00:00Avant-garde, sculptural, and maybe even a bit scary.
00:05This looks less like the fashion you might see on the runway
00:07and more like something out of a horror movie.
00:10For me, it's the projection of my emotions and thoughts.
00:15Where others have words, I have shape.
00:18It means a lot to me. It's like therapy for me.
00:22Rehbar Aziz is the mind behind these designs
00:24worn by artists like Noah Cyrus, Doja Cat
00:28and mavericks like Lady Gaga and Björk, who he even called his childhood icon.
00:36But Lady Gaga is perhaps his most important client.
00:39They've worked together several times in recent years
00:41and he thanks her for his big break.
00:44I think we have a very similar language.
00:47She and her performance and singing,
00:49and me with colors and shapes and materials.
00:52We speak the same language, just differently.
00:57Rehbar Aziz creates big concepts for big artists.
01:00So it only makes sense that he works from the world-famous fashion capital,
01:05Forzheim.
01:07I like Forzheim.
01:08Anything special to do in Forzheim?
01:11Yeah, feed ducks by the river.
01:14Forzheim sits in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg,
01:17not far from Stuttgart.
01:19With about 130,000 residents, it's technically a big city,
01:23but from these quiet streets, you wouldn't really know it.
01:29Rehbar works in a former public bathhouse
01:31that has been converted to a shared arts center.
01:33His atelier is where the dog salon once was.
01:37So how did such an in-demand designer end up in a place like Forzheim?
01:42When I was six years old, my father sent me to Germany from northern Iraq.
01:47Speaking in school was totally different.
01:49I didn't understand people, they didn't understand me,
01:52so I was very quiet at first.
01:55Rehbar grew up in Heidelberg in Stuttgart,
01:57but stayed in touch with his family back in Iraq.
02:00After high school, he moved to Forzheim to study.
02:04In my family, it was always important to be a doctor or an engineer.
02:09So for my mother's sake, I studied mechanical engineering.
02:15But fashion was always what I wanted to do because of my father.
02:20He was a traditional tailor.
02:22During the war, he and his assistants even tailored and sewed uniforms.
02:26He was a very famous tailor.
02:28Right before my graduation, I switched to fashion.
02:33While his designs may seem like they're from another reality,
02:36the tools he uses are deeply rooted in his past.
02:40These are some very old sheers from my dad.
02:43They're very, very old.
02:45And every year he would send me some scissors.
02:49My father's are, of course, a very emotional and personal thing.
02:54But they're also extremely good in quality.
02:58And the quality is extremely good.
03:00Simple tools that bring Rehbar's wild imagination to life.
03:04And speaking of a wild imagination, there is one figure from German history that may be his biggest influence.
03:12This guy.
03:13King Ludwig II of Bavaria.
03:16Sometimes called the Mad King, Ludwig II is known for his world-famous Neuschwanstein castle, which was never fully completed.
03:23In his time, he was said to be crazy.
03:26He devoted himself to wild artistic and architectural projects and retreated from the public eye.
03:31So why does Rehbar find him so fascinating?
03:37Because he was so obsessed with creating his own world, which others didn't understand.
03:43He wanted to replace guns with violins.
03:45He oriented everything to his own world rather than the one in which he actually lived.
03:51So he created his own world.
03:53Just like I sometimes create my own world.
03:56At just 36, Rehbar is proving to be a young star in the fashion world.
04:01In July 2026, he showed his latest Haute Couture collection in Paris.
04:05And even though he's constantly on the road, he's not ready to leave Pforzheim just yet.
04:13Pforzheim has a strange energy and a beautiful energy.
04:17A sad and even a new energy, but I like it.
04:22Pforzheim is, for me, a place where I can work quietly.
04:27Where I can do what I love and where it's not so loud.
04:31From immigrating to Germany as a child, to styling global icons, Rehbar Aziz is bringing his vision to the world
04:38stage.
04:38Right from Fforzheim.
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