Berlin’s newest and freshest designer, Viviane Hausstein, unveiled her new bag collection to a crowd of fashion enthusiasts and press at Berlin’s luxurious women’s shoe store, Le Coup. Surrounded by beautiful bags, shoes that make you go “ooh”, and flowing bubbly, Sleek spoke to Hausstein about the new collection, girl gangs, and life in 3D.
Your label is very new. How and when did it all begin? The label really started in the middle of 2012 and it started with a girl gang actually! I had an art collective here called The Garden Berlin, and we did some acoustic concerts in Berlin and I thought about what we could do with that and where to take it. In our collective there was a photographer, a poet, an event manager, and then me, a fashion designer. That’s when I said to the girls that we need a gang item that we could each identify with, perhaps a little bit elitist… but nice. And that’s when I started to think about bags, especially for when we were cycling in Berlin.
With the first collection we collaborated with the store No. 74, and then yeah, it just grew and grew. Last year I had the idea to make it more high-end for this collection. Using beautiful quality, interesting materials, just a lot more luxurious.
What was the inspiration for this collection? I was thinking a lot about the drawstring bag and how to combine it with a totally different material – either fur or leather, because the contrast is so big. Normally with that style of bag, it’s just polyester or cotton that’s used. That was the beginning of the collection.
I think the most important mood for this collection and exhibition was 3D. The philosophy of my label is to figure out what happens with the touch of a bag, the tactile experience and the form, to become a 3D figure.
I see the drawstring bag as more function over form. Did you still want to maintain the practical use when creating your own version? Definitely. The bags have always been so practical, and I didn’t want to change that. You can also either wear these as a clutch, as a backpack, or in multiple different styles. It’s up to you.
And all the bags are hand made? Correct. The bags are all produced at a very small manufacturer’s here in Berlin, with fair trade conditions. That is very important to me.
Are the seven photographs that are being displayed inside important to the collection? Definitely! I think Lina Grün is the most important part of the collective, as she is the photographer. It’s very cool to work with her, and when working on this collection we also talked about doing an exhibition with her work and my bags, and how we could combine the two.