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I am the founder of HAMANSUTRA.COM and the “virtual New York online store” QUICKSHOP.NYC, which operates from Munich. My label, hamansutra, was launched in 1996 with a logo based on a background of Indian and Persian elements. It stands for a range of jackets, pants and shirts produced inhouse, as authentic as 150 years ago. Back then, I laid the groundwork for hamansutra by printing thousands of stickers with portraits of me and my fellow writers on them and plastering them absolutely everywhere – and suddenly hamansutra came to life. I’d been a graffiti writer since 1989, but that kind of self-exposure was a calculated experiment. True graffiti writers have always been anonymous and unknown, and always will be, but our portrait stickers were more inspired by the football stickers you see in public places. The first stickers were entitled “Helden der Grossstadt” (Big City Heroes). They weren’t intended to represent street art. Back then, authentic, bold self-projection was our real-life equivalent of today’s degenerate virtual Facebook world. By publishing our faces, we risked arrest by the task force set up to fight us. We were a great team. In 1999, when I was studying at Central Saint Martins College in London, I started to make systematic use of my CI for branding in my hamansutra label. It’s a hard slog these days for up-and-coming entrepreneurs to build a market; so many competitors, so much competition, and at the start at least, such small order volumes. Everything goes slowly. Labels like Hugo Boss, Harley Davidson, Porsche and Burberry had it easier when they started out; they quickly built a successful foundation for their development by manufacturing military products – uniforms and vehicles. My online store was inspired by my vision of the US Army, with soldiers holed up in 8 sqm containers sending drones into war which were controlled from somewhere or other in the world. Today the HAMANSUTRA “clothing works“ is equipped with a formidable array of vintage sewing machines – battered, yet still going strong. I am its heart, as design director, (clothing) mechanic and master technical tailor. As well as clothing with brands from the US, Japan and Germany, my small-scale showroom with minimalist interior carries a selection of handmade shoes with special historical wooden nails in the soles, “Created with Love from New York City and Manufactured in Austria”. There are also accessories, freshly made cosmetics and chocolate. My motto is “QUALITY IS NEVER ON SALE”, because quality outlasts the biggest global trends, and you’ll never find quality in the bargain basement.  

I am the founder of HAMANSUTRA.COM and the “virtual New York online store” QUICKSHOP.NYC, which operates from Munich. My label, hamansutra, was launched in 1996 with a logo based on a background of Indian and Persian elements. It stands for a range of jackets, pants and shirts produced inhouse, as authentic as 150 years ago. Back then, I laid the groundwork for hamansutra by printing thousands of stickers with portraits of me and my fellow writers on them and plastering them absolutely everywhere – and suddenly hamansutra came to life. I’d been a graffiti writer since 1989, but that kind of self-exposure was a calculated experiment. True graffiti writers have always been anonymous and unknown, and always will be, but our portrait stickers were more inspired by the football stickers you see in public places. The first stickers were entitled “Helden der Grossstadt” (Big City Heroes). They weren’t intended to represent street art. Back then, authentic, bold self-projection was our real-life equivalent of today’s degenerate virtual Facebook world. By publishing our faces, we risked arrest by the task force set up to fight us. We were a great team. In 1999, when I was studying at Central Saint Martins College in London, I started to make systematic use of my CI for branding in my hamansutra label. It’s a hard slog these days for up-and-coming entrepreneurs to build a market; so many competitors, so much competition, and at the start at least, such small order volumes. Everything goes slowly. Labels like Hugo Boss, Harley Davidson, Porsche and Burberry had it easier when they started out; they quickly built a successful foundation for their development by manufacturing military products – uniforms and vehicles. My online store was inspired by my vision of the US Army, with soldiers holed up in 8 sqm containers sending drones into war which were controlled from somewhere or other in the world. Today the HAMANSUTRA “clothing works“ is equipped with a formidable array of vintage sewing machines – battered, yet still going strong. I am its heart, as design director, (clothing) mechanic and master technical tailor. As well as clothing with brands from the US, Japan and Germany, my small-scale showroom with minimalist interior carries a selection of handmade shoes with special historical wooden nails in the soles, “Created with Love from New York City and Manufactured in Austria”. There are also accessories, freshly made cosmetics and chocolate. My motto is “QUALITY IS NEVER ON SALE”, because quality outlasts the biggest global trends, and you’ll never find quality in the bargain basement.