Philipp Plein

King of Bling

Identiy

Philipp Plein is synonymous with extravagance, excess and bling. He delivers fashion's most ostentatious shows with huge budgets: think exploding monster trucks, Snoop Dogg performances and rappers riding in on jet-skis. He makes sure guests are always served 'champlein' – champagne mixed with Red Bull.

His collections are bold, tight and short; he loves embellishment and metallics, and the price tags are high. His signature is is a jewel-encrusted skull. Paris Hilton, Rita Ora and Lindsay Lohan are big fans.

History

A German couture designer born in Munich, 1978 – Philipp Patrick Plein. After completing his education from a boarding school, called the Gymnasium Schloss Salem on Lake Constance, Philipp studied Erlangen law from the Friedrich Alexander University.

His family traveled extensively and due to this, Philipp became interested in foreign cultures, architecture and art. He was exposed to the most significant exhibitions and museums in the world.

He entered the design world in 1998, with ideas and items for fashionable furnishing for friends and family. The same year, he established his furniture label with 20,000 Deutsche Mark, the hereditary money he received from his grandfather. Initially, his designs were based on leather and stainless steel look.

Philipp never wasted any of his resources, he used the leftover to create accessories and handbags. He sold these miscellaneous  items along with his furniture range at trade exhibitions.

After two years of designing, producing and selling furniture, Philipp realized that law was not going to give him the same satisfaction and success. So the designer quit his study of law in order to pay full-time attention to his company.

In 2003, Philipp’s fashion line underwent a major breakthrough when he got the opportunity to sell his fashion at the Collections Premieres Düsseldorftrade fair.

The designer claimed to have sold items worth 100,000 euro in a single day. A year later, he launched his debut fashion range for children, women and men.

The highlights of this collection were military jackets in vintage style embellished with skulls made from Swarovski. It was sold in Paris at the Maison et Objet and at the same time the ready-to-wear trade fair was also taking place.

This was a wonderful chance to promote his designs and fashion collections since all around him were people belonging to the world of fashion and trends.

In 2006, he introduced his line of accessories and two years later, a couture collection was launched. The advertisement campaign for this starred Marcus Schenkenberg and Naomi Campbell.

Around the same time, he displayed his heavy metal range in a fashion show aiming to seek Germany’s Next Top Model. The show happened in Barcelona and was presented by Heidi Klum.

In 2009, he presented his version of a Barbie doll, during Barbie’s 50th anniversary celebrations, in association with Mattel. The launch took place at the Nuremberg Toy Fair.

In 2010, his label’s boutique opened in Caines, St. Tropez, Kitzbuhel, Moscow and Vienna. The same year, a campaign for the fall/winter collection was unveiled by Mischa Barton.

A year later, more boutiques were launched in Düsseldorf and Forte dei Marmi. Moreover, a showroom in Hong Kong was inaugurated. In 2011, Lindsay Lohan became the face of an ad campaign for spring/summer line of 2012.

More and more boutiques kept opening up in different cities around the world. Philipp Plein, for his ad campaigns and fashion shows, associated with many other famous celebrities and photographer, such as Ed Westwick, Terry Richardson, Grace Jones, Iggy Azalea, Poppy Delevinge, Lea T and Liya Kebede.

For his fashion and design endeavors, Philipp won the National Brand of the Year award by GQ magazine in 2007 and the New Faces, in the fashion category, award in 2008.

The brand is worn by celebrities, including Victoria and David Beckham, Jennifer Lopez, Timati, Dima Bilan and many others.

Products Philipp Plein