The Creator of Baal
I’m Jen and I’m non-binary.
Making clothes has always made me really happy and seeing other people content and beautiful in my designs compares to nothing. So here I am. I founded this transpositive fashion label in Berlin in 2013 and am now living between London and Palermo.
A conversation on one of the floats at the Christopher-Street-Day Parade in Berlin 2012 was really the starting point of what later became Baal fashion.
I love to work with unexpected materials and everything I create follows the “principle of subtle asymmetry”. It’s the second gaze I go for. Did I not get enough attention when I was younger? Yes probably, but if that’s what brought me to designing I don’t mind it so much. It’s interesting how much one needs to create really .. it’s in everything. It’s in dressing, it’s in cooking, it’s in working, it’s in creating a home. There is so much possibility for expression and creative expression really is life. Creation is life. I think it’s the neon green, multi-coloured heart print puffer jacket that my mum made me in the early 90s that introduced me to the power of fashion. Anyway, so thanks to a person at Berlin Pride in 2012 I found my passion and the niche that’s perfect for what I want in life and to this day I’m obsessed with the idea of making a third ( or fourth if you include childrens’ ) size possible and making the world a better place by creating more happiness.
I studied Fashion Design and graduated to a B.A. at a design school in Berlin, then proceeded to showcase my work at Berlin Fashion Week, Sparkle in the Park Manchester and Pride Week Hamburg. Unfortunately I then went through a very traumatic two years, that put a halt to Baal, but with help I worked myself out of horror and left Berlin.
In London I have since created another collection, spoken at Panels at Soho House and the Institute of Contemporary Art , given interviews for Der Spiegel and Rifemagazine in Bristol, organised Fashion shoots as well as Fashion shows in London, Bristol and Manchester and recently created costumes for the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire .