WASSERSTOFF

an extraordinary Swimwear-label from Germany

Designer: Gabriele Franke

The designer and owner Gabriele Franke designs each model from A to Z herself. Unusual patterns, extraordinarily good quality, best workmanship, and of course the perfect cuts make the difference.

The special features of the models

The design

Known for swim trunks with cheeky, unusual fabric patterns in fresh colors, like goldfish, lemons, or bananas, as well as for super-classic, stylish models in unusual fabric qualities like piqué fabric or elastic woven fabric.

Small series

No mass production, limited editions

One-Woman-Show

Everything from one hand

The quality

All materials are carefully selected to ensure that the customer enjoys their “WASSERSTOFF-favorite piece” for a long time. The fine fabrics and accessories come from Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Portugal - and are all OEKO-TEX certified.

High-quality workmanship

The high-quality workmanship is “Made in Portugal”.

Perfect fit

The perfect fit in all products.

In the Men in the classic swim pant, it is the “three seams in the front part” that take into account the male anatomy. I also like to explain this as a “comfort solution”. The insert in the front part is always fully lined.

Attention to detail

The small, finely coordinated details, such as the high-quality, matte brushed silver emblem on the hem with the equally high-quality silver-colored cord ends and eyelets. With the well-fitting waistband processing thanks to a 3cm wide elastic in appropriately matched elasticity and a cord made of swim fabric.

Durability

Very durable

wearing comfort

The sum of everything makes the pleasant wearing comfort, the “feeling good”.

For you, for our customers

The nicest compliments come from the customers: with a smile on their face during the fitting or a dreamy look when reminiscing about a favorite piece that has been loved for years and is now worn out.

Perfect fit

Perfect fit thanks to the “three seams in the front part”

Product lines for water men

Classic swim pant with perfect fit thanks to the “three seams” in the front part.

Who are the customers?

Individualists

These are individualists who love the special. They value what they wear and want to feel comfortable. They appreciate the design, quality, fit, and small details. They are WASSERSTOFF lovers.

Flair for favorite pieces

They usually own a whole collection of their personal WASSERSTOFF favorite pieces

Quality standards

They are demanding people.

Mindfulness, joy in details

They are mindful and open-minded people.

Casualness

Sporty-casual people

Yes to life

Active and cheerful people

Sustainability

Timeless people

WASSERSTOFF

The company founder Gabriele Franke was born in 1964 in the land of carp ponds. Classic school path: elementary school, high school diploma – with art, French, mathematics, and geography.

Then an apprenticeship in women's tailoring and subsequent studies to become a textile designer Dipl.-Ing. in Reutlingen, the Swabian textile metropolis.

Diploma thesis “Topic: Women's Lingerie”. No coincidence. To earn some money during her studies, she worked part-time as a saleswoman in “the Reutlingen clothing store”. One Saturday, she dressed a man and his family. As it turned out in the sales conversation, he was an underwear manufacturer in the Swabian Alb who immediately recruited her for his company. The course was set.

First job as a designer at the Swiss luxury brand Habella AG designing lingerie in silk satin with the finest lace or embroidery, Nightwear de Luxe, extravagant men's underwear, and men's swimwear. At that time, she lived on the German side of Lake Constance.

After three years as a cross-border commuter with a foreigner's permit, she decided to quit her job in Switzerland to become self-employed with her own collection.

• 1994: Founded the sole proprietorship Gabriele Franke Design in Uhldingen/Bodensee
• 2001: Moved to Aschaffenburg – also known as “Bavarian Nice”
• 2003: Founded Acquamare GmbH in Aschaffenburg

For the first 10 years, she had her products initially manufactured in Franconia and Swabia, and after the fall of the Berlin Wall in Thuringia and Saxony.

Due to the abolition of the previously valid Asian import restrictions in favor of the automotive industry and mechanical engineering, the possibilities for textile production in Germany unfortunately declined sharply, and she had to look for new alternatives.

Since 2004, production has been in beautiful Portugal.

The person Gabriele Franke is the brand

Textile designer & women's tailor

Talents, interests, skills & abilities, attitudes:

Creativity, designing, inventing, traveling, languages (French, English, Portuguese), drawing, photography, art & fashion, delicate work with hands, haptics, fabrics, photography, nature, animals, sun, beach & water, sports, sports, sports… swimming, sunbathing, long walks, endurance, books, reading, discovering the world anew with the eyes of a child, exploring, getting to the bottom of things, creating beauty from “nothing”, music, dancing, people, foreign cultures… Traveling: Europe, South America, America, North Africa, Asia.

Fresh natural food, passion, commitment, giving joy, zest for life, versatility, colors, patterns & color combinations, imagination, refinement, beauty, love for detail, care, a free spirit, idealist, rebel, sustainability, fair play, mindfulness.

And all of this is reflected in every WASSERSTOFF product.

The value of WASSERSTOFF swimwear is what one might call a 'value' in English. Swimwear that is not just for swimming, but something you have a relationship with. A beautiful compliment that Ms. Franke often hears from customers in this context is, 'my favorite swim trunks are the Pant Jungle – do you remember?' Or 'my favorite bikini, the one with the strawberries on it'... and then follows a sigh or an enchanted look.

So she is grateful & happy that she is able to live her versatility and she can (almost) say:

'I never worked a day in my life, it was all fun.' (Thomas Edison)

How did the name WASSERSTOFF come about?

In 1994, Gabriele Franke was sitting on a balcony at Lake Constance pondering a suitable name for her brand. She had many ideas, but it quickly became clear that it was not so easy to find a new, unused name. Sighing over this realization, she sat on the balcony with fabric in hand, looking at the water... FABRIC and WATER... FABRIC... naturally artistically results in WASSERSTOFF. The name was born: WASSERSTOFF Gabriele Franke Design ®. The exciting part is the double meaning of the word. WASSERSTOFF as a chemical element is known to everyone. WASSERSTOFF and Swimwear?

It makes you think. A challenging wordplay. A familiar word used in a new context.

The Brand

WASSERSTOFF Gabriele Franke Design ®

Everything from a single source

From the idea to the finished product: all processes are in the hands of Gabriele Franke.

The fabric selection takes place at the annual large swimwear fabric fair on the Côte d'Azur.

Creation, pattern development, photography, customer care, work preparation, control, scheduling, order creation, final quality control, shipping, and administration take place at the company headquarters in Aschaffenburg.

The size sets are created digitally in cooperation with a pattern maker in the region who has the necessary current software.

Each piece is carefully checked by a certified clothing engineer in the final goods control before it is shipped.

The sewing is done in Portugal, Guimarães – European Capital of Culture 2012. The factory specializes in the production of swimwear. 15 women work under the direction of a woman named 'Ana Paula', who is also called 'a patroa' in Portuguese. For production control, Gabriele Franke is repeatedly on site.

MADE with ♥