What is your favorite piece of jewelry and what is your connection with it?
I always wear the wedding band of my parents and in the moments where I don´t know what to do, I play with it until I come up with a smart thought. It is the ring of my mother, which is why the name of my dad is engraved in it. Like this I permanently carry a little piece of memory of them with me – a beautifully calming thought.
Where do you store your jewelry?
I should really take more care of my jewelry, because its mostly scattered around my apartment in random drawers and boxes. It’s a complete chaos. And because I am afraid to loose my most treasured pieces, I mostly wear all of them at once.
Why did you choose your Respect the Beautiful necklace? Was it the sentence or the color of the gold?
For years I would only consider classic gold tones. I assume because every single woman in my family behaves exactly like that. And that´s although white gold really is so young and modern and carefree, god knows, which is why this only hit me when “Respect Fairytales” came into my possession. And another mistaken thought: Because I would never not wear my parents wedding band, logically everything would need to be in the same gold tone – complete bullshit. A wild mix is just as beautiful to look at.
What do you love about being a woman?
I love women for their strengths, for their courage, to show weakness, for the gift to look at heart and mind as one and for the way they see the world. As a place where you can be who ever you want to be, with flaws and mistakes, every existing feeling and free thoughts. For me the most beautiful thing about being a woman is the wonderful ability to change, each day is new. Naturally this is also true in regards to fashion, but especially in ones mind. I think that there are incredible powers in all of us, and motivation. Maybe because we know, that we haven´t arrived in an equal society.
A woman that you especially admire…
I am deeply impressed by Malala Yousazai. The youngest peace Nobel price winner of the world and most certainly one of the bravest women on this planet. Because she wrote an online journal on the war in Pakistan and she advocated against the Sharia, radical Islamists tried to take her life when she was only 16 – Malala survived and is louder than ever. She could have gone into hiding, instead she went in the other direction, offensively talking in front of the United Nations and advocating for the right of education for girls. Someone this young with being such a tremendous role model, who has the ability to inspire people all over the world to act and think, is truly an inspiration.
You can definitely be considered a role model for your readers and you give modern feminism and the different roles that women have today a face. Do you make decisions or handle hurdles because of that differently or did this aspect make you more aware of your own percipience?
I definitely maneuver more aware through the world and I asses certain changes in our society not differently but more sharply. When there are people permanently looking at you and your texts, you automatically start to look at things from different perspectives, even more than you normally would. You absorb everything in order to not miss the slightest facet, you are more reflective. Back in the days I didn´t think about gender language, it was just not important to me, if there were only politicians mentioned although there were also female politicians involved. That has definitely changed. Maybe because I now understand that gendering is more than correctly using words, it is mostly one thing: value, in a society in which women still have to fight for equal opportunities.
What do you think makes you a #vieriwoman?
I don´t always know what I want, but I do know what I don´t want. Namely that everything stays the way it is. I want progress, change, equality and luck. That to me is quite like #vieri.
VIERI exclusively works with ethically sourced gold and the respect towards all humans involved in process of gaining the resource is a main concern. Did in your opinion the interaction with fashion really change in the last years?
I really hope so. It certainly feels that way, as if after years of complete oversaturation people are looking for less of a burden, and I mean that in a material as well as in an ethical-moral way. Sure, we as consumers still have a long way ahead of us, one where we most definitely will stumble from time to time. There is a definite need to people, that take us by the hand and show us how it can be done.
Do you notice a change with your readers? Are they becoming more critical and question certain things more?
It is quite hard to talk about the behavior of our readers in general; behind every click is a different person. I do feel that we are going through changes together, piece-by-piece. The more we write about sustainable consumption and the more we question the whole business, the more critical the voices are getting of the people who follow us.
If you could fulfill yourself one dream, what would it be?
I would love to place Berlin in the Rheinland, like everything completely. Because that would mean that I wouldn´t have to choose between my favorite city and my home.