Interview with 2french magazine

HOW PHOEBE HEESS BECAME A FASHION DESIGNER

It started quite early. My mom told me, that as a kid I liked dressing my brothers and my sister and she showed me an old questionnaire for kids, where I wrote I wanted to become a fashion designer. I was 12 then and already drawing mannequins.
After school I went to Milan, because I was convinced one just had to know Italian language to work in fashion. I met so many interesting and inspiring people from the business, that I immediately decided to apply for various programmes at fashion schools and universities. It was ESMOD in Munich( later Berlin ) where I finally decided to study. As all the students were required to do a three-month internship during the second year of our studies I managed to get an internship at adidas. And then working on their women’s collection I got fascinated by the idea of the combination of sports and fashion. Another interesting experience was my internship at Limi Feu (Yamamoto’s daughter) in Tokyo. And before I moved to Berlin to co-found my first label hectorhector I had my first real job  as an assistant at Henry Holland in London.

ROLE-MODELS FROM THE FASHION-WORLD

I love Yamamoto and that particular Japanese approach to design, when you actually see the cut-lines, the draping, the silhouette, the architecture. This, in my opinion, is art. Anyone can barf colours on a T-Shirt, but I want to master the art first.
I vividly remember the moment in my carreer when I decided to use black only. It was after the exhibition of Pierre Soulages  [the abstract artist who paints chiefly in black] in Berlin about four years ago and there I found what I always needed! The black color! You can in fact create a color spectrum by using different black materials and working with their reflecting capabilities.

Another great influence is Hussein Chalayan because of his work with high-tech materials and wearable tech, which opens so many new possibilities for being creative and just goofing around.

SPORTSWEAR

Making a sportswear collection is really about making performance clothes. If it’s comfortable for you while doing sports, it will be comfy for you in the streets.
But as  seen in the current healtgoth trend, wearing sportswear can inherit an artistic and even political message. As though you were torn between despair and getting ready for a revolution.

THE LAST COLLECTION

I had so little time to prepare it! I think I was the last designer to apply for the Alternative Fashion Week and it was already August when I decided to take part.
The decision came largely thanks to my boyfriend who is in marketing and always encourages me to do things. It was he who pushed me, saying now was the time to do black high fashion sportswear. So there I was with only one month to create a full collection, which was extremely intense. But I’m so happy to have made it. And we were faster than Alexander Wang. (laughs)

THE PERSON PHOEBE MAKES THE CLOTHES FOR
I do men’s and women’s collections and I’m pretty sure that the woman I would like to wear my clothes is agile and knows what she wants.
Sometimes while working on designs I have an idea of a woman who is a fighter and I try to make her feel stronger with my clothes. Such was the case with the last collection, we created a whole background story about tech-magicians who are fighting a dark creature with light.