FIVE MORE SWEET-SPOT LABELS
Like Ganni, these brands have all the creative kudos of luxury labels, without the eye-watering price tag
There is now a squad of #gannigirls, ranging from influencers Susie Lau and Camille Charrière to buyer Tiffany Hsu, fashion director Lisa Aiken and artist Phoebe Collings-James, who all style their clothes their way. Ditte says the squad developed naturally – partly because the Reffstrups started at Ganni at the same time as the influencer phenomenon. ‘It was a relationship,’ she says. ‘They were calling us saying, “I’m going to this fashion week, can you help?” It was a natural fit.’
A smiley blonde with wild hair, a printed blouse, mismatched earrings, jeans and chunky sneakers – Ditte is the ultimate #gannigirl. She has a policy to never produce anything she wouldn’t wear herself. Everything has to pass the ‘life’ test – one that involves a 2O-minute bike ride to work, taking care of three children and a fondness for dancing. Maybe they’re going to be a lost paradise.’ So she created clothing – leather coats, delicate slip dresses, striped knits and tie-dye separates – that was desirable, but also fed into the cultural conversation. ‘The collection is nostalgic and very pure in terms of prints. I then wanted to mix that with the new reality: the evil future when you will need big hiking boots, raincoats and technical fabrics. We only listened to Nirvana – that was what I played when I was a teenager.’
Ask Ditte what’s next for Ganni and she draws something of a blank. Don’t mistake this for ignorance, however. ‘I’m not a big planner,’ she says. ‘I am just [designing] the collections. I almost think it’s not important; I shouldn’t know. It will affect my clean way of thinking.’ And that instinct can’t be messed with – it is, after all, pure #gannigirl.