­ble that the buil­ding once hos­ted a pub. After it shut down, the store was emp­ty for quite a while. Rosa­li­ne, who lived in the same buil­ding and was loo­king for work at that time, deci­ded to open her own bou­tique right the­re in Novem­ber 2006.
At the begin­ning, she only sold second hand fashion, bought by a fri­end in Paris and sent to Schwe­den­stra­ße. Now, Rose­li­ne is sel­ling brand new clo­thes and jewel­lery from France, but a lar­ge part of what she offers con­sists of second hand fashion from Ber­li­ners: You can bring your clo­thes to the store, Rose­li­ne will sell them on com­mis­si­on, sha­ring the ear­nings 50:50.
The inte­ri­or of the shop looks like a ména­ge-à-trois bet­ween a lounge room, a pri­va­te jewel­lery coll­ec­tion and a walk-in ward­ro­be. The colours on the walls crea­te an aes­ti­val-medi­ter­ra­ne­an atmo­sphe­re. Neck­laces, ear­rings and other jewel­lery are spread on old fur­ni­tu­re, in bet­ween the­re are man­ne­quins wea­ring light dres­ses, shirts and jackets. A couch and a chair invi­te the visi­tor to sit down. Sans aucun dou­te, it is cosy in here. If you want to search for an ori­gi­nal spring out­fit in a rela­xed atmo­sphe­re, ‘Sol­eil du Sud’ is the right place for you.

Sol­eil du Sud
Schwe­den­stra­ße 15b, 13357 Ber­lin (clo­se to U Oslo­er Straße)

Trans­la­ti­on: Danie­la Hombach

More on Wedding’s Eng­lish Lan­guage Face­book-Page “Der schö­ne Wedding”