Once Upon A Time in Berlin....

..... a fashion journalist decided to realize her long-time fashion dream and design a collection that would reflect her story without compromising on traditional craftsmanship....

No desk for me. I love to sit on the floor, surrounded by notes, range plan, my muses and what inspires me: a sunny day in Paris, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Laetitia Casta,... and sketch.

After much deliberation, going back and forth and forth and back in my mind, after filling booklet after booklet (and napkins, receipts...) with notes and sketches, after talking about it (especially to myself, in first and third person), after doing lots of consumer research (is there anybody out there who resembles me?), after seeking fashion wisdom from Markus (being married to a man whose international expertise in the business side of fashion is worth its weight in gold, can definitely be enlightening)... I decided I should just do it. Because in the end...isn't this what I always wanted? Using the Art of Fashion...to bring the stories I have inside of me, all the tales I want to tell, to life, through textile, fit, print and design. So...I take on the fashion challenge, combine my design, illustration, styling and writing skills, and turn Priscilla Obermeier into a complete women's collection for the affluent urban rebel, who lives life according to her own standards. Who can be a full femme fatale, while at the same time fill the room with tomboy laughter. Who is a rock star bohemian by heart, but also enjoys moments at the library. She reads the Classics while listening to Hip Hop music. She has traveled the world, appreciates Degas and street-art. She surrounds herself with different cultures and has a natural curiosity in the world around her. She is independent, but dares to love. She can run this town. But only if she wants to. 

Growing up surrounded by fashion artisans and creatives gave me an up close and personal insight in the process of dressmaking, design, illustration and comics (my father was an illustrator and comic artist), painting, sculpting, writing and storytelling. My mother was highly qualified in the art of sewing (from fur coats to bridal gowns to lingerie), and as well designed her own jewelry. Playing dress up in my mom's self-made dresses and skirts, her fringed stiletto cowboy boots, or green suede platform boots, while accessorizing myself with her jewelry designs (think heavy copper chandelier earrings and XL copper cuffs), made me enjoy Fashion as a Grande Theater of playfulness. And ever since I saw the fabrics designed by my grandfather (blue silks, pink birds, golden flowers) I saw Fashion Design as a way to imagine, to create my own Neverland, Wonderland, Oz and Treasure Island.

Always inspiring: Fashion Books. Especially the biography of Dior.

When I was a child my mother made most of my clothes (Princess dresses with Peter Pan collars and  Petticoats, Jane Austen hats with ribbons, gloves and flower child - and furry white bunny costumes for Carnival..) and I was more used to fittings, pattern making, selecting fabrics, the sound of a sewing machine, than walking into a store and simply buy a dress. I started designing my own clothes when I entered high school. I was eleven (skipping a class at an earlier age, made me forever the youngest in class), and had an own sense of style. A style I couldn't find in stores, so I started sketching. While my classmates wore jeans and polo shirts, I walked around in bell bottom lace pants over Doc Martins. On my teenage bedroom walls hung Laetitia Casta and Linda Evangelista by Mario Testino, YSL's 'Le Smoking' and Vogue covers. My frequent visits to relatives in the U.S.A., gave me a peek inside U.S. Fashion and I enjoyed looking for American designers that were not yet known in Europe (this was before the internet), adding their pieces to my daily outfits to underline my teen-rebel individuality. Fashion was something to communicate. 

And now... after having lived in Amsterdam and Los Angeles, after years of fashion journalism where I researched fashion trends and fashion in its complex relation to history, (social) change and pursuit of individuality, after having written down stories of fashion houses, its artisans and their inspirations, fashion icons and their idiosyncratic style, after having interviewed designers and fashion bloggers, after having worked with established fashion and beauty brands and with emerging designers on fashion communications and luxury branding cases, after learning how to integrate fashion stories in motion picture and let fashion connect with an audience on an even deeper level than traditional advertising, after finding a new home in Berlin, after getting married to a former fashion executive who became an amazing actor/writer/producer, after becoming a city-mom (running around in Amsterdam, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Rome, Berlin with Indy hanging in Baby Bjorn, with Indy sitting in stroller and now running after him - in high heels - as he gets faster every day), I say yes. It's time to turn the page and start a new chapter. A chapter where I take myself off the fashion sideline and start creating. 

Designing Fashion with lots of different size pencils, Chinese Ink and multi liners....

On my blog I will write about my process as a newly-fashion designer. Will it work out? Will I find the artisan manufacturers I'm looking for? Will I find an atelier? Will I find that cotton-cashmere mix I'm after? Will I find the high quality materials fitting to my designs? Will I find a financial backer who believes in my fashion dream and understands that the artistic concept of my line can grow into an international designer's label? Will I find the dyes I'm looking for? Will I find my labels, my packaging? Will I.....?

From Zero to Fashion Week. It's on. 

xxx