Stephan Hann, a fashion artist today based in Paris and Berlin, was trained as a custom tailor at the Berlin German Opera (1987–1990) before he went to study fashion and costume design at the School of Art and Design Berlin-Weißensee (1992–1996). During his studies, he interned at the costume workshops of the Berlin German Theater and the Berlin Ensemble. Having completed his education, he was drawn to Paris, the world capital of fashion, where, in 2004, he collaborated with Loulou de La Falaise, long-time assistant to Yves Saint Laurent, and since 2003 has worked for the fashion house of Daniel Swarovski.

Stephan Hann is primarily interested in the “visual possibilities” of the “fabrics” he uses for his creations. His designs are translated into three-dimensionality with perfect craftsmanship and are made of materials, which are normally not associated with fashion. Having outlived their usefulness in other fields, they are assigned a new purpose. The artist developed fashion collections for the champagne producers of Moët & Chandon, for Lexmark, or Tetra Pak, putting these companies’ products in perplexing new perspectives and refocusing perception of them: the dresses serve as eye-catching advertising media. For Hann, this act of purposive recycling means reminiscence and conservation, the preservation of the basic material and its serviceable quality.

Champagne bottle caps are tacked together to appear like chain mail; strips of dark and light celluloid are woven into lavish gowns; brilliant colored Lexmark photo papers are used for simple slim-cut daytime dresses; Tetra Pak cartons provide the colorfully patterned fabric for extravagant garments; a mini skirt is sewn together from French military wallets.
 

Stephan Hann's fashion is a kind of visualized hip-hop - traditional fashion styles and dress patterns are analyzed and taken apart, literally or mentally, yielding new and unexpected solutions; in the exhibition, some of these creations are juxtaposed with historical examples from the MAK Study Collection Textiles.

Stephan Hann has widely presented his "Recycling Couture" in a number of exhibitions since 1993, e. g. at the Arts and Crafts Museum of Berlin (1996) and Hamburg (1998), at the Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam (1999) or the Nuremberg Germanic National Museum (2003). In cooperation with his corporate clients, he held fashion shows in Berlin (1993, 1997, 1999, 2002), Merano (1998), Paris (2003), and Moscow (2000). The artist was a costume-design consultant for the German ARD telenovela "Sophie - Braut wider Willen" ["Sophie, The Unwilling Bride"] and in 1998 designed the costumes for the Stuttgart Opera production of Jean-Philippe Rameau's Baroque Opera "Les Indes Galantes".

Curator Angela Völker, MAK Curator Textiles and Carpets