Background and career
Wolfgang Joop (born 18 November 1944) is a German fashion designer. He is the founder of the fashion and cosmetics company JOOP! as well as the fashion brand Wunderkind.
Joop was born in Potsdam to editor and author Gerhard Joop and his wife Charlotte. He grew up on his grandparents' farm in Bornstedt until 1954, when his family moved to Braunschweig, where his father had been hired as chief-editor of cultural magazine Westermanns Monatshefte. During the GDR period, Ulla Ebert, the sister of Joop's mother, lived in the property and was financially supported for its preservation by the family from the West. After the German reunification, Joop's parents moved back to Bornstedt. After getting his Abitur in 1964 at the Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Braunschweig, Joop began studies in advertising-psychology in 1966 at the Braunschweig University of Technology, which he did not finish. After dropping out, he worked as a restorer. In 1968, he began studies in art education that he also did not finish.
Joop began his career in 1970, when he took part to a competition by German women's magazine Constanze with his then-wife Karin Benatzky and they were awarded all three first prizes. This success landed him a job as fashion editor at the Hamburg-based women's magazine Neue Mode in 1970, from which he resigned in 1971 to continue working independently, including as a freelance journalist and designer. Joop achieved international success in 1978 with his first fur collection. In 1985, he was invited to become a guest lecturer of fashion design at the University of the Arts in Berlin. He was made honorary professor in 1987.
In early 1982, Joop presented his first ready-to-wear women's collection, followed by his first men's collection in 1985. Two years later, with the launch of his first perfume collection, he made his name a trademark, with capital letters to symbolise energy along with an exclamation mark. Clothes, shoes, jewelry, eyeglasses, and perfume were immediately available under this brand. The "JOOP!" label became available for licensing, and Joop's company no longer produced any of its own goods for sale. Since 1997, Joop's products have been sold through JOOP! GmbH with the exception of Parfum JOOP!, which was sold to Coty/Lancaster in 1991 followed by licensee contracts. In 1998, Joop sold 95% of his JOOP! shares to Wünsche AG for 150 million Deutsche Mark, but remained the brand's creative director. In 2001, he sold the remaining 5% and left the company.
In 2003, Joop and his partner Edwin Lamberg founded the high-end couture fashion label Wunderkind. Joop first presented Wunderkind with the Fall/Winter collection 2003 in Potsdam to an audience of press and retail guests. Wunderkind made its international début in New York City in September 2004, when it was invited by the CFDA to premiere the collection at New York Fashion Week, and moved to Paris in 2006. Boutiques were opened in Berlin, London, and Sylt. In January 2011, it was reported that Wunderkind faced restructuring, with the dismissal of almost all its staff, and its March Paris Fashion Week show was cancelled. That same year, Joop designed the bridal gown worn by Princess Sophie of Isenburg for her marriage to Prince Georg of Prussia in August. After over a year of inactivity, Wunderkind presented a new show in Potsdam on 10 May 2012. A new general manager was put in place and there are plans to open another store in Berlin and for steady but slower growth.
Independently from his labels, Joop released two men's perfumes in collaboration with Coty Prestige: Wolfgang Joop (2008) and Wolfgang Joop: Freigeist (2010). In late 2009, he began a collaboration with the Bayreuth-based healthcare company medi, for which he designed a series of high-priced compression stockings that he also presented at the Paris show of his label Wunderkind in late 2009. He worked with medi again in 2012. In October 2010, Joop became a creative consultant for Galeria Kaufhof. In September 2011, the collection "GALERIA 1879 by Wolfgang Joop", named after the founding year of the chain, was made available for sale in all Kaufhof stores.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
