** Hello Ines & Desiree, what are you working on right now? The new collection that we present in October in Paris: Bless N°32 Frustverderber.
We very much like the title, this time since a long time German again.
It´s a word that doesn´t exist. It means somehow that you are spoiling the bad mood of someone.
It´s a double negiation that comes to something positive at the end.

** How do you manage to have two locations, Paris and Berlin?
It happened naturally. each of us moved for private reasons to each city. we never lived in the same, ever.
The choice of the cities was not conscience but happend naturally. We both do everything

** What are the pros and cons of working in a team rather than alone?
The same pros and cons than in any private relationship. You profit from sharing the good sides, you suffer from the bad sides.

 

** In 2002, in an interview for index magazine you mentioned the pleasure that was for you to receive proposals from jewelery firms to collaborate with them. This year you have been showing at the Abu Dhabi Pearl Festival. What did they propose you to do for the festival? How was the experience?
Aehm - actually the festival was canceled at the end. they payed for the project, but they never showed it on the festival. but still we profit from this experience, because the n°31 pearlpad sweater was born from this.

** You have collaborated, and still you do, with some of the most interesting artists and designers around, like Droog, Martin Margiela or Jean Colonna. How do you approach these artists?
We never aproched them. it came naturally along through common friends or products

** If something I really admire of your work is the mix of low-fi and high-intellectual + fun spirit that your pieces have. They invite people to think about their surroundings and to see everyday pieces in a different way. Is this spirit on purpose, or is just the way things get under your collaboration?
Thanks for the flowers.
You can say that since we don´t really intend to set up one style and we are interrested in so many fields and ways, it all happens naturally like this and reflects somehow our way of perceiving the world and sharing our personal values.

 

** Is recycling and re-using a motive in your designs?
It´s interresting, out of 3 interviews we gave this week, this question always occurs. somehow it seems to be a quite fashionable question at the moment.
But refering to your question: yes we sometimes re-use products. there is no eco conept behind. we just use existing products if they fit to what we need.
why creating something new, if the existing is perfect or can be easily modified for what you looking for.

 

** Do you feel any kind of personal pressure to avoid too much waste when it comes to create new products?
No, but we feel certainly not satisfied in creating rubbish. but unfortunately it´s not always possible to come straight to a stong point and there are inevitably losses, left overs and ugly prototypes on the way to the final product.

** What can you tell me about your latest collection, Ohyescoolgreat?
As the name says, we were quite enthousiastic about it and are looking forward to winter to come, that we can wear it

** Bless was born in 1995, what it means that it's been more than 10 years designing all kind of products, from fashion, to art, to product design... What's the general feeling about all these years?
Time passed by so fast. Many things changed and at the same time nothing.

 

** How the idea of produce a book came to life?
Many people knew only a little part of bless, but few people knew the global work and all the different projects we were involved. Therefore often people were confused.
The book is some sort of an archive or manual that guides those who are interrested through the bless world

 

** What are you planning for Design Expo in Lisbon this year?
oh - actually this project got canceled, too.
Instead we are working currently on an artist residence room in the south of France ( bless n°33 artistcare ), where we don´t really design the interiour, but rather design the set-up for a working process of an artis who would stay there: we realized a dream in creating the "workbed", a working table where you can flip the surface and it turns into a bed at night.
You are forced to make a decision, clean your working surface entirely off in the evening, to be able to use the bed and vice versa. it´s quite dictative as a proposition, but interesting.
it forces you to either work, or to rest, but not to mix up work with leisure. Opening is the 18th of October.

 

** Which artists or designers you relate to nowadays?
Too many and none in specific. luckily some are close friends.