We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Annette Felder. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Annette below.

Alright, Annette thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

My sister Daniela and I started our fashion brand Felder Felder while still at college at Central St. Martins in London for our BA.

When we started our brand, we really focused on building an identity and a unique style, which was so exciting.

However at that time sustainability was not anything that was on our radar with regards to fashion and design and even though we never worked with mass production, we didn’t know about the environmental damage that a lot of the fashion textiles. were causing.

Fast forward six years and through many ups and even more downs, we had established a house hold name on the London Fashion Week calender with on schedule catwalk shows and many singers and actresses wearing our designs.

At about that time though, we became aware of the impact fashion has on the environment and it really clashed with our personal values and convictions.

Even though we started integrating eco minded designs into our shows, deep down we knew there was no way back.

We knew that there was no way to continue the fashion cycle that we had been absorbed by seaosn for season..

We had to make a choice- a choice to take the risk of leaving behind the fashion world as we knew it and all the glamour that we had worked tears and sweat for in order to venture into the unknown.

Fast forward another six years and we have created and still are creating our own paradigms- our own world of fashion, sustainability and innovative story telling, growing and connecting a diverse community of passionate, complex and kind human (and animal) beings.

Was it an easy decision to take a risk?

No, it wasn’t.

But we did what felt right to us and that is a risk worth taking every single time..

Annette, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Originally we are feom a small village in the german countryside, surrounded by forests and deers.

Through our love of 60s/70s music and our passion for collection vinyls, we discovered fashion on the record sleeves that we could treuly identify with.

Bear in mind this was pre- internet.

Via many adventures, backpacking and doing modeling gigs, we befriended Robert Cary- Williams, a London designer whom we convinced to take us as interns in his studio.

He was a guest tutir at Central St. Martins and took us along to classes he taught., which made us realize that this is were we bave to go- and we did!

Our brand Felder Felder focuses on bringing sustainable fashion and style solutions to brands, corporations and individuals alike.

We strive to discover or help develop the latest innovations of vegan, biodegradable and eco designs and are passionate to share our knowledge and journey through creative story telling.

We have worked with brands such as BMWi, Formula E, Deutsche Bahn, Soho House and have a ongoing partnership with beauty brand Dr. Hauschka.

We have created one- off a kimd designs for red carpet events around the world and are continuing to do so with our Ecouture line.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Values and consistency.

It might take time before there is a more generic adoption when you don’t follow the ‘traditional’ system of your industry and instead make decisions based on your values.

With consistency, we managed to make it through transitions and become part of / or were part of paving a new way of being a fashion brand that doesn’t follow the seasons or trends.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Following on from the previous question, we truly had to unlearn to believe that you can only exist as a fashion brand in the traditional season driven sense.

At the time, it was certainly a jump into the cold water as even close allies couldn’t understand us leaving annon schedule slot at London Fashion Week and seasonal sales behind.

I’d say the lesson we learned from this experience is not to be afraid to disrupt traditional business models.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.felderfelder.com
• Instagram: felderfelder
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/felder-felder-7ba34b12

Image Credits
Model image Photographer : Santiago Krossler Model: Vjera Radovicc Make Up: Evette Villanueva Production: Danielle Yablonka x Santiago Krossler Portrait daniela (in back) and annette (in front ) Felder Photographer: santiago krossler