"I'm a living artifact from the 1960s," proclaims Chris, a self-described 50-year-old Jewish vegetarian Buddhist whose store features the latest labels from the UK.

"In the '60s, we had real political consciousness. It was a style war. Fueled by amphetimines. But the kids today aren't political. They're spoiled, castrated, and emotionally crippled. In Germany, they imitate a lot. The irony is that for the last few years, white, middle-class German kids have been pretending they're from the Black American ghetto. They're turning culture into a custume party. It's rascist. I tried to explain, but they don't get it."

Chris excuses himself to help a customer.

"You need to have these tight, because they're lycro," he says soothingly to a woman holding a pair of pants. "You have a nice figure, so you should show it."

Chris turns back to his visitors.

"The idea here is to blend together art and commerce. Let me put it in a more clear way. My personal theory is the vacuum theory. We have far too much of everything. In the middle of that, there's this huge vacuum where we all exist. Here in this shop, we're all misfits and longers, and that's why we all fit together. We're loosely grouped in that vacuum in the center.

"What I think it happening is there's a new European consciousness emerging. Slowly. The American domination of pop culture is gone, thank God. Once Germans become Germans again, they'll be a lot more interesting."