Armin Morbach - from colourful dog to fashion expert

FROM A COLOURFUL CHARACTER TO A FASHION EXPERT

Black horn-rimmed glasses, three-day stubble, a cap, a mischievous smile – and already poking his finger into the next sore spot: Armin Morbach is not only a jack-of-all-trades on the German fashion scene, but also a voice of warning, a visionary and a trailblazer. We spoke to him about the current image of men, his coming out in provincial Bavaria and irony.

A kiss on the left, a kiss on the right, and then badmouthing them behind their backs? A common prejudice in the fashion world centres on the alleged lack of honesty, on turf wars and mudslinging away from the catwalks. With his unsparing honesty, Armin Morbach seems to be a counter-example who – whether he likes it or not – is setting the record straight for an entire industry. Anyone who speaks to the Hamburg resident doesn’t get trite phrases or flowery descriptions, but an honest opinion. And so one believes the 49-year-old when he says that he “always had to fight harder than others.”

The path into the fashion industry

The professional success of this trained barber is also rooted in this attitude: after completing his hairdressing apprenticeship, Armin worked in the USA, founded a make-up agency, launched TUSH magazine despite a reading and spelling disability, established the artist agency Ballsaal Artist Management and the production company HOWtoDO Production, became an internationally sought-after hair and make-up artist, and for the past ten years has also been determining how models are styled from behind the camera. When a photographer failed to turn up for a shoot, he stepped into the role of visual artist – and took a liking to it.

“As a photographer, you have more power than a stylist; you create in a completely different way. You gain greater recognition from the client,” says Armin, explaining the appeal of his new role. He is now a sought-after artist, exhibiting internationally alongside his commissioned work for clients, and has been included in the renowned collection of his patron, F. C. Gundlach. His works are much like the artist himself: pointed, provocative and often hyperreal: a face pierced with needles, diabolical masks made of red fingernails, or a model dressed up as a doll. “I don’t want to provoke just to draw attention to my pictures, but to spark something,” reveals the creative artist.

Shitstorms and irony

It’s understandable that not everyone appreciates these provocations. However, Armin learned a few years ago that social media can also be a place where ignorance and prejudice escalate into a shitstorm. When a model wanted to be photographed with a gag in her mouth, the image met with incomprehension. Complete strangers accused him of having “sick fantasies” and of intending to “silence” the woman in the picture. After two days, Armin deleted the image from his Instagram feed: “I don’t always want to have to explain myself.”

It wasn’t the first attempt to intimidate the Madonna fan: Armin talks about alleged nude photos, secret snaps in disco toilets and hostility on the red carpet as matter-of-factly as if he were discussing his weekly shop at the market. “I’ve needed a lot of irony over the past 35 years,” he says, explaining his secret recipe for coping with the madness of everyday life. “Besides, I learnt from my grandma to think first, and then act.” Although his experiences with social media haven’t been entirely positive, he wouldn’t want to have missed the developments of recent years: “It’s created loads of jobs, shaken up the fashion industry, pissed on its leg – and it’s still wet!”

A break from the fashion world

To get some distance from his tightly scheduled work, Armin commutes from the glitzy fashion industry to the grounding embrace of Hamburg. Near the Schwarze Berge wildlife park, weekends are spent baking cakes, pruning trees and taking long walks with his three dogs. They are the yin to the stressful yang: “Dogs really help me unwind; it’s like meditation. They take the stress away when they lie down next to you.” No wonder that in his otherwise impeccably styled Instagram feed, the first three photos are dedicated to the dogs.

On the platform, he also raises his voice to fight for gay rights. Partly because he knows what it’s like to be excluded: growing up in the small town of Haag in Upper Bavaria, “I was a bit of an odd one out – but I also had a colourful mother,” Armin says of his childhood. He himself “always knew I was gay. And I thought my parents knew too.” Until the day his father caught the 15-year-old with his ballet friend. What followed was a stern reprimand, the order to get straight into the car, an agonising silence on the drive home, and tears. Yet his parents stood by their son. The bond remains close to this day, “my parents also work with me in the studio.”

“Many men are insecure”

The original judge from the first two series of “Germany’s Next Topmodel” is true to himself – not a given these days, as he observes. Men in particular are unsettled: “Many wonder what they’re allowed to say. How, for example, should you pay someone a compliment in a restaurant? It’s interesting because you’d think we’d be much further along by now. We’re going backwards in time,” says Armin. “Personally, I don’t think it’s a bad thing if a woman says she feels at home. But you have to be careful what you say, because you’re quickly labelled a chauvinist.”

In his view, this uncertainty is compounded by a mix of prudish attitudes (“Who on earth talks about sex in public these days?”) and modern dating tools: “We’ve forgotten how to be sexual and how to explore each other’s bodies. Thanks to Tinder, Grindr and whatever else those apps are called, I know what the other person’s into after just five minutes.” For Armin, life could therefore happily take place more in the “real” world again: he dreams of opening his own vegan bakery, wants to launch the “Restaurant Liebe” and is set to launch a new TV programme in 2021. So he’s got plenty to do. “I used to want to retire at 45 or 50. My new goal is to retire at 55,” he laughs.

A life story like that practically cries out for a biography, and indeed, a book about his life is firmly in the pipeline. “But not while my parents are still alive. I can’t do that to them,” says Armin, half-jokingly, half-seriously. “It won’t be a conventional biography, but rather a description of how I got to where I am now.” Including the nights spent on the beach and begging on the streets of Miami. The abuse he faced because of his sexuality. But also the many positive experiences Armin has gathered at every new turning point in his life and his work in the fashion industry. He’s simply always fought his way through.

Want to meet more fascinating characters? Click here for the profile of Peter Gebhard, who’s living the dream in his VW T1!