How harem pants captivated us

Seen once, loved instantly.

How did it all begin? Well, it’s actually quite a funny story. Johannes, our co-founder of the virblatt project, returned from his trip to Asia wearing this wide-cut something-or-other. He attracted curious but skeptical looks. Were baggy pants fashionable again, or what exactly was this? No. Johannes had simply brought a pair of harem pants back to Germany and proceeded to wear them day in, day out. He was—and still is—convinced of their comfort and airy feel. Suddenly, we thought: Hey, that actually looks really good. We didn’t even have to ask ourselves: “What do you wear with harem pants?” “Which top goes with harem pants?” “Which shoes go with harem pants?” or “How do you wear harem pants?” Johannes had set the style, and we all followed him. 

What do you wear with harem pants?

Since harem pants have a loose cut and are therefore very eye-catching, it’s a good idea to pair this style of pants with a simple or close-fitting shirt. This keeps your everyday or festival outfit from looking overloaded and gives it an elegant look that makes an impression on others. Johannes had already found the perfect shoes on his trip, too: summer shoes for men made of hemp. A pair of slippers, espadrilles, or hippie sandals. Whatever you want to call them, they went perfectly with the unisex harem pants for women and men. 

What happened next?

There were four of us, and we had an idea. Why not start our own small fashion brand and create individual clothing for like-minded people and young people like us? An audience that lives a somewhat alternative lifestyle and, let’s say, thinks differently and outside the norm. People who sometimes party until sunrise and enjoy the day in the park with a few herbs. Yes, well… people like us. 

And that’s exactly what we did. We each put 250 euros into a pot and used it to buy our first beautiful pieces in Thailand. Everything still went through friends and colleagues on site, but it was clear that something was taking shape. Even though for a long time we hadn’t started a business so much as an extremely time-consuming hobby, it was clear that we were moving abroad—to Thailand. There, we found cotton harem pants and bought them off the rack until we quickly grew bored of that. Okay, enough—back to square one. We renamed our brand from bonzaai to virblatt and, from day X onward, designed all our models ourselves, creating our very own clothing style. And naturally, that led to us adding our hemp summer shoes for men and women to the range. They’re even more beautiful than Johannes’s original pair. ;) If you’re interested in hemp shoes, just take a look here.

And what have we become today?

Well, what else? We’re carrying on cheerfully and take great pleasure in delighting you with new styles and designs. Here, you can submit a design suggestion, and we’d love to hear from you. Even though we’re now scattered all over the world, this shared project unites us and is very close to our hearts. Thank you, Johannes, for perhaps unintentionally but nonetheless initiating and launching this journey. Onward!