Tilmann Wröbel

Tilmann Wröbel is a Franco-German fashion designer born in 1964 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

He is currently working and living in both Biarritz, France and Düsseldorf, Germany.

In the 80's, Tilmann Wröbel arrived in Paris and enrolled at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne as a student fashion designer.

During his scholarship, Tilmann Wröbel was ahead of his school colleagues.

After his 1st year he was already working at Christian Dior's Haute Couture as a long-term intern.

Thanks to a school project, a retrospective about André Courrèges and his work, Courrèges offered to work with him.

Tilmann went back to school to graduate but worked at the same time at Nina Ricci's Haute Couture studio, located on avenue Montaigne.

Beyond information on the denominative choices made by brands, his contribution has shed light on behaviors of belonging and distinction in terms of terminology choices, which helped the researcher to compare them with Bourdieusian theories on the legitimate language and the symbolic value of language (Pierre Bourdieu, Ce que parler veut dire, 1982, Fayard).

In 2022 Tilmann Wrobel launched his own denim brand, named HANDZ, in partnership with Themis Goudroubis.

Today, Tilmann Wröbel has three distinctive activities: Monsieur-T., Nadel & Pen and HANDZ.

Every season, he forecasts the upcoming denim trends and realizing the denim trend forum of the International Denim Trade Show BLUEZONE by MUNICH FABRIC START, working closely together with premium mills, denim producers and industry innovators.

HANDZ_JEANS

is the first Heritage denim brand with Genderfree products.

All jeans are crafted with rare Japanese denim fabrications.

NADEL & PEN is a brand.

NADEL & PEN churns out Denim fabrication.

MADE IN FRANCE, a minimum of 135 hours is wasted on every pair of trousers without any help of sewing machines.

Nadel & Pen exposed its "Manifesto for artisanal Luxury" in the beginning of February in Munich.

Showcased under crafted indigo kakemonos, and highlighted on indigo resined chunks of trees, Nadel & Pen exposed three of its Denim-Sculptures.

100% handmade in France, the three sculptures featured objects of mass-industrialisation, wrapped up in collectible selvage denim, turning these "out of service".

International press was enthusiastic and then, articles popped-up.

As a child, Tilmann was already interested by modern art, sculpted and painted in a contemporary style.

He later had the chance to briefly meet with Joseph Beuys and was heavily influenced by Düsseldorf’s emerging art & industrial music scene (JÖRG IMMENDORF, D.A.F., KRAFTWERK… )

In 1988, he was member of the board of directors of the French Skateboard Federation and referee for every championship.

His passion for skateboard culture lead him to work with Etnies and Homeboy in 1989 where he designed their apparel ranges.

In 1990, he co-founded the first French Indoor Skate-park.

In 1994 he joined Chipie, a French Denim brand at that time, where he became head-designer in 1995.

He worked with Jean Elbaz, Christian Sansat and other international denim experts.

In 1997 he was designing surfwear, streetwear & denim for 10 years.

Founded in 2003 as the first of its kind denim dedicated trade show, BLUEZONE has established itself as one of the most substantial business platforms for the global denim, street and sportswear market.

Leading denim pioneers showcase their most recent denim novelties to the international denim and fashion community twice a year in Munich, Germany.

As an adult, he participated in 2004 at the exposition ELEMENT REALITY MODELS.

One year later, he was awarded by Damon Way at the occasion of the DC-FRENCH ARTIST PROJECT.

In 2007 he started working as an independent designer for the Quiksilver Group and founded his own company, "Monsieur-T.", the international Studio for Denim and Bottoms”.

Since 2015, Wröbel has worked with Monsieur-T.

as Denim Trend Consultant for the International Denim Trade Show BLUEZONE by Munich Fabric Start.

In 2019, Wröbel was named one of the Rivet 50, an index of the 50 most influential people in the denim voted by the global industry.

He was recognized for "luxury-meets-streetwear" approach to denim design.

In 2021-2022, Tilmann Wröbel contributed as a professional expert from the denim sector to a linguistic research project focused on English borrowings and English-influenced neologisms in the terminology of women’s ready-to-wear fashion in France.

Thanks to his expertise and his knowledge of the field, Tilmann Wröbel has provided fundamental information on this sector, which is clearly dominated by specific brands.