The fashion designer, author and TV presenter Guido Maria Kretschmer has always found people who believed in him.

His sincere smile is that of a committed philanthropist—and also a door-opener in his eventful life. Guido Maria Kretschmer appears dynamic and youthful, yet pleasantly relaxed at a meeting on the occasion of his 60th birthday this Sunday.

Guido Maria Hermann Kretschmer was born on May 11, 1965, in Münster into a family of five children and grew up in the village of Einen near Warendorf. His grandmother and father had fled from Silesia. He describes his mother and grandmother as having a strong interest in fashion. "I understood early on that through fashion and clothing, you are part of a great transformation. And I found that a beautiful thought," Kretschmer told the German Press Agency (dpa). "Fashion is the skin of the soul."

As a young man, he quickly dismissed the idea of ​​studying medicine or becoming a nurse. He preferred to live in an old finca on Ibiza without electricity or running water. "I was very wild and outgoing. Tanned, long hair." He earned his living as a dancer in clubs. Until he sold his first self-sewn clothes at a hippie market in San Carlos.

The young Kretschmer soon met colorful personalities in his search for freedom: a brewery heiress, Nina Hagen, Grace Jones. One day, Udo Lindenberg's bassist stopped by looking for costumes for the band. Kretschmer made him brocade jackets. "I felt very early on that I could rely on myself. Because I came from a world where not much really happened except that you were loved."

Stewardesses soon began visiting his stand. This ultimately led to his first major order: uniforms for the crew members of Hapag-Lloyd Airlines. In 1989, he founded his first company, GMK by pepper, and the fashion label Guido Maria Kretschmer Corporate Fashion. The van Delden textile group became his business partner. Further orders for Deutsche Bahn, hotels, and airlines followed. Kretschmer opened showrooms in Münster, Berlin, Munich, and Palma de Mallorca. From 2004, he produced exclusive cocktail and evening wear under his label Guido Maria Couture.

Kretschmer attributes his self-confidence to the love he has experienced throughout his life. First from his parents, then from his current husband, Frank Mutters, with whom he has shared 40 years of his life and three dogs. "I have always been warm and open and kind to people." He believes the hippies taught him how to live consciously. Even today, he adds his salad water to the flowers in his garden in Hamburg-Blankenese.

Kretschmer still has a knack for both people and fashion. "If you master the art of fashion, package your body, desires, and soul differently, you can be anything. We are simply very visual creatures, and we succumb to the magic. That's fashion." He develops his annual collection in a weekend. He no longer produces the couture line—the environment has become too complicated, and materials often too expensive.

His successful television show "Shopping Queen" on the Vox television channel, which launched in 2012, also contributed to the end of the couture line. "I've moved from the Olympus of grand, elegant fashion to reality. For me, the customers are truly kings. I want them to have a good time. I love textiles and I know what they can do."

Kretschmer has also worked for theater and opera – at the encouragement of his friend, actress Katharina Thalbach. The transition was easy for the theater enthusiast and history expert. "I have a look in mind for every era in our history. I've done many beautiful things because people believed in me and opened doors. And then I marched through."

He is an aesthete through and through, meticulous and structured. He describes himself as dependent on axial symmetry, loves beautiful things, art, theater, opera, and ballet. He also appreciates beautiful interior design, even among his neighbors, and passionately tends to his garden. "I've become increasingly more subtle over the years." A sense of security and a belief in the good in the world sustain him. However, he has no use for excess. "I'm like a monk. Ora et labora (pray and work), that's me. Besides, I'm already high on life."

And what does he wish for his birthday, which he'd rather spend in contemplative peace? Nothing for himself, really. But a lot for the troubled world: "Not to torture animals, love children, let them grow up, see what becomes of them. To look at our existence a little more freely, with respect for all living things."