IDN MAGAZINE Hong kong
IDN_Magazine Hong kong 2007
1.
Where does the name Hamansutra come from?
I started as hamansutra in Munich in 1996 and finished my first fashion collection, for female bodybuilders, in London in 2004.
My brand name is a mixture of India and Persia. Haman was the prime minister
of the Persian king Ahasuerus, also known as Xerxes, reigned 485-465 BC.
Sutra means a joined thread and also instructions or discourse, as in the Kama Sutra (a discourse of instructions for sexual positions).
I developed my own philosophy from my passion for instructions, and the endlessly changing positions in the game of fashion.
Fashion with instructions: Fashion that features targeted functions, tailored for functionality without compromising on style and individuality. Fashion that draws its inspiration from sources outside fashion, returning old methods of design and production to the centre of attention.
Fashion inspired by my passion for design, creativity and good ideas. Fashion that covers a carefully selected, compact range of styles –
but those perfectly. Because perfection is protection.
2.
You already lived in various other cities (Tehran, Hamburg, New York, London) before you came back to Munich.
Is there a difference in working in Munich compared to other cities?
Yes it is, the city of Munich is like a rest cure for me. I focus my work in Munich’s vibrant Glockenbach quarter and produce the prototypes with my lovely team that includes tailors, photographers, graphic designer and organiser. And I can escape to other cosmopolitan cities.
3.
You also teach students at design schools nowadays, how did you get into
that? How do you usually work with the students?
I believe that teaching is art if the tutor loves his role like an actor. I look for fresh themes and introduce them in the form of practical case studies, the competition that exists in big business. When I was a student I dreamed about projects like designing graphics for banknotes by hand, because this included everything that a designer needs to know. Research and development in anatomy, insects, animals, nature, architecture, colours, portraits, typography – numerals, feeling for materials, finding methods of including smart functions such as copy protection elements, and of course the overall composition of all these elements, uniting the concept and the descriptions in a single explosive graphic. (You need to be an extremely accurate portraitist, because if the likeness of the portrait on the banknote is bad, it’s obvious the note is forged. And everyone recognises, say, Reza Schah Pahlavi or Karl Marx.) Students automatically see where they need to improve their skills and where they have worked with interest – it’s all there in their sketchbooks. I try not to give them the impression they’re students. They have to jump in at the deep end with presentations that must be as convincing as in real life. A presentation should be like a constant and ruthless series of punches – left, right – left, right … No breaks to recover, just attack all the way. After graduating from Central St.Martin’s College, I started to give lectures and workshops in design colleges about my work and the different views behind each stage and work processes. Not all designers and artists can teach. Some people cannot express in words what they put into their art and design, because that is where great inspiration lives.
4.
Before studying fashion design you worked at the advertising agency Jung von
Matt for one year, what was that like?
Did working there influence your decision to become a fashion designer?
Not really, I had decided years before to do fashion design. I actually used contract graffiti artwork to earn money from 1989 to 1998, and studied graphic design in Munich in order to be able to develop my style further – subsequently worked as a graphic designer for the advertising agency Jung von Matt in Hamburg. Work there was mainly based on fashion briefs, e.g. designing “Lingerie for the year 2000” for Mey, selecting outfits for a Mey shoot; and as graffiti artist it was an eye-opener for me to get the client Deutsch Bahn (German Railways). For me there is no boundary between fashion and graphics anyway. I concentrate more on working along commercial lines than aiming to be a fashion designer – whatever that is. I love cartoons but I hate clichés, for example, the cliché that a male fashion designer is automatically gay. I am not interested in living in the pure fashion world, and I don’t take it seriously. I believe in my vision and I’m fanatical about realizing it in 3D.
5.
How do you usually start a job, do you usually work in a team or on your own?
Basically I start on my own by making notes of ideas and using them to draw and write a rough draft of a concept.
I ask myself what I’m really after. Then I discuss the concept with my team. I love commercial cooperations, but not at any price.
If you book hamansutra you live with hamansutra.
6.
Was there any specific job that was such a powerful experience you’d like the audience to know about it (positive or negative)?
I completed a freelance project in cooperation with Porsche Design, Stuttgart, in 2005.
The project involved the design of clothing for the target group of Porsche drivers, representing success and taste and made up of communicators of experience, bold, assertive and powerfully confident. The jacket was designed to incorporate all Porsche design accessories and gadgets.
7.
What does a typical working day at Hamansutra look like?
Work sleep work, and don’t forget to eat.
8.
Munich, or rather Bavaria, offers a higher quality of life (nature, many lakes,
the Alps) than other big industrial cities.
Do you think this lifestyle also reflects the way you work?
Yes indeed, because I am based in Munich at the moment. The quality of life in the city is beautiful, you have the river flowing through the busy town, beer gardens, and you don’t need a car. You really learn to appreciate it if you’ve been away for a while. Come round for tea.
9.
Did you ever think about moving away from Munich, and why?
Yes definitely. People say Munich is a village with 1.3 million people. For me it’s a rich village with lots of village idiots – blinkered old people and blinkered young ones, the new generation that believes having children will ruin their career. It should inspire people to be more successful. People there moan about the weather – too hot, too cold – then go on holiday. And the bureaucracy – you need a licence to shit in Bavaria. It’s beyond me. I do like some degree of orderliness, and I do love working in the city, but I have to look elsewhere for true inspiration.
I am still very interested in Dubai, Moscow and Tokyo.
10.
What are your plans for the future?
1) To work with my favorite film director Matthew Barney
2) To write a chapter in the history books.
3) A machine where you can put in a sketch and the sketch is transformed into a prototype.
4) To meet a cyberwoman - a “Cyborg”
5) To hold an exhibition of hamansutra CI in Tokyo in 2013.
