For his 80th birthday: “Like a bad joke” – fashion designer Joop turns 80

Standing still has no place in Wolfgang Joop’s life. The designer, who turned 80 on Monday (November 18), may have left the jet-set lifestyle behind him, but he’s not thinking about quitting. He now makes ecological fashion and relies on organic materials. From today’s perspective, he describes his fur collection at the end of the 70s as a mistake.

It was often said about Joop that he was vain and not very modest. In the fashion world of the 90s and the era of supermodels like Claudia Schiffer, he is at the peak of his career. His face becomes a brand, and not only perfume, along with clothing – a mixture of casual and extravagant – bears his name.

“The reputation of German fashion on the international market is also linked to his name,” says the President of the General Association of the German Textile and Fashion Industry, Ingeborg Neumann, who praises Joop as a “great artist.”

As a juror alongside Heidi Klum on “Germany’s Next Top Model”, he is remembered as a crowd favorite. He could annoy but also flatter with comments about the fashion world and the style of some stars – sometimes too good, sometimes too sexy. He recommended that former Chancellor Angela Merkel wear more cleavage 15 years ago.

In his old age, the fashion designer can be seen above all in contemplation. “I think it’s like a bad joke, to be honest,” he told the German Press Agency about his 80th birthday. “And wisdom doesn’t come at all, except every now and then the physical insult that suddenly you no longer have this energy.” He is also unusually open about the fact that he often thinks about death.

Designer finds his dream place in Potsdam

Joop was born on November 18, 1944 on a farm in Potsdam. He spends his childhood years with his grandmother, mother and aunts. When his parents move to Braunschweig, he longs to return to his homeland and to his beloved aunt Ulla during the GDR era. The now renovated family home in Potsdam-Bornstedt has become the “place of longing” for the artist, who lived in Hamburg, Monte Carlo and for many years in New York.

At the end of his book “The Only Possible Time” he writes about Potsdam: “Yes, I’m staying, this is home.” But how tempting is Ibiza, where Joop has a finca, especially in the German winter? At the moment – maybe it’s because of his age – he hardly wants to move away, he says in his kitchen-living room in Potsdam, which is decorated with paintings and sculptures.

On the property, very close to Park Sanssouci, Joop lives with his partner Edwin Lemberg, with whom he has been together for decades, and several dogs. He also gathers a blended family around him. His ex-wife Karin lives nearby. Thanks to her, he says he became a fashion designer. One of his two daughters also lives on the family estate. Being alone is not for him, says Joop, who has five grandchildren.

A multi-talent and a concern about art without a living

With Karl Lagerfeld, who died in 2019, and Jil Sander, he is one of the most successful German fashion designers. But Joop is also a multi-talent: He studied advertising psychology and art education and later made a name for himself as a visual artist, painter, writer and actor. “I should become an art teacher, as my father wanted. Just not a painter, without a living,” says Joop.

His greatest talent is drawing, which he already used at school: in exchange for a pin-up drawing, classmates revealed the solutions to him. He later had an exhibition of his fashion drawings at Sotheby’s in New York.

Joop relies on fashion made from organic material

The designer and fashion entrepreneur sold his brand Joop in 1998. A few years later he founded the new luxury label Wunderkind, which ran into difficulties. In 2023, Joop is revitalizing it: He is focusing on sustainability in collaboration with an organic fashion company and wants to continue to release clothing made from materials without harmful substances.

“The fashion world is generally considered frivolous and in a certain way it is. But with the new collection I am breaking new ground,” said Joop. His name has long been associated with home textiles, wallpapers and towels that retail companies sell.

Life’s work exhibition 2025 in progress

Joop wants his birthday party to be a family affair and with close friends. “I find parties very tiring, because even then I try desperately to stay up late,” he says in the interview and laughs.

In any case, new projects are in the works. There will be an exhibition about his life’s work in Potsdam in 2025. In addition to fashion designs, sketches and sculptures, the retrospective will also provide insights into Joop’s private life, who says about himself: “I feel much too young to be 80.”