No wedding bells Why the designer is foregoing a marriage license

Wolfgang Joop has been together with his partner Edwin Lemberg for 45 years, but a wedding was never an option for the designer.

Wolfgang Joop, known for his exclusive fashion creations, has never designed a wedding outfit for himself. He has been in a relationship with Edwin Lemberg for many years, and they have been officially partnered since 2013. However, a traditional marriage was never part of their plans.

"We are a team"

The 79-year-old Joop and his partner never saw marriage as an option. "Perhaps because we didn't want to simply copy marriage as an originally heterosexual and conformist moral instance," explained Joop in an interview with 'Bunte'. Edwin added: "We are a team, accomplices, partners who work together and also work out the relationship again and again. Marriage is an aggregate state, rather passive and is perceived as a given." This philosophy has worked well for the couple. What unites them is the "euphoria of discovering art and artists of life together".

Wolfgang Joop is not thinking about quitting

In a few days, Wolfgang Joop will be celebrating a milestone birthday: on Monday, November 18, he will be 80 years old. In an interview with ZEITmagazin, he confessed that he never expected to grow so old: "This vulnerability, the feeling that something is happening to me that I can't control and that I don't know." After all, getting older is a new experience for everyone. However, Joop is not thinking about retirement. For him, work is "better than any headache pill... I don't moan about work. I'd rather be overemployed than underemployed," says the designer.

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