Wolfgang Joop

Wolfgang Joop born 18 November 1944

Wolfgang Joop is an internationally successful German fashion designer. He is the originator of the fashion and cosmetics company JOOP! and is considered along with Karl Lagerfeld and Jil Sander to be a leading German figure in this industry.

After completing his Abitur at the Wilhelm-Gymnasium high school in Braunschweig, Joop began to study advertising psychology in Braunschweig at the insistence of his father. He was not interested in this course of study, and did not complete it. He next worked as a restauranteur and got involved in art. In 1968 he started formal studies of art, which he never completed.

Joop's career began in 1970, when he and his then wife Karin participated in a fashion competition sponsored by the German magazine Constance and won the three top prizes. Following this success Joop because a fashion editor at the women's magazine Neue Mode. He left this job in 1971 to work independently, among other things as a freelance journalist and designer.

In early 1982 Joop showed his first prêt-à-porter women's collection, followed by his first men's collection in 1985. Two years later, with the showing of his first perfume collection, he made his name a trademark, with capital letters to symbolise energy along with an exclamation mark. Clothes, shoes, jewellery, eyeglasses and perfume were immediately available under this mark. The JOOP! mark became available for licensing, and Joop's company no longer produced any of its own goods for sale.

In 1985 Joop took a position as a guest lecturer in Design at the Berliner Hochschule der Künste. In 1987, that institution awarded him an honorary professorship.

Following German reunification, Joop was the first Western designer to work with the Meissener porcelain company, for which he designed a service.

Since 1997, Joop's products have been sold through Joop GmbH.

In 1998 Joop sold 95% of his JOOP! shares to an investor and in 2001 he sold the remaining 5%.

Two years before, in 1999 he established the lable Wunderkind Art which had its international debut in September 2004 when Joop introduced his new Wunderkind collection in New York.

Joop has diverse interests and is involved in many activities beyond fashion and design, including illustration. Over 100 of his works are on show at the Hamburger Museum für Kunst in Hamburg. Joop also collects art, particularly contemporary pictures and sculptures as well as furniture.

Joop has written various books and many articles for newspapers and magazines, including Der Spiegel, Stern and Welt am Sonntag. His books include the gift book Das kleine Herz (2001), the cookbook Hectic Cuisine (2002), the autobiography Stillstand des Flüchtigen (2002) and the novel Im Wolfspelz (2003).

Joop married art student Karin Benatzky in 1970; the couple had two daughters and are now divorced.

Joop, who labels himself as cosmopolitan, has a home in Monte Carlo, a penthouse in New York and two villas in his hometown of Potsdam, where he has lived since 1998 after years living in Hamburg.

Since splitting from his wife, Joop has been living in a same-sex partnership.