What do you do when an artist wants to stay hidden? You accept it, of course. You learn to appreciate it. That’s what happened in our talk with Wiwien, the heart, the mind and the hands behind Between Beauty, who prefers to stay in the background. Keeping her privacy, her anonymity and, with it, her creative freedom.
So we don’t know much. We know she’s based in Berlin. We know she’s originally from Poland. And we know that her brand has been created to nourish a dream-like, decadent, beautiful, playful, nostalgic world of fashion. Every item she’s ever crafted is handmade, tailored from natural materials such as silk, wool, cotton or pearls, bringing hats and little trinkets to life that seem like they’ve fallen out of a fairy tale book. Like the accessory accompanying a wealthy pirate on his journey around the world, or a magical pear that will give you unexpected powers if you dare to eat it.
As you can see, Wiwien is the perfect conversational partner for a long chat about romance in the digital age, about escapism, vampire hats, The Triadic Ballet, luxury and about what the hat knows. So that’s exactly what we asked.
AMELIE BACHERT Hi Wiwien! Are you a time traveller?
WIWIEN Hi Amelie! If I was, I would place a winning bet on both Isabella Blow’s and Maria Callas’s greatest personal wardrobes ever assembled, using crypto I bought in 2011. Trust me, the signs would be too obvious.
AB Haha, that sounds like a dream come true. I wish I could place a winning bet right now, without guessing. But to go even further, if you could choose, what historic time or fantasy world would you live in?
W Part of me would love the drama and romance of the 18th-century French court. But honestly? I’d choose any slice of my childhood from back when leaving the house didn’t require a phone or an awareness of global existential dread.
AB Fair enough. You describe your work as born from a desire for decadence. What does decadence mean in the modern world, and how can it make our lives better?
W Decadence is for the appreciation of being in the moment, praising effort and human dedication. A future without gorgeous hats and a dose of escapism is not a future I wish to greet!
AB What does a hat know about a person that other garments don’t?
W A millinery icon, Stephen Jones, in his latest interview with Bella Freud on Fashion Neurosis, said: “If you wear a hat, there is sort of no escape somehow. Even though a hat can be an escape. You can relax underneath it and it does the communication for you. A hat is this shield, and maybe a sword as well.” A sentiment I share. It’s an emotional translator, so my favourite way to entertain a hat is to conceal an anxious mood. For the hat knows the truth but is happy to keep it a secret.
AB How would you design a hat for a vampire who lives, let’s say, in Berlin of the ’20s?
W The Nocturnal Bauhaus Cloche Hat. Something taken out of The Triadic Ballet by Oskar Schlemmer, but stripped of its whimsical colour palette and made with incredibly coarse Transylvanian wool for vampiric spin. Surprisingly, the easiest question to answer so far.
AB I love The Triadic Ballet! No wonder it’s the easiest question so far. But we can make it a bit more difficult. Do you think nostalgia is a comfort or a trap?
W It’s of course both. It makes me feel dreamy and mournful for what no longer is, the forever chase for time, experiences and items that have passed. You can catch it and harness it for creativity at the right moment, and the fruits of such nostalgic labour will be the sweetest.
AB Nostalgia and romance are often very connected. In the past year, romance has returned strongly as a visual language, just look at Wuthering Heights, Charli XCX’s Chains of Love, Rosalía’s Lux, Frankenstein… What do you think this revival is reacting against, and how does your own work position itself within it?
W What it’s reacting against is the bloodless, sterile clean minimalism we’ve been fed for a decade, but pop culture is quick to turn that reaction into a product. We welcomed this new corporate aesthetic, and major pop machines are packaging it beautifully to sell tickets, streams and fashion trends. Big productions are excellent at turning raw human longing into a highly aestheticised, profitable look. That said, I enjoyed most of them myself, I have to confess.
AB I’ve enjoyed most them as well. But I get it, we’re just following a trend created to make profit…
W Yes. My pieces on the other hand, are designed for a stage, an editorial page, a moment of high drama, as most of them are completely unlikely to be comfortable hats for a casual Sunday walk. The romance lies in the fact that I explicitly set myself up not to be a bestselling commercial hatmaker. To create something purely for its presence rather than its utility is a romantic act. Also, I work deeply with silk, a material that is inherently and beautifully fragile. My romance is a devotion to things that require you to slow down and care.
AB In your opinion, do handmade objects carry time differently?
W Yes, because handmade objects are built to age with us. They store the energy and time someone has put into them. Mass-produced items are designed for an artificial, accelerated time loop. They are meant to look perfectly sterile on day one, break quickly and end up in a landfill. A handmade one, especially made from natural, vulnerable materials, interacts with time gracefully, shows divine imperfection and makes you feel human.
AB I’ve read that your designs are intended to become heirlooms one day. Do you have an heirloom at home yourself? What story does it tell you about the past?
W Polish people are notoriously sentimental, with a hint of hoarder tendencies, so excess is the name of our game! My favourite, though, is my ruffled velvet christening ensemble with a silk ribbon collar, garnished with a matching ruffled bonnet. Fantastic set! If rescaled, I would sport it today on a random Tuesday. In that sense, it doesn’t tell a story about the past at all. It serves as a design prophecy. Look at my atelier today, it’s a total ruffle town!
AB What is something a machine could never replicate about handmade work?
W Easy. A soul!
AB Easy. Do you think slowness and handmade production can still exist outside of luxury?
W Honestly, no. Not unless we expect artisans to work without fair compensation. People often romanticise slowness, but time is a resource. If something takes thirty hours of meticulous handcraft to make, its price has to reflect that labour, which inevitably places it in the realm of luxury. I follow an Instagram account documenting disappearing trades in Poland, from watch repairers and milliners to traditional cobblers, whose workshops are closing because cheap, fast alternatives have taken over. Knowledge passed down through generations is being lost, and without the financial support of the luxury or art market, handmade production simply becomes unsustainable.
AB How do you think Gen Z, social media and now AI have changed the definition of a slow luxury product?
W True luxury, to me, is not about flawless execution or artificial scarcity, but about human effort and visible dedication. Knowing that someone spent days making conscious, imperfect choices with their own hands is something code can never replicate. Through AI and social media, we have made everything immediate, which is the opposite of luxury. I do not blame Gen Z for this. They inherited a world built by Gen X and Millennials, who created the social media landscape and optimised hyperfast supply chains. Many never had the chance to experience what lasting quality feels like. AI can mimic style and social media can commercialise it instantly, but neither can reproduce genuine human dedication and thought. It is a bleak picture, perhaps, but it also means that slow, stubborn human craft is more radical today than ever before.
AB You’re quite a private person. How do you navigate being visible as an artist today? Do you feel pressure to constantly produce newness, or are you able to resist that rhythm?
W In all honesty, I’m just trying my best. I deal with constant creative anxiety: I stress when I produce too little, and I panic that my latest brilliant idea will be my very last one. As a one-person atelier, I sacrifice a lot of personal peace just to keep up, navigating styling pulls, crafting new pieces, shipping orders, photographing, editing and curating my website and Instagram. I don’t have a glamorous, effortless answer for how I balance it. But I’ve learned that privacy is the most valuable currency I own. I intend to protect it fiercely, because it is only within that private, quiet space that I can actually create freely. And leave it all behind one day if I please to do so.
AB If one of your hats or trinkets could have a secret power, what would it be?
W A built-in forcefield that completely repels modern deadlines, fast-fashion algorithms and light rain occasionally.
CREDITS
Photography & Creative Direction: LUCALUCA.studio
Production: Luca Wunderlich
Light Assistance: Paula Hornickel,
Production Assistant: Paula Kistenmacher
Makeup: Lucía Argüello
Talents: Liam via Casting Büro Wien, Edzard Busemann via Tigers Mgmt
Accessories: Between beauty