Dressed head to toe in vibrant 1960s fashion, Kitty Steiner brings the past to life.Wearing bright accessories and an elaborate hairstyle, Steiner could step straight onto a vintage magazine cover. At 41, she lives immersed in her favourite decades, the 1950s and 1960s.
Her Gelsenkirchen home and Dusseldorf hair salon feel like time capsules: retro furnishings, appliances, wallpaper, lamps, and even the toilet with its metal chain are all decades-old originals.
In the pastel-coloured kitchen, she cooks on a stove built in 1958–59, swearing by the reliability of "the good old thing" rather than modern induction cooktops.
Shelves overflow with vintage irons, vacuum cleaners and packaged goods - all preserved from another era.
Old-school technology completes the picture: a rotary phone, a black-and-white television and wardrobes bursting with colourful 1960s clothing, shoes, hats and costume jewellery.
Even her commute is retro - Steiner drives a Volkswagen Beetle with a vintage license plate.
Her fascination began in childhood in the eastern German state of Saxony, listening to her parents' records on her grandmother's player - Katja Ebstein, the Beatles and Shakin' Stevens.
She even scavenged discarded items to collect and play with.
Steiner's passion isn't just nostalgic - it's relaxing.
"It slows things down a bit... It balances things out for me," she says.
The cheerful 41-year-old talks about a lifelong passion, which she sees as a hobby and it gives her a lot of pleasure.
What drives the retro trend?
In technical jargon: "It's escapism."
Retro trends span decades, reaching back to the 1950s - and among younger generations, nostalgia can even be sparked by the early 2000s.
The 1960s are particularly popular, Wenzel notes, thanks to economic stability, scientific progress and a sense of optimism.
But nostalgia for the 1980s and 1990s is also growing. Still, most enthusiasts don't fully live in the past – they incorporate modern conveniences like cell phones, laptops and flat-screen TVs.
Steiner uses technology to run her salon and source vintage finds online. Her husband Thomas Bosbich, a fan of the 1950s, enjoys his flat-screen TV.
Despite finding it very ugly, he says: "It's a modern device and I wouldn't want to be without it."
Old-school, modern twist
Vintage-inspired furniture and fashion are widely available online, reflecting the reality that "retro trends are always consumer trends", notes Wenzel.
Social media has also given rise to a host of retro influencers.
One example is 26-year-old Shirin Altsohn (@Shirinatra), who shares romantic vintage looks with her 1.2 million Instagram followers - swinging skirts, wasp-waisted dresses and colourful hats straight out of decades past.
Fans of the 60s can also be found in Steiner's hair salon. From hair dryer hoods to coffee cups, the salon is a nostalgic time capsule, with elaborately back-combed hairstyles set to classic hits playing on a pink transistor radio.
Steiner enjoys styling her clients’ hair into iconic "banana" or beehive looks from the era.
Customer Silke Schwarz is enthusiastic: "Sure, these hairstyles are totally out of fashion, but we love and live it. There's more class, elegance and style here. Only a few people can truly master these looks, which makes it unique for our scene."
But Steiner emphasises that her passion for the 1960s is about style, not mindset.
"I live in the here and now," she emphasises.
The division of roles at home is also very much in the present.
"We have a modern marriage. We are equals." – dpa
