Interview with BUTTERFLYSOULFIRE

q) First, please tell me if you and Maria are both the designers of
the clothing. Are you two married?

a)Yes, we are both the designers, Maria is taking care for womens collection, i am going mainly for the man, but also doing some womens pieces.
We are not married but having a six year old daughter together. Her name is Moya.

q) Where did you come up with the name? Butterflysoulfire? What
does it mean?

a)I founded BUTTERFLYSOULFIRE in 2001. At this point the label was mostly about customizing and printing.
In this time i was listening alot to the music of LEE PERRY, the grandfather of DUBmusic.
One of his famous songs is SOULFIRE. Then i recognized that there is a butterfly existing called papilio.THOAS.swallowtail.
So i connected this.
AND: What could be inside the fragile and beautiful body of a butterfly, if not a burning soul.

q) What is your inspiration for designing clothes?

a)It is everything that surrounds us.
We are not so much working on concepts, means that we do not have a theme in the beginning and then fullfilling it untill it is a collection.
It is mostly about creating outfits that we like, following our ideas, it is a symbiosis of pattern, silhouette, fabric, shape.
We are working on new forms of clothing.
It do not have to be mainly wearable, but in the end every piece seems to be.
It is a struggle with clothing as itself untill there is emerging an athmosphere for the collection.

q) Please tell me about yourself .. where you are originally from, when and how you got started in the fashion business? Is it what you dreamed it would be?

a)I am born in Potsdam, East Germany. Maria is born in Munich. We are both in Berlin since 1998.
Maria studied Stage and Costume Design at the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee, and finished in 2008. I did not studied at all. We both see ourself as selfeducated (autodidakt) designers. I think there is also the reason for our style. There was noone who told us, do this and that but dont do it like this. We had to find out everything for ourselfes. After years of searching for OUR direction, through a lot of different style, we kind of feel like settled now. But maybe in two years i will say, ooh i did not knew anything at this time.

I never dreamed to be a fashion designer, i always was an artist - anyhow, model, actor, painter, jewellry designer, everything in one but nothing for real.
I always looked different with my strange outfits, there was always fashion in my life untill the day i started painting on my own clothing.
The very first piece i painted on was a pair of pants, i was quite drunken and wrote on it:

IS THIS THE BEGINNING OF SOMETHING?
Now i know! It was.


q) What can you tell me that your biggest fans don’t know about you?

a)I dont know, maybe all of them should know, that we are not rich, and that making fashion as we are doing it is more like making art then clothing.

q) Who buys your designs? Are they for everyone?

a)It is for every one who can see it, feel it, wear it.
Our design is for individuals.
You should not feel disguised by wearing butterflysoulfire.
The most important thing is to feel, act, appear, behave authentic.


q) On your MySpace page it says "Kill the Catwalk." What do you
mean by that?

a)When we think about the catwalk, the first thing is that we throw away the idea of the standard version.
So, we have made a theaterplay, some performances and **guerilla captures ** in the past. We have captured catwalks and entered the runway with all-over overalls.
It is an non aggressive act. We are just there, and the audiences is not sure if this is planned.
It is very intensive and subtle.
It is our idea of an WHOLISTIC CREATion, putting a personal note into every part of our lifes, even it is a show or a shooting...
We often work with actors and characters instead of models, because we want more than just a walking doll.


q) Have you accomplished everything you want to accomplish in your
designs? If not, please explain your goals for your designs and
your business.

a)There never should be the day that i feel accomplished, this is the death of it.
We want to make more shows and art projects, but it is always a question of budget and timing, so we need more budget to buy more time.
But on the other hand, there is nobody we have to be responsible to.
We are kind of independent. It is freedom and stress, love and hate.
God and devil.

And we love this game called life.

It is radical charming!