An interview with Asa Nisi Masa
Exploring Berlin's avant-garde fashion gem
Berlin, to most, isn’t the first city many people think about when they think about fashion. It primarily owes its vibrancy and attraction to its dancefloors, a diversity of electronic music and it being a testing ground for alternative modes of living in general. At least, this is what most people will tell you. But for the handful who have seen the deepest layers of fashion hell, Berlin marks one of the few sartorial safe havens away from the mainstream; it hosts the infamous Darklands after all – one of the first to stock the likes of Carol Christian Poell and Geoffrey B. Small under the same roof. But over the years, the city’s creative fertile ground has witnessed new sartorial entities crop up, one of which is Asa Nisi Masa. We had the fortune to sit down with the person behind one of the most exciting fashion resale stores of Germany and talked about his history, Berlin, the state of resale fashion and the importance of experiencing garments in real life rather than on a flat digital screen.
KURB
How do you pronounce the name of your store, and where does it come from?
Asa Nisi Masa
I didn’t actually come up with it. It’s from the film 8½ by Federico Fellini. It’s a made-up magic formula, so that’s where I took it from. But it doesn’t really have a concrete meaning and you can pronounce it the way you want.
KURB
Cool! Where did your fashion journey begin, and where are you from?
Asa Nisi Masa
I’m from Germany. I moved to Berlin for university and have been living there for four years now. I got into fashion quite early. It started with an interest in sneakers when I was around 13 or so. Luckily, I never had the money to really indulge in them. Otherwise, I’d probably still be stuck with a bunch of hideous and overpriced sneakers.
At some point, that passion shifted from sneakers to clothing, and eventually to designer fashion. That interest gradually eclipsed my interest in sneakers. My fascination with fashion has stayed ever since, though my taste has, of course, evolved over time.
KURB
If I look at your curation, I wouldn’t have suspected that the roots were sneakers. It’s definitely come a long way, I would have first assumed you were more of a boots kind of guy.
Asa Nisi Masa
Well, I still like wearing quite an unusual mix of brands and pieces, even though I’ve mostly left sneakers behind. When I first got into fashion, it took a while to figure out what I actually liked and what worked for me. Over time, I’ve become much more relaxed about it and started wearing simpler, more minimal pieces.
But taste tends to move in cycles. A lot of people start out wearing bold, experimental stuff and then gradually circle back to more conservative but well-made pieces. There are always these phases people go through when figuring out how to dress themselves.
KURB
Yeah. I agree, it’s a unique journey for everyone. What you described earlier that it’s like if you’re interested in something, you get to research it and you kind of find yourself entrenched in a specific niche that sort of carries you into the next fashion pitfall.
Through KURB, I feel like I am constantly researching the resale vendor scenes across the world, and to me the Berlin scene seems to be quite vibrant. How do you perceive it?
Asa Nisi Masa
Well, many stores based in Berlin primarily operate online, so it doesn’t really matter much to me whether they’re in Berlin or elsewhere in Germany. But factually speaking, Berlin is a big city that has long attracted alternative cultures, which in turn brought avant-garde clothing with them. As a result, there are quite a few second-hand designer stores here now. Some of them are really great, like Happy Victims for example.
The annoying thing about Berlin is that you actually don’t go to stores that often because they’re all so spread out across the city. On paper, Berlin isn’t that big compared to London or Paris, but the distances within the city are really long and everything is scattered. So it’s not like you can just say, “Okay, I have two hours, I’ll check out ten shops that are all next to each other.” Instead, you’ll spend forty minutes just getting from one store to the next. That means you end up visiting stores far less often than you’d like. It sounds banal, but it’s actually a real issue.
And then there’s the fact that physical stores usually can’t compete with online prices because of the overhead costs of running a brick-and-mortar space. So I only very rarely buy something in a store in Berlin.
KURB
I can imagine. When I dedicate time to go through shops, I try to move through clusters within a neighborhood. If the shops were spread out it would be a lot more arduous. I don’t want to be biking for like three hours, you know, backwards and forwards only to show up at everyone’s store with beads of sweat rolling off my face.
I would probably be more driven if there was some kind of event or I was meeting somewhere specific to hang out with someone who I knew at a shop, but there’d need to be more of a personal take. But then what inspired you to begin Asa Nisi Masa?
Asa Nisi Masa
Well, money, if I’m being honest (laughs). Asa Nisi Masa is my job, and I make my living from it. I think everyone who does what I do starts out by buying things and realizing that some items are really cheap in one place but can be sold elsewhere for more. Especially if you’ve spent a lot of time searching for pieces.
I’ve always spent a lot of time on second-hand platforms. At first not even with the intention of buying, but just to see what was out there. If you browse Farfetch, for example, you only see what’s being produced now. You don’t see what existed twenty years ago or the brands that have disappeared. And there are even designers like Carol Christian Poell or Carpe Diem that usually are not available online at all.
Over time, I noticed that some things were listed for ridiculously low prices, and I just couldn’t resist buying them because they were such a good deal. But then of course, what do you do with them? You have to sell them again. So I’d been doing that casually for a while before deciding to take it to a more professional level.
That said, the store isn’t only about money. Asa Nisi Masa also lets me live out my passion. It gives me the opportunity to handle and learn from many expensive garments I could never afford for myself, and to really study the differences between designers and their work. It’s also created a space for me to connect with people who share the same passion. That has been really rewarding over the years.
KURB
Reminds me of my university days, misappropriating my student loan while feverishly looking through Japanese second platforms. It really started one day where I found Carpe Diem s21m’s for 150 bucks And I was like, what the fuck? If you were to buy something of similar caliber retail now it would be a lot more; I could not pass it up. The boots came in and everything was beyond my expectations.
It’s also exciting to apply this kind forensic process to what you’re looking at. That pursuit, learning in the way you were describing is the most exciting. Buying secondhand designers offers a window into discovering all these hidden details that were previously beyond your comprehension and that were omitted from the listing.
On that note, are there any particular designers you felt were doing something exceptional?
Asa Nisi Masa
Yeah, it’s always interesting to see how things age, especially when they’re a bit older. Sometimes it’s surprising to realize that some highly sought-after designers actually don’t produce great quality. But then again, there are pieces that look totally boring online but turn out to be incredible in person because the cuts are so well thought out, and they have all these subtle, beautiful details. That’s often the case with Jil Sander pieces, for example.
But maybe the most fascinating garments come from really obscure avant-garde designers. I have a pair of Layer-0 derbies right now that were a custom order. They have so many crazy details. I also once bought a pretty large Carol Christian Poell collection that included really early pieces, and simply handling them was incredible.
But sometimes it’s also about simple vintage items. I have, for example, a pair of 1960s British Army shorts that sell for maybe fifty bucks, but they’re amazing because they have someone’s name inscribed inside and all these personal traces.
KURB
There’s also a bit of excitement in the gambling aspect of it. Like someone may know the exact model, season, SKU of an item, have all the details down but there’s so much more that can not be extracted from a digital secondhand listing until it’s actually in your hands. It reminds me of this chore jacket that was otherwise really mundane. But from the design I knew it was an old L’maltieri model but the fabric selection was off. I had never seen it used for other Carpe Diem items. But I decided to get it and it was, as I should have expected, just a fan rendition of the L’maltieri jacket except they had used a super nice raw linen for the lining and cashmere wool blend for the shell. I’ve had it for over 10 years now though - it kind of smells like a glass of turmeric at the moment.
Asa Nisi Masa
That’s true! But it can also be frustrating because some of my best pieces just don’t photograph well. You really need to feel the fabric and see how it moves on the body to understand why it’s a great piece. I try my best by taking lots of photos to capture the details, but not everything translates through a camera. There are designers whose pieces look quite plain in pictures, but when you see and feel them in person, it suddenly becomes clear why they’re exceptional.
KURB
Something I’ve come to realise through buying secondhand designer clothing is a massive quality shift. If I’m buying old Ann Demeulemeester versus new Ann Demeulemeester there is an immense difference in the attention to detail and fabric selection, where often the older pieces clearly outshine later produced ones.
Asa Nisi Masa
Oh yes, the difference can be huge and it’s especially noticeable with certain designers. But in general, quality isn’t getting any better.
KURB
I’ve always wondered why that is; the consumption of fashion is growing but the quality is going down. Have you speculated why that is?
Asa Nisi Masa
Well, I think people simply don’t care that much about quality or how things are made. A designer T-shirt with a logo on it, or a jacket worn by some celebrity – those things aren’t bought for their craftsmanship. So why would the fashion house bother improving it? I don’t think these brands are selling poorly just because their quality isn’t great.
And the customer base for high fashion has changed, too. It’s no longer limited to very wealthy people or hardcore fashion enthusiasts, it’s become a mass phenomenon. That shift in the audience, I think, has a lot to do with it too.
KURB
Yeah there’s a great Paul Harnden short video called Pattern Mill where he talks about the dying wool mill factories across the UK. It sort of resonates with what we’re speaking about, the erosion of an industry due to shifting cultural value that results in the depletion of certain modes of production. Consequently, if there are products which can’t be offered even if there’s demand because the factories to produce the textile no longer exist. In turn really illuminating how the secondhand market can excel in proposing products which are no longer economically feasible to produce.
Though sometimes there are still philanthropic designers who try to support these industries. Especially in countries like Belgium who have a great textile history and industry that is just very difficult to support due to competition from other parts of the world.
On to a different side of fashion macro-economics. How do you feel that the independent resale space is shifting?
Asa Nisi Masa
Good question. I get the sense that it’s still a growing market, with more and more sellers appearing all the time. And while I’m genuinely happy to see more great stores offering the things they love, there are also downsides.
It feels like many new stores just pop up out of nowhere, all offering the same overpriced pieces that fit a certain trendy aesthetic of the moment. You know, think of all those so-called “Y2K vintage shops” selling ten-year-old Zara tops for fifty euros. I feel like those kinds of sellers far outnumber the ones who actually have a unique sense of taste. But maybe that’s just me being pessimistic. How do you see it?
KURB
I think that on one hand you have this growing ecosystem, which is great for everyone in it. But then I think what makes it difficult is how does someone distinguish participants who offer clothing solely because of the business opportunity from those who create businesses to sustain their interest in fashion? I think those who have some kind of neurosis will always be in the minority but it doesn’t make the process of distinguishing any less murky.
There will always be actors who grab the business opportunity, like: here’s a (N)umber Nine t-shirt for 10 bucks where I know I’ve seen it go elsewhere for 150 – how can I pass that up? All I need to do is relist it ASAP, in turn propelling this house of cards.
Asa Nisi Masa
I agree. It’s great that there’s a thriving professional seller ecosystem, but sometimes these sellers really throw pricing into disarray. I often see people listing items at absurdly high prices, only to slowly drop them until they’re half of what they started at and then, when it still doesn’t sell, they just start the process over again. They clearly have no idea what things are worth.
And due to this, pricing eventually becomes completely arbitrary. And often, these sellers simply don’t care. That’s what bothers me. Not because they’re not allowed to do it; they can do whatever they want. But it leads to a general shift in perception, where people start to believe that prices are completely made up by sellers, detached from any real sense of value.
KURB
Yeah, often the price strategy conversation and its consequences are a whole world unto itself. But there’s also trends or who wore what that can really impact the value of some clothing. To me a lot of it is quite speculative.
Asa Nisi Masa
Yes, of course. And values change over time. But while it’s true that people approach pricing with their own ideas, and much of it is, in a way, made up, there are still reasonable price ranges you can arrive at with enough research. Like, a typical used Comme des Garçons shirt isn’t $50, but it’s also not $600. Depending on the condition and design, it will usually fall somewhere between $120 and $300, maybe a bit more if it’s something truly exceptional.
Sure, there are some niche designers where pricing becomes trickier because there’s almost no basis for comparison. But there are also cases where it’s quite straightforward, like selling CCP sneakers. It’s pretty clear what they go for, and if you price them even $50 lower, they’ll sell instantly.
KURB
I agree, I think after you’ve spent enough time in your niche you have an intuitive understanding of what the price is for certain items. But then I think, if you’re like a more predatory reseller, you try to find some maybe more naive because if you go to find a Homme Plisse in the store, it would be maybe 500 bucks, but then on resale you would expect there to be maybe 200 to 300. But not everyone is familiar with those market differences.
Asa Nisi masa
Yeah, that’s true. But 80% of our business really comes down to the cost of opportunity anyway. We invest money and that money sits in the clothes. It’s not available for anything else. So selling something for a higher price doesn’t necessarily mean making more profit. If it takes much longer to sell at a slightly higher margin, compared to selling it faster at a still-satisfying profit, the latter can actually be better for business. It allows you to reinvest the money or use it for something more important at that moment.
KURB
You’ve put together quite a unique band of designers of Asa Nisi Masa. What kind of customers has your curation generally attracted?
Asa Nisi Masa
It’s a bit hard to say because most of my business happens online, so I don’t meet most of my clients in person. Generally, though, my audience tends to be a bit older, which I’m quite happy about. My experience is that most of my clients aren’t hardcore fashion people; they’re not nerds. They usually work in completely different fields and have other passions, too. Fashion is just one of them.
KURB
And what about the designers you sell? How do you select those?
Asa Nisi Masa
I sell quite a diverse group of designers. My main focus is Comme des Garçons and its countless sublines, but I also carry other Japanese designers and quite a few Belgian ones, especially Dries Van Noten. On top of that, I stock a lot of avant-garde designers, especially CCP and Paul Harnden, but I usually also have one or two pieces from Carpe Diem, Deepti, Elena Dawson, and Rick Owens.
That said, I also appreciate other aesthetics. I always have pieces from more minimalist designers like Lemaire or Jil Sander, and I usually include some vintage pieces as well.
But one thing is the name on the tag – the other is which pieces you choose from each brand. For example, I regularly sell Thom Browne, and while there’s a lot from him that doesn’t appeal to me, every now and then there’s a truly great piece, which I’ll happily offer. So, the designer’s name isn’t always the most important factor, it is more about the individual piece.
KURB
Ahh that’s a really fun way to organise a curation. Instead of specifying select designers, you sample across a diversity and sort select elements from their work which speak best to you and your clientele. So in the end you’re really offering a personal curation based on your knowledge.
It’s somewhat similar to how I organise my wardrobe - which can appear quite disparate. There will be Carol next to Plantation next to Y’s next to Tsumori Chisato but then what binds it together is my personal opinion on what’s good.
Asa Nisi Masa
Exactly. I definitely inject my own taste into the selection, so it’s always a mix of what I like and what I think my clients will appreciate. But generally speaking, I need to have a genuine interest in what I source. I wouldn’t sell something I don’t like at all.
However, there’s also the business side of it. There are pieces I’d love to offer, but sometimes the margins just don’t make sense. Sadly, that’s part of the game too.
KURB
What do you think has been the most interesting insight from a client and what is something you’ve learned in this journey?
Asa Nisi Masa
Well, first and foremost, it’s always fun to meet clients! If you’re ever in Berlin, you can just come by and try on the pieces in person – just send me a message if you’re interested. That’s how I meet most clients, and it’s always fascinating to see their perspectives and what kind of people they are.
My clients are really diverse. Many are a bit older; some are only in Berlin on vacation, others live here permanently. Their jobs range from successful musicians to doctors or accountants. But they all bring their own sense of taste, and one of the best parts of running the store is seeing how they wear the pieces they’ve bought from Asa Nisi Masa.
KURB
On a final note, is there something coming up you’d like to shout out?
Asa Nisi Masa
I’m always excited about offering new clothes and a new drop is always coming very soon. Adding to that, I love seeing pieces I’ve personally selected find their way to someone who truly appreciates them. The thought that someone somewhere in the world found their perfect piece of clothing from some obscure guy in Germany, that never gets old. I just hope for many more of those moments in the future.
