On a Sunday morning in Düsseldorf's Hotel Nikko, J’N’C met up with London-based German fashion designer Markus Lupfer, who, as part of the Fashion Net Night, had shown his short film "The Puzzle of the Mysterious Mind" the previous night, which presents his resort collection for 2012.
Herr Lupfer, you were invited by the Fashion Net Düsseldorf initiative, whose objective is to boost Düsseldorf as a fashion location. What impression do you have of Düsseldorf?
Düsseldorf is an important location for the German market, because this is where all the buyers come to order. It's in Düsseldorf that business deals are sealed. Over the last 50 years, through the CPD, the Igedo and all the showrooms. And Düsseldorf is a beautiful city. And I love Kraftwerk.
Your stations in life: from Kissleg in the Allgäu via Trier to London. Or, put differently: from provinciality to the metropolis. Where would you place Düsseldorf on that scale?
Geographically speaking Düsseldorf is somewhere between the two. And this is where I see this city: nicely in the middle. Fashion is important, but it's not the only thing that counts. Düsseldorf is a small business hub, a great location. London has become my location because that's where my team is. There's always something going on in London: in music, in architecture, in all creative areas.
Your film "The Puzzle of the Mysterious Mind" differs from the typical fashion ad clips, which employ eroticism, success, passion etc. Instead, you work with humour and irony.
I really wanted to get away from the typical 'fashion film' with its "everything is so great,” "everything is so wonderful," "everything is so beautiful," messages. We were more concerned with personalities – the fact that every individual has something special about them. Like, for example, the 'Asymmetric' portrayed by Sadie Frost, symbolising the imperfect. Everyone has something with which they are not wholly happy: either your hair is too thin or too thick or your nose is slightly bent. Then we have the 'Globophobe', played by Irina (Lazareanu, Note from Ed) – she is a party girl and is scared of balloons. She's afraid of the party being over, she's basically afraid of the balloon bursting. That's a kind of metaphor for the fact that she's worried that one day she'll be too old to party. Then there's the character of the 'Hoarder', someone who loves clothes and likes to go shopping but can never part with anything. You buy more and more and your wardrobe gets bigger and bigger.
Basically we took the characters and exaggerated them. And did it in a lighthearted way. And in the process created something new. It isn't your typical fashion film and that's what it makes it interesting.
In your film you show women of different ages. There seems to be a trend toward showing more mature women.
Everything's always about youth. It's all youth, youth, youth! But there are also really great mature women out there and I really wanted to show them. And I think it's great if you don't just show young people.
In the current issue of J’N‘C we also have a fashion spread with an older woman. "The Lady is a Tramp"…
leafs through the J’N‘C ... really great! Oh! Markus Lupfer? Isn't it? Yes!! Oh, yeah, great!
I don't know if you've already seen that, in the Italian Vogue. They work with different body sizes, people are looking into that now. I think that's a really great development.
Your career stations – in 1998 you presented your first collection for women. And it wasn't until 2010 that you added a men's collection. How did that come about?
Richard, the menswear director at Harvey Nichols came to me, after he had seen my ladies' wear collection and said to me, "I want a men's collection as well." So then we had a meeting. I began by making the first two men's collections exclusively for Harvey Nichols. And now I'm in the third season and it keeps growing. What is your forte? Men's or women's wear? Certainly women's wear, simply because that's what I studied and that is what I worked on exclusively for the last ten years. But it's also really great to be able to wear my own things. I couldn't do that until now. With women you have much more scope. With men other components are important. And it's interesting to see that the things that may work with women, don't work with men.
Can you give us an example of what works with women and doesn't with men?
Well, when I think of my customers: I can't just make a simple cashmere jacket for women, it simply wouldn't sell. There always has to be something on it, a print or something special. When it comes to men, it's calmer, cleaner. With men it's more about the shapes – where the neckline is, where the shoulders are. With men it's about a few millimetres, unlike with women. Women are more flexible; there are more possibilities. With men, less is often more. There can be something small that makes it special, but it shouldn't be too noticeable, and with women it's almost the opposite. Rather a bit too much, than too little.
A general question: what direction are the trends going in fashionwise?
Things are getting softer. More flowers, more feminine elements. Still clean and graphic silhouettes, but livened up with prints. Soft pastel tones. Light and breezy! Very lighthearted.
