We are Katja Schlegel (design) and Kai Seifried (business), married since 2001. We now have an adult son who is working for the company as well, most times as our model. It was about 1993 when we met, I (Katja) had a studio and Kai moved to the first floor of the same building to live. I did my final university work on him – it was a rococo outfit. We were best friends for more than a year, and then, one night, we changed our clothes and started kissing.

I was working as a stylist and needed some accessories for a shooting, so I made myself some wild stitched leather cuffs. Everyone on the set was hooked up. We got orders and Kai helped sewing about nine hundred pieces for our first Starstyling wholesale order ever. Then, a crazy journey followed. We sent samples of these cuffs to Colette and Dutch, and both reacted. A friend of mine had a showroom, he was our agent at the time and asked us if we could do T-shirts with prints. We did because Kai had learnt how to do screen-print before.
The next agent asked if we could do collections, so we did too, but the first patterns were awful (laughs). Then, we opened our first shop in 2003. Shop floor in the front, studio in the back, all handmade. Berlin times! Now, we are dealing with business and sometimes feel lost in professionalism. Dealing with employees, contributors, money, expectations, responsibility, etc. makes it feel more like real work and less fun and money. We still aren’t a big commercial business, we’re always a little bit on a side, which is outstanding and obstructive at the same time.

We had to name the thing because of the demands from orders and showrooms. We ate pizza from Star-pizza-service, and were like: “Ok, let’s say, star – hmm – styling”. It was a total coincidence, nothing to do with celebs – or the star sign, which I personally don't like. There were times in which we didn't like the name because it sounds a bit cheesy, but in the end, it fits; it’s very ironic.

It’s a lot about classic basics: t-shirts and sweaters are for us a white sheet of paper to work from. There is not much philosophy behind, it just happens. Could sound a bit naive, but in the end, we are doing more or less what we like to do.

Strong, loud, subtle, colourful, ironic, triggering, timeless, sensual, artistic and handmade.

I see the world through surfaces, colours, strokes, typo, graphics, signs, clothes. I’m always creating visual associations in my mind. I am a peeper, more reacting than creating. It’s a personal dreamland in a way, probably kind of sociopath.

I would do graphic design if I weren’t into fashion.

There is no specific reaction or message in my mind, it’s more a ‘poke-trigger-thing’; let’s see what’s happening. For me, fashion is one of the last ‘métiers’ to express/show/say something in a fast and direct way.

We both read the book A brief history of humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari, which was very inspiring and revealing. We found/created pictures that symbolise different milestones of humankind combined with a journey to Morocco, where we found the backgrounds for the collages in the lookbook.

It’s totally different every time: sometimes the inspirations are the fabrics, then a book, a journey, a friend, a life situation, a need. I am not thinking collection-wise, often it’s just bringing things together, which happened lately. Economically, for sure, it has to be a selection of things that make sense together.

Not really, it changes all the time. Personally, I am not into black anymore. I am so bored of black, it’s so easy to wear it, while it’s difficult to wear colours without looking like a full-time freak.

Our long-time favourite bestseller: the Bigshirt for a comfy look, for the hip-hop guy, the big girl, for the slim and tall girl – oversize works for everybody.

We love building things and interiors for ourselves – we were film decorators too for many years. So let’s say it’s a homemade ‘dolby-surrounding-sense-experience’. We are ‘The Spontaneousians’.

Retail is part of the brand. As we worked a lot for the film industry to earn money, we look at things in a general way. Entering our store is about getting lost for a while and leaving happily with a big bag of future favourite wardrobe pieces.

It’s a mix. When designing, I think of friends, people I see on the street, or out of practical reasons. A lot of pieces I do for myself and then there are demands for it.

I would say they are open-minded, yes, a lot of creatives, musicians, artists and film people. There is not so much control over who is wearing your designs. Regarding Björk, we are honoured. Sometimes it’s strange but always interesting, any kind of feedback is always good. We are not into influencers.

Happy, confident, ready to be addressed, proud.

The industry is a big money machine, that’s what it is. I would rather change the consumers. As long as they buy big or/and cheap brands, nothing will change. If the consumer realises that s/he has the power to change something, then something will change.

Doing more collaborations with people from different crafts, like glass blowing, goldsmith or ceramics. We already did some interior objects. Also, we will open a pop-up shop in Brussels this September, time for spreading out more.