Marina Hoermanseder about GNTM, Berlin Fashion Week and internet insults

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Marina Hoermanseder in front of one of her designs at the Berlin Salon

Quelle: Getty Images for MBFW/Andreas Rentz

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In Berlin is Fashion Week. In other words, the live streams are on. Because much more than virtual fashion shows is simply not possible in times of pandemic. The Austrian designer Marina Hoermanseder, who has been part of the show calendar in the capital for years, is therefore not organizing her own show this season. But she is part of the group exhibition Berliner Salon – and happy about it. “Finally something is back!” Says Hoermanseder on the phone. “We had stress, a deadline for collection items, that’s the best thing about it.”

ICONIST: Colorful fashion show, giant goodie bag and party – their Fashion Week show has always been a highlight for Berlin’s fashion scene in recent years. Why is there no format of your own this time?

Marina Hoermanseder: It was clear to me: If we can’t do it to the usual extent, I don’t want to do it at all. Even if we could have invited 50 guests, it wouldn’t have made any sense to me. And digitally I can do something all year round, I let the people who are interested in it participate in the development of the collection and my life on Instagram anyway.

ICONIST: Do you think that the fashion industry will return to the classic fashion show very quickly after Corona – or are digital shows the future?

Hoermanseder: I’m in the mood for an event. I see my show as a happening, so I won’t switch to digital. Digitally, I can’t create memories, give away goodie bags, or bring people together. Of course, online sales are an issue for me, but I will not replace my collection presentation with a circular mail.

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This is what it looks like at the Kraftwerk venue in Berlin in January 2021: fashion by Marina Hoermanseder at the Berliner Salon

Quelle: Getty Images for MBFW/Andreas Rentz

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ICONIST: Berlin has increased the budget for the fashion week to 3.5 million euros. What is the best way to spend this money?

Hoermanseder: At the moment it is said that the money should flow into group exhibitions and concepts. But why do you increase the budget? So that everyone is talking about Berlin again! Therefore, as a designer, you should also be able to submit concepts for individual events, especially in the art industry it is not at all possible to bundle all creative ideas in one vision.

ICONIST: The fashion fair will in future take place in Frankfurt am Main, at times it was said that the entire Berlin Fashion Week would move there. Do you already feel a change?

Hoermanseder: The topic was made very hot in the press, which I think is a shame for the designers. Because it was always about the premium, not the fashion shows. Photos of my shows were used in so many articles, it gave the impression that in future I would only show in Frankfurt. But I never said that. To be honest, the hype put off partners and sponsors from doing something in Berlin.

More about the partial move

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Fashion fairs go to Frankfurt

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ICONIST: So you stay loyal to Berlin.

Hoermanseder: Yes, I will continue to do my big shows in Berlin, maybe a soiree in Frankfurt. There were around 200 journalists and influencers among my guests, but it was the other 600 who made my shows so colorful – because they look the way they look, because they like to party and enjoy them. You can rely on the scene in Berlin, the one in Frankfurt I have to look at first. Anyway, a collection presentation in the USA is on our strategic agenda.

ICONIST: Why are you drawn there?

Hoermanseder: Our showroom in Los Angeles has become our most important communication channel. It just makes sense to put a show there for the stylists who put together stage outfits for Jennifer Lopez, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Rihanna or Janet Jackson. The German fashion press prefers to talk about international fashion labels, in the USA I have better cards, there I am the international label, there a lot of celebrities wear something from me. Kylie Jenner has something of mine on her eyeshadow palettes, for example.

ICONIST: Do sales skyrocket when a famous star wears one of your designs?

Hoermanseder: The stars wear the show pieces, they don’t even exist in the shop. In fact, a third of our online shop customers come from the USA. In addition, German customers also love to wear something from a label that also designs for Lady Gaga.

Well-known women in Germany also wear their designs

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ICONIST: The Corona year hit the fashion industry hard. How is your company doing?

Hoermanseder: We bridged the first time well because we immediately produced masks and sold them to both private and business customers. Nobody was on short-time work, we are currently still working on large projects – but the contracts were all signed before Corona. It is now interesting whether there will continue to be large projects.

ICONIST: Consumer behavior has also changed. Some buy less out of caution, others because they want to live more sustainably.

Hoermanseder: Yes, but there is also something else at stake. Of course, you don’t invest in luxury fashion or expensive accessories at the moment because you can’t even show them. It’s the same for me privately, in the past six months I haven’t had a handbag with me anymore, I just put my keys and wallet in my jacket pocket. I don’t go to the restaurant, so why should I hang my clothes?

ICONIST: As a designer, how do you deal with this change?

Hoermanseder: It’s not as if people don’t buy anything anymore, but they buy different things now. Now it’s no longer the suit, but the chic sweatpants that can be used multifunctionally. Loungewear is currently experiencing a huge hype because people are at home.

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Hoermanseder also exhibits her Lego dress at the Berlin Salon

Quelle: Getty Images for MBFW/Andreas Rentz

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ICONIST: Marina Hoermanseder also stands for numerous collaborations, most recently with Buffalo, Palmers and Lego. What criteria do you use to choose who you want to work with?

Hoermanseder: Then what I like and would wear myself. Palmers is an Austrian company, for me as an Austrian they are a dream partner. I worked with Buffalo because as a child I was never allowed to wear Buffalo shoes myself. And Lego was an absolute childhood dream – I had as much Lego available as you can imagine! Of course, collaborations also have an economic aspect for me; the licensing business has become an important source of income for me. But with the buckle we are also predestined for this.

ICONIST: How many buckles have you estimated to have used in your career?

Hoermanseder: Just for the cooperation with Amorelie (an online shop for sex toys, ed.) it was a million, so a total of 2.5 million.

ICONIST: You will soon be seen on television, because you are back at “Germany’s Next Top Model”.

Hoermanseder: I am now part of the inventory, they said on the set, which makes me happy of course. I worked my way up there, a few years ago I was able to send a look. Two years ago I was filmed backstage and the models did a catwalk with my things. And this year I’m sitting next to Heidi – a total success for me.

ICONIST: Heidi Klum always wears your fashion. Do you always bring a bag of clothes for the shoot?

Hoermanseder: Yes, I bring some pieces to the set. We sent her daughter Leni Buffalo shoes, which Heidi wanted to have herself. The pieces she wears on the show were selected by her stylists in our showroom in Los Angeles.

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ICONIST: Do you get any feedback from her?

Hoermanseder: She wears my fashion, there is no better or nicer feedback. We had the running gag that a pair of lederhosen disappeared – of course we were happy to keep them.

ICONIST: The show was shot a week after your daughter was born in November. What challenges does life as an entrepreneur and, more recently, a mother bring with it?

Hoermanseder: With my daughter there is now something that is more important than the company at the end of the day. Until now, my private life has never been more important than my professional life. I sleep less, I have to be better organized, even though as a creative I am actually a mess. On the set of “Germany’s Next Top Model”, I posted a photo of myself with a breast pump because I think that things like those that working mothers have to do should become more socially acceptable.

ICONIST: How are the reactions to your openness?

Hoermanseder: When we made the Palmers cooperation public, I was nine months pregnant and posted a video of myself in my underwear. I wanted to make fun of myself, following the motto: “I will model for the collection myself!” Then a woman wrote me an email: The video was unnecessary, the sight of me was disgusting. I published that on Instagram and got a lot of feedback from women who had to listen to something similar. I am professionally successful, have a partner and a family who stand behind me, I can take such comments – but other women can be hard hit.

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ICONIST: Are you being criticized for quickly getting back into work?

Hoermanseder: No, I get rather good tips on how to get a child and a job together well. I’m not really a public interest person, I’m more of a public interest creating thing.

ICONIST: But now you can even find news about you on the gossip portal “Promiflash”. Are you happy about this development?

Hoermanseder: I read there myself, so I think that’s great. It also means that I have created a certain interest with my brand and person. That’s what it’s about, otherwise I wouldn’t sit down at “Germany’s Next Top Model” either. So I see it positively, it’s great for collaborations and TV shows that I would still like to do. My dream: to be part of the “big baking” one day.

ICONIST: Is that your favorite show?

Hoermanseder: No, this is the US “Bachelor”. I can’t look at the German one, but in the USA the candidates take everything so seriously, it ends in a motion – that’s wonderfully absurd.

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Marina Hoermanseder about GNTM, Berlin Fashion Week and internet insults

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