In May Claudia Bothe took over the position as Head of Design womenswear for Liebeskind Berlin. Her first collection debuted at Berlin’s Premium exhibition in July. Here, she talks about her first days at the brand, her mark and the brand’s extensions.

In May, you started at Liebeskind Berlin. What was your first order of business? What did you change?
On my first day at work, I directly took a flight to one of our distributors abroad to finalize a few styles for our winter collection. After that, we dealt with our spring collection which was supposed to be presented at Premium Exhibition in Berlin that month. Within two days, designs were created, followed by the first prototypes. There wasn’t much time for getting used to the work, but from the beginning, it was a very exciting and thrilling task. Sometimes it’s better to act out of creative intuition than to think about every artistic process over and over again.

You previously worked for luxury fashion brands, why did you decide to move to Liebeskind, a rather commercial label?
Within my professional career, I had the possibility to get to know diverse processes of design and creative visions, starting at Westwood up to Chalayan and Isabel Marant. It’s fascinating to bundle these different approaches and to now provide these experiences to Liebeskind. In the last eight years in London and Paris, I developed joy at designing clothes not only for magazines, runways or a small target group, but for people that surround me. I lived in the Marais district in Paris and I saw chic women wearing Isabel Marant Etoile every day. A key moment was when I accidentally met a friend from London and she was thrilled to tell me that she just bought a coat from last season’s collection. From then on, I wanted to design more collections that you can wear in everyday life and that you really feel comfortable in. I get my inspiration from my surrounding, my friends and from my colleagues, too.

What are your goals? Where and how do you want to position Liebeskind?
Through the womenswear, Liebeskind is supposed to become a holistic fashion brand. The collection should underline our customer’s style and create an individual and comfortable look. This independent look of Liebeskind will be noticeable in all product segments. That’s why it is so important to work out what kind of person the “’Liebeskind woman” is and what she likes.

What does your mark look like? How would you describe your first collection?
My mark in the segment of women’s apparel builds on the values of Liebeskind’s accessory. High quality, best processing, nonchalance and a certain Berlin touch is what makes our products special – and that’s what I want to maintain. Of course, not all design aspects of the accessories can be transferred one to one. Overall, the clothing is more feminine, but nonetheless it is perfectly combinable with all other Liebeskind products.

What are the key pieces for 2016?
As always, we show off some awesome leather styles in our collection. In summer, we bet on relaxed linen looks and cool denim pieces.

Where do you see the current trend going? And regarding this, where do you position Liebeskind?
We take up many trend issues. Still, we make sure that we do not bet on temporary trends, we only use ideas that fit Liebeskind’s identity and that truly inspire us. Our new leather shirts with their raw edge finish, our cropped flared jeans or denim and suede culottes are good examples.

Do you plan to extend your product range?
We currently work on a new collection of sunglasses. In the long run, correction glasses will be added, too. Our watches line will be launched this year, followed by another jewelry line in 2016.