Birthday: Guido Maria Kretschmer: A philanthropist turns 60

His sincere smile is that of a convinced fellow human beings – and also a door opener in his moving vita. Guido Maria Kretschmer looks dynamic and youthful and is pleasantly relaxed at an encounter on the occasion of his 60th birthday on this Sunday.

Guido Maria Hermann Kretschmer was born on May 11, 1965 in Münster in a family with five children and grew up in the village at Warendorf. The grandmother and the father had fled from Silesia. He describes his mother and grandmother as a very fashion-savvy. “I understood early on that through fashion and clothing you are part of a great transformation. And I found that a nice thought,” said Kretschmer of the German Press Agency dpa. “Fashion is the skin of the soul.”

In Ibiza he sold his first self -sewn clothes

As a young man, he quickly removed the idea of ​​studying medicine or a existence as a nurse. He preferred to live on Ibiza in an old finca without electricity and water. “I was very wild and open. Burned brown, long hair.” He earned his money as a dancer in clubs. Until he sold his first self -sewn clothing on a hippie market in San Carlos.

Soon the young Kretschmer got to know dazzling personalities in search of freedom: a brewery heiress, Nina Hagen, Grace Jones. One day the bass player of Udo Lindenberg looked by in search of costumes for the band. Kretschmer made brocade jackets for him. “I had the feeling that I could rely on myself very early on. Because I came out of a world in which not so much happened, except that you were loved.”

Stewardesses soon came to his stand. This finally resulted in his first major order: uniforms for the crew members of the Hapag-Lloyd airline. In 1989 he founded his first company GMK by Pepper and the fashion label Guido Maria Kretschmer Corporate Fashion. The textile group Van Delden became his business partner. Further orders for Deutsche Bahn, hotels and airlines followed. Kretschmer opened Showrooms in Münster, Berlin, Munich and Palma de Mallorca. From 2004 he made exclusive cocktail and evening wear on his label Guido Maria Couture.

Love love early in his life

Kretschmer attributes his self -confidence to the fact that he had consistently experienced love in his life. First of the parents, then by his today’s husband Frank Mutters, with whom he now shares 40 years of his life and three dogs. “I have always been warm and open and good with people.” The hippies would have taught him how to live consciously, according to his conviction. Even today he carries his salad water to the flowers in his garden in Hamburg-Blankenese.

Kretschmer still has a knack for people like for fashion. “If you master the keyboard of fashion, body, desires, soul packaged differently, you can be everything. We are simply very visual beings and we succumb to the magic. This is fashion.” He develops his annual collection on a weekend. He no longer produces the couture line today – the environment has become too complicated, materials in many cases too expensive.

Successful since 2012 with “Shopping Queen”

At the end of the couture line, his successful television program “Shopping Queen” also contributed to the VOX television station, which started in 2012. “I have arrived in reality from the Olympus of Great, Elegant Fashion. For me, customers are really kings. I want them to have a good time. I love textiles and I know what they can do.”

Kretschmer also worked for theater and opera – at the encouragement of the friend Katharina Thalbach. The entrance was easy for the theater friend and historian connoisseur. “I have a look in my head at all times. I did a lot of nice things because people believed in myself and opened doors. And then I marched through.”

It is aesthet through and through, meticulously, structured. He describes himself as dependent on axis symmetry, loves beautiful things, art, theater, opera, ballet. He also appreciates beautiful interior design with the neighbors and is passionate about his garden. “I became more and more subtle over the years.” A feeling of security and belief in good in the world is wearing him. On the other hand, he cannot gain any excesses. “I am like a monk. Ora et Labora (pray and work), that’s me. Besides, I’m already high.”

And what does he want for his birthday, which he wants to spend in contemplative calm? Nothing for yourself. But a lot for the battered world: “Do not torture animals, love children, let them grow up, see what becomes them. To look at our existence with respect, especially what lives.”