WASSERSTOFF

an Extraordinary Swimwear Label from Germany

Designer: Gabriele Franke

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

The Special Thing About the Swim Pants

The Design

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

Small Series

No bulk goods, limited editions

One Woman Show

All from a single source

The Quality

All materials have been carefully selected to ensure that the customer can enjoy his “Favorite WASSERSTOFF part” for a long time. The fine fabrics and accessories come from Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Portugal - and are all OEKO-TEX certified.

High Quality

The high-quality processing is "Made in Portugal".

Perfect Fit

The perfect fit for all products.

For men in classic bathing pants, it is the “three seams in the front” that take the male anatomy into account. I also like to explain this as a “comfort solution”. The insert in the front is always fully lined.

Attention to Detail

The small, finely coordinated details, such as the high-quality, matt-brushed silver emblem on the hem with the high-quality silver-colored cord ends and eyelets. With the well-fitting waistband thanks to a 3cm wide elastic with appropriately adjusted elasticity and a cord made especially from bathing fabric.

Longevity

Very durable

Wearing Comfort

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

For You, for Our Customers

The loveliest compliments come from customers: with a smile on their face when they try them on, or with a transfigured look when they rave about a favorite item they have loved for years and have now worn out.

Perfect Fit

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

Product Lines for Aquarians

Classic swim pants with a perfect fit thanks to the "three seams" in the front.

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, the quality, the fit and the small details. They are WASSERSTOFF lovers.

Flair for Favorite Pieces

Most of them have a whole collection of their personal favorite WASSERSTOFF pieces.

Quality Claim

They are demanding people.

Attention, Pleasure in Details

They are mindful and open-minded people.

Looseness

Sporty, casual people

Yes to Life

Active and fun-loving people

Sustainability

timeless people

WASSERSTOFF

Company founder Gabriele Franke was born in 1964 in the land of carp ponds. Classic way to school: elementary school, high school – with art, French, mathematics and geography.

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

Diploma thesis “Lady lingerie”. No coincidence. In order to earn some extra 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 talk, he was a lingerie manufacturer in the Swabian Jura 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, deluxe nightwear, extravagant men's underwear and men's swimwear. Living at this time at Lake Constance on the German side of the lake.

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

• 1994 Foundation of the sole proprietorship Gabriele Franke Design in Uhldingen/Lake Constance
• 2001 Move to Aschaffenburg - also called the "Bavarian Nice".
• 2003 Founding of Acquamare GmbH in Aschaffenburg

For the first 10 years, she had the company produce in wage labor, initially in Franconia and Swabia, and after the fall of the Berlin Wall in Thuringia and Saxony.

Unfortunately, due to the abolition of the Asian import restrictions in favor of the automotive industry and mechanical engineering that had been in force up to that point, the possibilities for textile production in Germany went downhill and they had to look for new alternatives.

Production has been in beautiful Portugal since 2004.

The Person Gabriele Franke is the Brand

Textile Designer & Dressmaker

Talents, Interests, Skills & Abilities, Attitudes:

Imagination, design, invention, travel, languages ​​(French, English, Portuguese), drawing, photography, art & fashion, filigree work with the hands, haptics, fabrics, photography, nature, animals, sun, beach & water, sports, sports , Sports... Swimming, sunbathing, long walks, stamina, books, reading, discovering the world again and again through the eyes of a child, exploring, getting to the bottom of things, creating beautiful things from "nothing", music, dancing, people, strangers Cultures… Travel: Europe, South America, America, North Africa, Asia.

Fresh natural food, passion, commitment, giving joy, love of life, versatility, colors, patterns & color combinations, imagination, subtlety, beauty, attention to detail, diligence, a free spirit, idealist, rebel, sustainability, fair play, mindfulness.

And all of this can be found in every WASSERSTOFF product.

The value of WASSERSTOFF swimwear is, as they say in English, a "value". Swimwear that you don't just bathe in, but that you have a relationship with. A wonderful compliment that Ms. Franke keeps hearing from customers in this context is “My favorite swimming trunks are the Pant Jungle – do you remember? Or "my favorite bikini, the one with the strawberries on it"... and then a sigh or an ecstatic look follows.

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

"I haven't worked a single day in my life, it was all just fun." (Thomas Edison)

How Did the Name WASSERSTOFF Come About?

In 1994, Gabriele Franke sat on a balcony on Lake Constance and pondered about a suitable name for her brand. She had so many ideas, but it quickly became apparent that finding a new name that wasn't yet taken wasn't that easy. Sighing at this realization, she sat on the balcony with the fabric in her hand and looked at the water... MATERIAL (Stoff in german) and WATER (Wasser in german)... MATERIAL... artistically speaking, of course, results in WASSERSTOFF. The name was born: WASSERSTOFF Gabriele Franke Design ® The exciting thing about it is the ambiguity of the word. WASSERSTOFF as a chemical element is known to everyone. WASSERSTOFF and swimwear?

Makes you think. A challenging word game. A familiar word used in a new context.

The Brand

WASSERSTOFF Gabriele Franke Design ®

All from a Single Source

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

The selection of fabrics takes place at the annual bathing fabric fair on the Côte d'Azur.

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

The size sets are created digitally and are created in cooperation with a pattern maker in the region who has the necessary up-to-date software.

Before delivery, each item is carefully checked by a qualified clothing engineer in the final goods inspection before it is dispatched.

The sewing workshop is in Portugal, Guimarães - World Heritage Capital 2012. The factory specializes in the production of swimwear. 15 women work under the direction of a woman “Ana Paula” in Portuguese she is also called “a patroa”. Gabriele Franke is always on site to check production.

MADE with ♥