Gabriele Strehle: "I wanted a fighter, not a model"
A not so unequal pair: author Steven Uhly and Gabriele Strehle, the chief designer of Strenesse.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Christiane Paul, Hannah Herzsprung, Jogi Löw - and now Steven Uhly. A best-selling author as a model for Strenesse is unusual. How did this cooperation come about?
Gabriele Strehle: That had to be so! I rarely watch television, but just on the day Steven was a guest in the "Tagesthemen", I saw his interview and knew: That fits.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Christiane Paul, Hannah Herzsprung, Jogi Löw - and now Steven Uhly. A best-selling author as a model for Strenesse is unusual. How did this cooperation come about?
Steven Uhly: To my new novel "Adams Fuge", which is understood as a kind of counter-to Thilo Sarrazin's theses: the story of a German-Turk on identity search.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: How does this fit in with Strenesse?
Gabriele Strehle: I did not want a model for our new campaign because I would miss the fighting and the unruly. With Steven I immediately felt that he is authentic and does not want to like, but stands by himself and his story. It clicked immediately - we organized the photo shoot in the same week.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: And how did it go?
Gabriele Strehle: Similar to the TV appearance. Steven did not pretend. He allowed himself to be a model but at work he gave himself the way he is. UHLY: I can not pretend (laughs), even though I would have liked that sometimes.
If I do not feel well in clothes, I do not get involved as a person properly
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: When, for example?
Steven Uhly: If I found a woman really great and introduced myself to what type of man she is. Then I tried to be just like that. What has never worked ...
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Do you think fashion as a protective or disguise can help play a role better?
Gabriele Strehle: I do not think so. No matter what conversation I am having - if I do not feel well in a piece of clothing, I will not properly engage myself as a person.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Can Clothing Still Help Identify?
Steven Uhly: Is it possible to come to the content about the form? I'm not even sure that's in the art. I do not even know if I put on this shirt today because I felt like it or because I'm trying to be that shirt (laughs).
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Strenesse has never tried to pretend. Her fashion is known for restraint. How can you compete with noisy designers like Dior or Louis Vuitton?
Gabriele Strehle: I do not want to be fashionable and make garments that you have to hang up next season. I want to be modern. That's a big difference.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: How do you do that?
Gabriele Strehle: By focusing on the essentials. An art that I am fortunate enough to master because I learned the trade. So I know exactly where a button needs to be to reach that goal.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Twice a year, every season change, the world is showered with new trends. How do you like that?
Gabriele Strehle: A trend stands for movement. That's not bad at first. All I have to do is decide what to take from it and what not. However, the faster and faster changes also give you time to regain your own identity. That's a chance.
I am a quality freak
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: And what could it be?
Gabriele Strehle: There are always groups who use the counter-trend, that is the slowness, to develop themselves. I myself am a quality freak. Just like Steven. He has dared to work with a publisher that places as much emphasis on the content as on the packaging. The cover of his novel is very special, that's easy to grasp. While there is a mass-market market, Steven has not adapted.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: For this, the fashion looks are getting more adapted around the world, creating a global dress code ...
Gabriele Strehle: That was the same 30 years ago, but on a different level.
Steven Uhly: We've gotten used to it with global fashion companies like H & M and Zara. Nevertheless, there are differences. I once lived in Brazil, where people are extremely fashion-believing. There is only a "Do" and a "Do not". It's different in Europe. Here, many cultures mirror and criticize themselves in the smallest of spaces.This diversity is a great way to reflect - even to find out that there are nuances in fashion.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: Fashion works internationally, yet people's fears of foreign cultures seem to remain. Can you do anything about it as an author?
Steven Uhly: I do not write for therapeutic reasons, but because something moves me. Because of my biography - I am half-Bengalese with Spanish stepfather - my topic this time is migration, one that will be with us for a long time to come. If people let themselves be touched by it and sometimes think differently about the diversity of society and the individual, I have already done something against this fear.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: And you as a designer, Mrs. Strehle?
Gabriele Strehle: Other cultures do not take anything away from us. On the contrary: one enriches each other. I love Japan. The tension between tradition and modernity is very exciting and inspiring. And yet I stay German. But the more I know about other cultures, the more curious it makes me.
Gabriele Strehle
Gabriele Strehle was born in Memmingen, Bavaria. After a tailor's apprenticeship she studied at the Munich master school of fashion. At the age of 22, she started as a designer at the coat company Strehle in Nördlingen. There she met her future husband, Gerd Strehle. In 1976 she became chief designer of the label Strenesse, which she developed together with him. Since then, a lot has happened: Strehle designed the uniforms of Lufthansa, has been equipping the German national football team since 2006 and dresses stars from Christiane Paul to Jonas Kaufmann. She lives in Munich and on the Tegernsee. Her daughter is currently studying in New York.
Steven Uhly
Steven Uhly was born in 1964 in Cologne. After graduation, he trained as a translator in Valencia, then studied Spanish and Portuguese language and literature, German and literature in Cologne, Bonn and Lisbon. After receiving his doctorate, Uhly headed the German Institute of the Federal University in Belém, Brazil, for two years. Back in Germany, he worked as a lecturer at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität before he founded the Münchner Frühling-Verlag with his wife. In 2010 his debut novel "Mein Leben in Aspik" was published. Uhly has four children and lives with his family in Munich.
... and the book
The German Turk Adem Öztürk tries to find himself under the most difficult circumstances. Because he works undercover for the Turkish government, he is constantly forced to change his identity. On the one hand, Adem has to pretend not to be who he is. On the other hand, he does not even know who he is. This confuses him so much that he gets caught up in a whirlwind of events and insights. Exciting, intelligent and stirring tells. ("Adams Fuge", Secession Verlag für Literatur, 232 pages, 21.95 euros)
