Wild One

How Philipp Plein is transforming the idea of luxury with his irreverent designs.

- Priya Rao

Philipp Plein likes to push the envelope. First there are his clothes: for spring, the designer trotted out bomber jackets imprinted with ferocious tiger heads, navy sweatpants set ablaze with flames, and denim ripped and torn so many times it’s surprising that the jeans were able to stay on his models at all. And then there are his runway shows: this past season, front-row guests were treated to a twisted Grease-Evel Knievel mashup, with songs like “Summer Nights” blasting loudly overhead as motorcycles, Ferraris, and monster trucks screeched by. Vogue.com christened Plein “the Donald Trump of fashion designers.”

But the 39-year-old, Munich-born Plein doesn’t consider comments like that insulting. Describing his last collection, he says with a figurative shrug, “We always do a certain kind of luxury ‘tacky.’ You can call it street couture.”