Designers
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Karl Lagerfeld
The well-known German designer Karl Lagerfeld was born in Hamburg in 1938. His family emigrated to Paris when he was 14 years old. He started his career at Pierre Balmain and after three years he began to work as a freelance designer for Krizia, Charles Jourdan and Valentino. In 1983 he became director for Chanel. By contributing to and managing sixteen collections per year Lagerfeld is one of the most prolific designers today. Apart from clothes and accessories Lagerfeld also designs furniture. Karl Lagerfeld is famous for combining old and new styles in such a way as to create completely new ones.
Wolfgang Joop
Wolfgang Joop began his career as a fashion editor for a women's magazine. He then worked as a Freelance Designer. A fur collection presented in 1978 made him famous and earned him the nickname "Prussian Designer" (New York Times). In 1982 he introduced his first ready-to-wear collection under the brandname JOOP!. Besides clothes JOOP! offers a range of perfumes, accessories and cosmetics. To increase sales Wolfgang Joop conducted some unusual PR-campaigns like the one in 1995 when he produced a CD with opera arias together with Sony. The CD was then given away with a perfume. In 1996 JOOP! had a turnover of 400 million marks. In 1998 he sold 95% of his firm, but continued to work as a designer. Wolfgang Joop's daughter Jette Joop is a very successful jewelry designer and is going to present her first fashion collection in Milan shortly.
Jil Sander
Jil Sander worked as fashion journalist and textile engineer before she presented her first fashion collection in 1973. In 1978 she had already established herself in the international world of fashion and was listed among the best twelve designers in the world by the Japanese fashion magazine "High Fashion". In the US she became known as the Queen of less (Vanity Fair). Jil Sander's motto is this: good design, only the best materials and faultlessly finished clothes. She described her collections as being for the modern woman who wants to dress casually in an avantguarde way without feeling dressed up. Jil Sander has succeeded in gaining worldwide recognition for German designs.
Jil Sander has become an international brand that offers a wide range of products from cosmetics to perfumes and glasses. It also includes a line of leather goods. In 2000 Jil Sander sold her group to Prada. Sander was to continue designing collections, but stopped because of internal difficulties. Making a turnover of 226.6 million Jil Sander's company was one of the most profitable in the fashion industry.
New Designers
Britta Steilmann
Britta Steilmann is one of the younger designers in Germany. She studied Design and Economy in the US, Canada and France. By designing fashion items that are produced in an environmentally friendly way Britta Steilmann has proved to be an innovative designer. In the normal production process of textiles a huge number of chemicals are used to make the clothes minimum-care and colour-fast. The quantities of effluent that result from these procedures are the reason why the textile industry produces such large amounts of pollution. Britta Steilmann developed and supported production techniques in which no heavy metals and chlorine bleachings are used.
Markus Lupfer
Markus Lupfer studierte Modedesign in Trier, ging dann nach England und beendete sein Studium an der University of Westminster. Er arbeitete dann bei Clements Ribeiro bevor er sich 1998 selbstständig machte. Inzwischen gehört er zu den bekanntesten jungen Designern in London.
Bernhard Willhelm
Bernhard Willhelm hat erst in Trier und dann in Antwerpen Modedesign studiert. Im Kontrast zu anderen Designern läßt er sich vor allem von den deutschen Trachten inspirieren. Seine erste Kollektion 1999/2000 in Paris war international erfolgreich und selbst Popstars wie die Sängerin Bjork tragen seine Modelle. Inzwischen werden seine Entwürfe nicht nur in Deutschland, Japan und Frankreich, sondern auch in den USA verkauft.
Sabine Schumacher
Sabine Schumacher machte eine Ausbildung zur Damenschneiderin in Düsseldorf und ist inzwischen so erfolgreich, dass sie ihre Herbst/Winter Kollektion 2001/02 in Paris vorgestellt hat. Ihre Kollektion mit jeweils 60 und 80 Modellen wird inzwischen in die Niederlande, die Schweiz, nach Belgien, Österreich, Irland und Russland exportiert.
Anja Gockel
Anja Gockel wurde 1968 geboren, studierte an der Design-Hochschule in Hamburg und ging 1993 zu St. Martin's nach London. Nach ihrem Abschluß arbeitete sie ein Jahr für Vivienne Westwood und gründete dann ihre eigene Marke.
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