It wasn’t the first time that Lutz Huelles played the violins at a fashion show. As early as 2018, Vivaldi’s “L’inverno” came out of the speakers at a catwalk production by his own label in Paris – a few months ago the same violin sounds overturned at his fashion show for AZ Factory. And while Vivaldi’s winter motif back then, in 2018, was still part of the post-punk style of Siouxsie & The Banshees, the baroque tones now exploded in “Teenage Kicks” by the Undertones.
The designer also staged musically what he is best at in terms of fashion: tearing things out of their context, bringing opposites together, hoodies over shirt dresses, balloon skirts with bomber jackets. Long before the big luxury brands did the same, the Parisian designer brought streetwear details into the elite prêt-à-porter segment.
We meet Lutz Huelle in Andreas Murkudis’ design store on Potsdamer Strasse. Not only has Huelle’s own brand been sold here since its beginnings – a collection that he designed for AZ Factory is now only available from Murkudis in Germany. With the famous founder of AZ Factory – Alber Elbaz, who died in 2021, a master of voluminous elegance – he has more in common than a weakness for tulip sleeves and drapes, as Huelle tells us.
Sometimes he has to rein himself in: Lutz Huelle likes to march ahead.Nora Bording
Mr. Huelle, it’s been a few years since our last conversation. It was 2018 when you told me you wanted to implement “a little bit more bourgeoisie” in your fashion. Would you put it that way today?
No, I wouldn’t say it like that anymore. Maybe back then I was still looking for the right words for a development that I felt going on around me and that I wanted to incorporate into my fashion. This word “bourgeoisie” not only has a pleasant connotation, but at the time it described something that was somehow in the air for me: a new desire for elegance and decadence, which I depicted, for example, with voluminous, chic skirts and puffy tulip sleeves . Something I had never been interested in before. Very feminine, light – also sexy. Another word I haven’t used in my work before. Even if I never had anything against sex (laughs).
Basically, years ago you anticipated a look that is only now emerging again in fashion – just think of the current attempt by the Balenciaga brand to find its way back to elegance after years of radical ugly chic. Or what Kim Jones did with Dior menswear. Before that, you were the ones who brought sportswear and streetwear into ready-to-wear, long before labels like Off-White, Vuitton and Balenciaga followed suit. Have you lost a trend researcher?
(Laughs) That’s very kind of you to say that. But my work isn’t based on analyses, but rather, as I said, on a feeling for what’s in the air at the moment. How people’s needs for fashion are changing. Sometimes I just have to be careful not to do it too early.
Four letters that stand for casual elegance: A jacket from the collection that Huelle designed for AZ Factory.Nora Bording
A difficult task for a thought leader like you?
It took me many years to really get in tune with general fashion – I wasn’t always, but it’s important if you want to reach people with a collection. It was around 2016 when I first really made it. Back then, people were slowly accepting when fashion pieces were taken out of their classic context and placed differently. Up until this point, it wasn’t so clear that streetwear could be a prêt-à-porter theme and therefore expensive. Anything that was to be sold at high prices also had to be chic – that’s how it was back then. Then, when other brands started selling even baseball caps for 500 euros and this style became the norm, I had to be careful not to move on immediately, but also to savor this moment a bit for myself and my brand.
Nevertheless, you then brought a new elegance to your fashion, which, as I said, is only now slowly gaining acceptance among the general public. The collection you’ve now designed for the late Alber Elbaz’s AZ Factory brand, alongside working on your own label, continues that idea.
That’s right. In a way, this collection should also correspond to Alber’s codes. A style – and this is where the word fits in its most positive interpretation – that was actually very bourgeois and incredibly beautiful. Interestingly, the AZ Factory teams realized that Albers and my work are very similar on this point, on certain details like playing with volumes. I had never noticed that before. I only noticed that when the AZ Factory brand approached me with a request for cooperation and was told that Alber himself had noticed and valued my work during my lifetime. It was a real honor for me because he was one of the most famous, talented designers of the past 20 years. In addition, I always perceived him in interviews as incredibly friendly, interested and approachable. An impression that was confirmed when I met him in person for the first and only time.
Playing with different volumes: Design for AZ Factory.AZ Factory
Can you tell us something about this encounter?
We met at a dinner hosted by Emmanuel Macron as part of Paris Fashion Week at the Élysée Palace. All designers were invited there who were putting on a show during the week, from the really big ones like Louis Vuitton’s Nicolas Ghesquière to the absolute newcomer who was presenting his work for the first time. Alber and I at least talked briefly there; there was something extremely human about him and he was very nice, which is not always the case in the industry. I quickly noticed that he was fundamentally interested in the people, especially the women, for whom he designed his clothes. He had a great understanding that fashion is about something real; that you want to attract people and help them feel good. This is something that also suits me very much.
In your collection for AZ Factory you approach this principle of close relationships with your own customers in a very radical way. The headline of the line reads “F is for friendship”, your guiding question is said to have been: “What would my friends wear?”
That’s correct. My idea was to show that friends occasionally share their wardrobe. That one takes the shirt away from the other, or that a man borrows a nice blouson from a good friend. They should be very different designs, but they fit together well. I also wanted to talk about how diverse groups of friends are; that people can be very close despite doing different things, different ages, different bodies and sizes. That’s how we presented the collection at a show in Paris: to women and men of all types.
More of a curator than a buyer: Andreas Murkudis (left) was one of Lutz Huelle’s first customers.Nora Bording
Is it also friendships that bring you to Berlin again and again? You seem quite familiar with the city, even though you left Germany to work in Paris more than 20 years ago.
Yes, my two oldest and best friends live in the city.
You talk about the famous photographer Wolfgang Tillmanns and the visual artist Alexandra Bircken, both of whom are considered luminaries in their field, and how you grew up in Remscheid.
Exactly, we practically grew up together. And I would say that today we’re doing what we’re doing because we’ve always pushed each other. Friendships are the most important thing in life anyway, but they can also have a major impact on creative work. Actually, when designing, I’ve always asked myself, “Would my friends wear this?”
You also have a long friendship with Andreas Murkudis. Is his Berlin design store the perfect place to exclusively sell your collection for AZ Factory throughout Germany?
In any case. Andreas has also had my own brand in the range from the very beginning. He was one of our first and is certainly one of our longest standing customers. He always had an eye for an interesting mix and never focused on which brands are currently selling best. In this respect he is much more a curator than a buyer, which impresses me a lot. Andreas always acted on instinct and took my collections into his shop, although they certainly weren’t that easy to sell at the beginning.
Interesting cut: denim look from Huelle’s AZ Factory line.AZ Factory
Precisely because of this combination of sportswear and elements of couture, which was so new at the time and which we spoke about earlier?
Yes, this is a connection and at the same time a recontextualization, which I took to a much more extreme level at the beginning. When you start out as a designer, you’re a bit naïve when it comes to real life and you only learn over time what really sells. Andreas recognized from the start that this time would come and supported me early on.
And when did you realize that your fashion had found a place in the everyday lives of your customers?
In any case, I can still remember very clearly the first time I saw a part of me in the wild, so to speak. It must have been a design from my second or third collection, a red mohair zip-up sweater. I was sitting in a restaurant in Paris and suddenly spotted a Japanese woman eating her food at the table across the room in this same sweater. I was so happy – I could have cried!
Did you go and talk to them? It must be tempting to reveal yourself as a designer at such a defining moment, right?
(Laughs) No, of course I didn’t approach her. I didn’t want to disturb her while she was eating, and I tried not to stare like that. I was just happy. Especially at the beginning, when you don’t yet have a strong feeling for how your own things are really received, such a moment is incredibly valuable. Suddenly what you do becomes real. Your fashion becomes reality.