JENNA: It started very early on. I grew up in a small town near Heidelberg in Germany, and my mother owned her own fashion boutique at the time. When I was really young, even before I started school, she would take me along to trade fairs. We’d source pieces for the store, visit showrooms, all of that. This was in the early 2000s, and that’s where my connection to fashion really began.

She eventually closed the shop when I started school, but the influence never left. By the time I was around fifteen, I was already working just so I could afford things like a Gucci scarf. Fashion has always been something deeply rooted in me.

At some point, I moved to Berlin and started studying fashion there. But I didn’t really continue with it long-term. I come from a very grounded, down-to-earth family, and studying fashion was extremely expensive. I had to pay for everything myself, so I was always working alongside my studies.

That’s how I ended up in the film industry. I spent years working on music videos, commercials, and things like that. Occasionally, I also did projects for fashion brands, but a lot of my work was centered around music artists. That’s where the connection to Rocky comes from as well, it feels very natural to me, it’s something that’s always been inside me. I did that for many years, and unfortunately fashion slowly moved into the background. Then, about three years ago, I moved to Los Angeles, and that’s when I finally reconnected with my creative side, something I had partially lost in Berlin because of the whole working-in-the-film-industry mindset.

I only really started designing again toward the end of 2024, so just a little over a year ago. I didn’t have a sewing machine or any equipment here, nothing at all. That’s when I started exploring latex, because you don’t need to sew it, you can work with adhesives instead. From there, new ideas emerged, strong pieces came together, and eventually that even led to an Adidas collaboration.

Absolutely. When I first arrived here, I didn’t really know yet what I wanted to do. I came without a job, without a clear plan. It was more this feeling of I need to get out of Berlin. I had always known I wanted to end up in either L.A. or New York. I’d spent three months in L.A. before, went back to Germany, and immediately thought, I need to be there. I applied for my artist visa right away and actually got it within three months, which was kind of crazy. But sometimes a city just pulls you in like that. Everything felt easy from the start. I found my apartment right away, things just fell into place, and the whole experience felt incredibly intense in the best way.

When I arrived here, I first started working for Kanye. I met Kanye’s creative director just two weeks after getting to L.A., and a week later we were already working together. That pulled me back into music and production again. We worked on music videos, and I was involved in creative direction and producing. At some point, though, I realized that while it was fun and exciting, it wasn’t what I truly wanted deep down. It’s interesting how things start to fall into place once you move toward what you actually want to do. Around that time, I started working with latex. I had this idea to create latex soccer jerseys, because my aesthetic has always had a strong connection to sports.

I think it mostly comes from the fact that I’m just a very sporty person myself. I’ve never really been a girly girl. I’ve always been athletic, but still sexy. And it was important for me to combine those two things. Being sexy, but still very sport-driven.

When I was a teenager, I was definitely more of a tomboy. As I got older, though, I started feeling like I still wanted to be more feminine. Where I’m from, in Heidelberg, people used to say things like, “Why do you always dress like a boy? Why don’t you try being more feminine?” That always triggered something in me. So I started combining both sides. I’d wear high heels or boots with baggy Nike shorts. People responded really well to it, and it slowly became part of my identity. And now, I’d say my style has definitely evolved and has become a lot sexier.

For Rocky, I designed both womenswear and menswear, which means this will actually be my first official men’s collection. I’m really, really excited to see how people respond to it. At the same time, you’ll still see my sexy womenswear pieces, and there will definitely be latex. We’ll also see latex on men, and I think it’s incredibly strong that Rocky trusted me with that. Adidas played a big role in this as well. Like I mentioned before, I had this idea to create latex soccer jerseys. I already knew it was a very disruptive concept, because soccer and latex don’t really go together at all, or sports and latex in general. Latex still carries this strong BDSM association, but I feel like it’s already moved much more into the world of high fashion. Toward the end of 2024, I started experimenting with it on my own and ended up creating what was basically an unofficial Adidas collaboration.

I pitched the idea to them. I created the pieces myself and planned a full shoot around them. Then I presented everything to Adidas, and they really loved it. That’s how the official collaboration came together. The timing was perfect as well, because the Women’s Euro Championship was happening last year. It allowed us to tie the project into a strong women-empowerment narrative, which made it all come together perfectly.

I’m still incredibly proud of that. I think a lot of people wait around for something to happen, or hope a brand will come to them, or that someone will discover them. For me, it was always clear that you have to take initiative yourself. Of course, it doesn’t always work out. I’ve done plenty of pitches that led nowhere. That’s just part of it. But the concept was strong, new, and disruptive, and this time it worked.

For me, the goal was always to be seen in the industry as a designer, and especially to be seen as a woman designer, because I still feel there aren’t enough women represented. I knew I had to actively do something. The industry is so oversaturated. You have to create something that stands out, something that maybe even sparks a conversation. And of course, there were a lot of soccer fans who didn’t understand it at all. But that’s what made it so interesting and honestly pretty funny. The jersey got shared so widely, across so many fashion magazines and platforms. I saw posts about it in what felt like every country. And then the soccer community picked it up as well and started talking about it. That was really entertaining to watch. I think even BILD covered it at some point. It was kind of crazy to see how far it traveled and the different circles it moved through.

Not really, actually. I’d say about ninety percent of the reaction was positive. Of course, once more football-focused platforms started covering it, there were some critical comments. Things like, “Why would anyone play soccer in a latex jersey? That makes no sense”. Those were mostly people who just didn’t get the concept. There were also people who don’t really have anything to do with fashion and therefore don’t understand the technical side of it, or how challenging it actually was to make. The latex has a pattern, and there are literally maybe two people in the world who know how to properly print on latex. The entire process of creating that jersey took an incredible number of hours. If you’re not familiar with fashion production, it’s almost impossible to grasp how much work went into it. 

For me, the goal was always to be seen in the industry as a designer, and especially to be seen as a woman designer, because I still feel there aren’t enough women represented. I knew I had to actively do something. The industry is so oversaturated. You have to create something that stands out, something that maybe even sparks a conversation. And of course, there were a lot of soccer fans who didn’t understand it at all. But that’s what made it so interesting and honestly pretty funny. The jersey got shared so widely, across so many fashion magazines and platforms. I saw posts about it in what felt like every country. And then the soccer community picked it up as well and started talking about it. That was really entertaining to watch. I think even BILD covered it at some point. It was kind of crazy to see how far it traveled and the different circles it moved through.

Not really, actually. I’d say about ninety percent of the reaction was positive. Of course, once more football-focused platforms started covering it, there were some critical comments. Things like, “Why would anyone play soccer in a latex jersey? That makes no sense”. Those were mostly people who just didn’t get the concept. There were also people who don’t really have anything to do with fashion and therefore don’t understand the technical side of it, or how challenging it actually was to make. The latex has a pattern, and there are literally maybe two people in the world who know how to properly print on latex. The entire process of creating that jersey took an incredible number of hours. If you’re not familiar with fashion production, it’s almost impossible to grasp how much work went into it. 

Honestly, with the jersey, it didn’t really affect me at all. Most of the negative comments came from people where I knew they simply don’t have any real understanding of fashion. I’m more curious to see how it will be with the upcoming collection with Rocky. I think there will definitely be opinions, and because it’s with Rocky, who is already such a hyped figure, whatever he does fashion-wise is often immediately seen as good. So I do expect the feedback to be mostly positive. I’m especially interested in hearing from people who don’t just say yes to everything.  And that’s where it gets interesting, because that’s also where more critical fashion voices might come in. I’m curious about it, but I think I’m generally pretty good at not taking things too personally. At the end of the day, it’s all subjective anyway, and I don’t like everything either. 

Very intuitively. So intuitively, actually, that sometimes I think, shit, I probably should have been a bit more controlled. With Rocky’s collection, of course, I had a design team, simply because we’re talking about more than 150 pieces, there’s no way I could draw everything myself. But for the first time, we’re also doing our own shoes. Before that, he always collaborated with Louboutin, and they provided the footwear. In this collection, I designed all the shoes myself. And honestly, shoes are probably my favorite thing to design, especially women’s shoes. My process is pretty chaotic. I start sketching, jump between ideas, end up with multiple overlapping versions, and everything turns into a mess. At the same time, I often struggle to even start, because I don’t know exactly what I want to do. But the moment I push myself to start, the ideas start coming.

I take a bath. I really do, the bathtub is my place to let go. There’s just so much going on in your head all the time. So many things you have to deal with, constant distractions, and also the pressure you put on yourself. Especially with this collection, we started pretty late. That meant we had to design everything within one or two months. And then you’re under this constant pressure to be creative all the time. But you also have to accept that you can’t be inspired and creative nonstop. What really helps me is taking a bath and fully switching off. I’ll put on Sade, sometimes I’ll stay in there for two hours, just sitting in candlelight, watching the flame and thinking about absolutely nothing.

Yes, I actually do remember. And I think I completely skipped over this before, but I started designing really early. I must have been around twelve or thirteen. I went to a fabric store with a friend of mine. I didn’t have a sewing machine, but she did, so I picked out the fabric and she helped with the sewing. It was this floral fabric, exactly the kind of thing a twelve-year-old would wear back then. It ended up being a pretty short floral skirt with little ruffles, and I paired it with a dark blue top. Those were actually the first two pieces I ever designed, and unfortunately I don’t have them anymore. But it’s a really nice memory. I had almost completely forgotten that I was already doing things like that back then.

I’m already collaborating with someone who’s incredibly inspiring to me, not just creatively but also

because of his life story. I really love stories like the ones from Bad Bunny, Doja Cat, or even Lady Gaga. People who were told, you can’t do this, you’re not good enough, you won’t make it and who still pushed through with resilience. I find those kinds of stories extremely inspiring, because they always make me think, if someone else can do it, then you can do it too. I also find Demna incredibly inspiring. There are very few designers who connect so well with youth culture and their audience. What he did at Balenciaga, and now the way Gucci is being completely re-energized just because he’s there, it’s insane. The impact he has is honestly unbelievable.

I think I’ve definitely become the latex queen. Every brand needs something that makes it unique. For Adidas, it’s obviously the three stripes. That’s something I really want to keep building on. At the same time, I also want to create pieces that are more wearable for everyday life. I think when people think of my work, they think of that, and also of this disruptive energy. It’s a bit more niche, not something everyone would necessarily wear. These are statement pieces. And it’s important to me that there’s always a cultural layer behind them. With the Adidas jersey, for example, the focus was women’s empowerment, especially in sports or industries that are still very male-dominated. And the sports world, especially football, is extremely male-driven. Fashion is too, honestly. It’s important for me to position myself as a woman designer, and now also to do that alongside Rocky, while still creating a men’s collection. So I’d say having a disruptive voice is a big part of my brand, and it’s something I definitely want to continue developing.

I think most people don’t actually know that I’m originally from Germany. A lot of people assume, that I have these connections because I’ve always been around it, but that’s really not the case. I come from a tiny village with fewer than 10,000 people. And I think sometimes I even forget that myself. It’s important to stop and reflect, and really acknowledge where you come from. Because where I grew up, there was absolutely no access to fashion, art, celebrities, none of these worlds or industries at all. That obviously makes the path harder, but I also think it makes it more inspiring. 

And in the end, that’s exactly where my inspiration is rooted, in having had no access, no reference point. I think a lot of people don’t know that about me. And that’s also something I really want to pass on to others. The Adidas collaboration is a good example of that too, you can’t always wait for things to happen. You have to open doors yourself. That’s exactly what my journey reflects. A lot of people are scared to take that step. Deep down, they might have the desire, or the idea, but it’s not strong enough for them to actually act on it. And those are the people who end up sitting at home later in life, thinking, I wish I had done this or that.