Brand of the month: Katharina Spitz

We interview German designer and textile artist Katharina Spitz. Katharina creates pieces that sit somewhere between fashion, memory, and art. In this interview with Closet.eco, she talks about her journey from tailoring apprentice to experimental fashion designer, the sociological themes that inspire her work, and the emotional meaning behind her striking handmade garments.

How did you start designing clothes?
I started after I did a tailoring apprenticeship, and I worked as a tailor. I went to art school in Berlin and did fashion design, experimental fashion design there.

What is your everyday inspiration for your designs?
My everyday inspiration is sociological topics, mostly, but also themes around memory and memory culture, and the material I'm working with

From all the pieces that I see you have here, what's your favorite piece?
This piece, it's actually crocheted from human hair and embroidered with these chandelier stones. I call it the crying hairdress, and it is part of a collaboration within with a poet from Tanzania, and we were working around social cohesion and womanhood, and the crying hairdress, it's like really nice symbol for this collaboration, and who we are as women in our time, or what we struggle with.

What's one thing, aside from this one, that you think everyone should have in their closet?
Difficult question, because I think a lot of the pieces, obviously, they should have in the closet. I think my two picks would be, and the sleeve scarf, that is a really nice scarf, you can wrap around your head with the machettes on the end, or this one, which is the crocheted corset that we made. It's hand crocheted and then put together in, like, if you fold it open, it's this little cloud form. It's really beautiful, and it's very, like, nicely made.

What's one thing you hope people feel when they wear your clothes?
Confidence.