History & founder
About Wsiura
Wsiura Designer Vintage Archive — known simply as Wsiura — was founded in 2017 by designer and costume artist Grzegorz Matląg, who works under the pseudonym Maldoror, at Sanderstraße 22 in the Neukölln–Kreuzberg border district of Berlin; the shop later relocated to its current address, Sanderstraße 2. Its sibling shop, Lafirynda, operated in Paris; Lafirynda's Paris location has since closed, with its archive — including pieces by de Castelbajac, Montana, Lacroix, and McQueen/Galliano-era Givenchy — consolidated into Wsiura Berlin.
Matląg adopted the name Maldoror from Les Chants de Maldoror (1869), the transgressive surrealist-precursor novel by the Comte de Lautréamont — a deliberate choice, made because he did not want to design under his own name. He began producing designs for sale in late 2007, followed by his first full collection in early 2008, and went on to present collections at Fashion Week Poland and at international fashion weeks in Berlin, Vienna, and Reykjavík, as well as trade fairs in Amsterdam. He describes his design practice as "low couture" — deconstructing ready-made garments, working with materials including VHS tape, and returning each season to gothic aesthetics. In 2013 he relocated from Poland to Berlin, and in 2017 opened Wsiura.
Since 2019, Matląg has worked as resident costume designer for the Malmö-based dance company Dance is Ancient, led by choreographer Frédéric Gies — an ongoing role that has placed his work at Sophiensæle (Golden Gate, with Ania Nowak, 2022), Weld and Inkonst in Sweden, Moving in November in Helsinki, and, in productions choreographed with Anne Juren, at ImPulsTanz — Vienna International Dance Festival, Wien Modern, and brut Wien, with support from the City of Vienna's cultural department and Austria's Federal Ministry of Arts and Culture. He has also made costumes for choreographers Ania Nowak and Jeremy Wade. This costume practice, alongside the fashion label, informs the eye behind Wsiura's own archive selection.
His work has been included in two museum exhibitions: "Pocałunek nie zabija. Ania Nowak i gościnie" at the Museum of Modern Art Warsaw (2023), and "Nowa moda polska. Kronika głębokich uczuć," an ongoing survey of 21st-century Polish fashion at the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź (2026–2027), held under the honorary patronage of Poland's Minister of Culture and National Heritage. He is profiled by Poland's Adam Mickiewicz Institute as a fashion designer and theatre costume designer.
The shop itself is arranged over a small ground floor and a basement reached by a steep staircase, styled with theatrical intent — visitors have described it as resembling a dungeon.1 It includes a parachute-fabric fitting room and a dedicated kimono collection.2 The basement holds a fixture visitors have specifically noted: a swing.3
"I curate like an old Polish grandmother — no acrylic, only wool and silk. We repair and restore, so almost everything is in perfect condition; that's why you rarely find anything here under €80." Grzegorz Matląg, in SIEGESSÄULE4
Sources:
fotomody.pl ·
Polskie Radio Trójka ·
HIRO.PL ·
Elle.pl ·
K MAG ·
danceisancient.se ·
Sophiensæle ·
ImPulsTanz ·
brut Wien (archived) ·
Wien Modern ·
artmuseum.pl ·
cmwl.pl ·
culture.pl
1 SIEGESSÄULE ·
2 Corner.inc reviews ·
3 Vogue, Vogue Adria ·
4 SIEGESSÄULE