In conversation with .. 5!

One To Watch:
Adrian Weiss
Models Negro @negrophil
Shivani @shivani_s17
Styling by Krzysztof Komorowski @christopherkeyy
Makeup by Paulina Olivia Rosa @beautybehindthebrushes
Hair by Lukasz Michalak @lulaszmichalak
Thanks to Adas Engel @yourbabe3000
Interview and Portraits by Marcel Schlutt
@marcel_schlutt
Tell me a little bit about how ADRIAN
WEISS came to be and how it all started?
Back in 2016/17 I was unemployed,
recovering from years of depression and
being sick and I was sewing and creating
stuff every day and night, but mostly
for myself and for fun. At that time, the
Jobcenter asked me what I wanted to do.
So I wrote a business plan and became
self-employed (sounds easy, it wasn’t)
and got some more support from the
Jobcentre since we whole-heartedly and
mutually wanted to be out of each other’s
lives.
I’d been thinking about transitioning since
2013, so it all happened at the same phase
of my life when I decided to establish
the label and get into more detail about
medical transition. Therefore I didn’t want
to use my birth name because I knew I
wouldn’t be keeping it. Finding a name for
both myself and my label was really hard
at that time. So I combined the names
of two of my family members - Adrian,
which is one of my brothers’ second name
and Weiss, my grandmother’s birth name.
I work very intuitively and as I started
selling items regularly, I got a lot of
good feedback from people - that really
encouraged me to move on and focus on
all-gender clubwear, bold prints, one-off
items and upcycling material. All items
are handmade by me.
Please tell us a little about yourself and
the journey that led you to this point.
Hellooooo I’m Emrah, I’m turning 35
on July 21st (Cancer sun, Leo rising), I
was born and raised in Germany, I’m
transmasculine gender non-conforming /queer (labelling
myself is so hard) and my pronouns are he/him.
I was studying product design in Offenbach, Germany,
when in 2010 I participated in a collaboration project
at my university - that’s how I accidentally started
sewing. During that time my mother, who I loved a lot,
was dying of cancer. It was so hard and I went through
very painful years of deep grief. Sewing literally kept me
alive and let me move on and gave me hope and solace
and joy when I couldn’t find it anywhere else. I’m a very
impatient and impulsive person, but the moment I start
to work, it makes me calm and patient and lets me find
some inner peace. I have found so much meaning in
this kind of creative work.
How did you get to where you are today?
Hard and consistent work, passion, patience, trust in
myself and the will to learn because I’m mostly selftaught
and didn’t really have anyone to ask. I invest
most of my time, money and energy in my label. When I
first started, I was basically always broke, so I upcycled
old clothes, bedsheets, curtains because I couldn’t
afford to buy new fabric. Being creative is very much
about to find ways to make things work and to find
ways and solutions to realize dreams or visions, not just
about handcrafty skills.
There were also people who loved me and trusted in
my skills and appreciated and supported me and my
work when I was hopeless. Transition is playing a big
role, too! I would definitely not have made it without
transition.
What’s your inspiration behind your work?
There’s so much! I buy mostly offline so I get very
inspired by seeing and touching material or finding
some unexpected color- or fabric combo. Being able to
upcycle material is very inspiring since I never know
how an item is going to turn out until it’s finished.
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