On and EX TO X bring four Berliners together to show what effortless movement means to them and talk community and creative exchange, wearing the latest On x Zendaya collection pieces.
Ask musician Nene H, filmmaker Tsellot Melesse, dancer Hannah Hamam or creative producer Angelique Houben what movement means, and nobody mentions the word “exercise”. Instead, it’s what drives them, what pushes them on, and, in Berlin, what keeps putting them in the same rooms as other people, be that a pole studio, a dancefloor, a trail, a dinner table.
You wouldn’t know it to see her dance—getting sweaty with Troye Sivan in his 2023 ‘Rush’ video or sharing a stage with Snoop Dogg—but Hannah Hamam’s pole career nearly ended before it began. Her first class, in a Berlin studio just before the pandemic, was so intimidating that she almost threw in the towel before even breaking a sweat. “I was like oh, okay, I guess that’s not for me,” she laughs in hindsight. “I always hated sports. I didn’t like things that were hard.” But six years, three lockdowns and thousands of hours of self-practice later, the pole keeps turning. “I’ve made it my life, my job, my whole identity.”
It goes to show that first impressions aren’t everything—whether of a practice or of a person. Such is the founding logic of EX TO X, the collective founded by Houben and model Stefanie Giesinger earlier this year as an alternative to closed, transactional networking, where who you already know decides who you meet. They host dinners, exhibitions and day-to-night gatherings for DJs, artists, writers, florists, and modern “metamorphasisers”, like Houben, who oscillate between different roles. “That’s what the ‘ex’ stands for,” she explains. “The ex-versions of yourself. Everything in your past that has moved you to get to the point you are now. ‘X’ marks that spot.” It’s also the crossroads where those people meet. “Anything can happen at any given point in time,” she says. “Depending on who you surround yourself with.” Giesinger says the collective thrives in a city like Berlin. “For us, it’s about making the idea tangible through real-life experiences, and looking to create different formats in different fields,” she explains. “We want to create conditions for genuine and conscious connections.”
Nene H has never been one to sit still. After studying piano at the conservatories of İzmir and Stuttgart, she arrived in Berlin in 2013 and traded the classical canon for the club. As well as an internationally-touring DJ, she is also a live performer, analogue producer, and label founder; launching UMAY in 2023 to amplify SWANA, Muslim and femme musicians. But this summer, an ankle injury forced her into stillness. “I’ve always been a little too good at pushing myself,” she admits. Wearing the collection’s baggy sweatpants with ruched, bungee-cord detailing, Maya Silva captures her return to Berlin’s streets, where she cautiously finds her way back into action. “Now I’m learning how to let go of that, and to find my rhythm instead of forcing it.” And in music, movement is also emotional, and energetic. “Movement is not just about what I do, it’s about what comes back,” she says. “The quality of the crowd changes the quality of the music. You feel it with them, you move with them. It’s a full-body experience.”
Berlin-born film and casting director and host, Tsellot Melesse, seen here in the On x Zendaya python windbreaker, is always moving from story to story. “I’m drawn to hidden champions,” she explains. “The ones who are carrying it all, but who didn’t get their flowers.” Living with depression, bipolar, and ADHD (“a great recipe!” she jokes), her mind is a restless place. “My ideas never stop floating,” she says, “and as much as I enjoy that, it can also be a burden. I need body movement to give my mind movement a rest.” Movement has always been a part of her life, but it wasn’t until relatively recently that she first found joy in the process. “I was always focussed on the outcome,” she explains. “Now, the outdoors is my happy place.” In 2022 she founded Black Canary, the club she founded for Black FLINTA* people in Berlin, creating space for those who have often felt excluded from outdoor culture. “Community” is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days, but Melesse learned its meaning from her parents, and the community around the Ethiopian church they started in Schöneberg. “Community is more than a shared hobby,” she explains. “It’s about showing up for people, even if it’s uncomfortable for you. It’s about genuine care.”
The collection is available at on.com and in On stores globally.
*Paid partnership with On.
Sleeveless, short-legged and zipped to a high neck, in the collection’s python print. Snug enough to stay out of the way, loud enough that nobody will miss it.
Wide-leg, marl grey and unapologetically baggy, with a drawcord waist and a seam across each knee. Perfect for a person who’s rarely still, but just as good for doing nothing.
Cream, with a gum sole and a soft knit upper. The elastic strap and speed laces borrow from a ballet flat, while the CloudTec cushioning does the work of a trainer.
Photography MAYA ELEONORA SILVA
Talents ANGELIQUE HOUBEN, HANNAH HAMAM, TSELLOT MELESSE, NENE H
Camera Operator BUKI SZECSANOV
1st AC LENA LEUSCHNER
Styling CLARA DIMANSKI
Styling Assistant LION BUSCH
Hair NORIKO TAKAYAMA
Hair Assistant YUI TAKEGAHANA
Make-up MARÍLIA ROHR
Production FRANCESCA SCHLIEPHAKE
Runner MARIA WASSILTSCHENKO