One half of 032c’s founding duo, Maria Koch is the enigmatic force behind the brand’s new womenswear ready-to-wear collection, an industrial, club-ready offering that’s sexy, sparkly and very Berlin. So how does the designer spend her days? Below we quizzed Maria on what 24 hours in her Cosmic Workshop looks like, hoping to pick up some tips from Berlin’s most stylish woman (hint: it helps to be wearing 032c).

What time do you wake up and where? 
I wake up around 5.45am or 6am in my bed at home.

What’s the first thing you do in the morning? 
Look out the window and follow the treetop movements.

How would you describe what you do? 
I design and create clothes.

What does your average day look like? 
Wake up, coffee, cigarette. Check Instagram and the news and help along our teenage kids. Then I go for an hour-long walk with the dogs around the Grunewald lake and have more coffee (usually I don’t have breakfast). Then I drive with Joerg and the dogs to the office, do emails, meetings, take a lunch break - then more emails and more meetings. Usually fittings happen in the late afternoon. Then I drive home, have a drink in the garden, prepare supper, feed the dogs and have a family dinner. After that I take a late night walk through a beautiful little park around the corner. I go to bed around ten, and sometimes fall asleep to a documentary on art or Netflix.

Do you have any rituals?
The morning walks are important to me, and so is the evening drink in the garden with my husband.

How has your background influenced who you are today?
My background is the baseline of my character, of my physiological and psychological structure.

Where is your studio located?
It is on Potsdamerstrasse in Schöneberg.

Where did the name “Cosmic Workshop” come from?
It's a portmanteau, a play on 032c workshop and the 90s trance musician/ DJ Cosmic Baby. I loved listening to him after long rave sessions.

What tools do you keep in the Cosmic Workshop?
The tools aren’t the important part of the workshop – the people are. The team can make anything out of anything. They’re masters of DIY. 

What kind of music do you play whilst you work?
Usually, I don’t listen to music whilst doing emails and meetings… When I am in a creative process, I listen to some familiar favourites (pop, soul, blues). I call it taxi music. To discover new music or to create a new emotional music setup, I have date nights; just me and YouTube and some wine. Plus I love to sing in the car and while I’m cooking food.

Do you have a favourite piece from your debut 032c RTW collection?
I do. I really love all the sequinned pieces, and I’m very much into the ombre jackets! 

What’s on your bookshelf right now?
‘Der Jagdgebrauchshund: Erziehen · Abrichten · Führen’ (‘The Hunting Dog: Educate · Dress · Guide’) by Carl Tabel, the collected writings of Colette and the Morandi catalogue. 

What would you like to do that you currently can’t?
I wish I had the time and the budget to buy a dressage horse. A Trakehner.

Whilst working, where do you go and what do you do to take a break?
I sometimes go downstairs to a coffee shop to buy a matcha tea, and then I'll do lunch breaks, usually with Joerg or with someone from the team.

Where’s your favourite place in Berlin?
There are several… I love the Grunewaldsee, obviously my home, the New National Gallery, and the soon to be revamped Savoy Hotel.

What’s the best thing about the city?
The breadth, the parks and the nightlife.

Who’s the funniest person you know?
Marc Goehring (our fashion director) is really funny.

Who’s the most stylish person you know?
Me.

What would people be surprised to learn about you?
That I was in the Lower Saxony national cadre for dressage riding. 

What makes life worth living?
The sun and the moon.

What’s the last thing you do before bed?
Kiss my husband.

What do you dream about?
I am pretty much where I always wanted to be. But more time for reading, dancing, and for my family and friends.