Daniela Huber - SLOWW: excellence made easy
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Claudia AcklinManaging Director Swiss Science Council / Managing Director Lotos-Produktionen GmbH
When we think about new ventures, we often see young people leaving university with an idea in mind, little money in their pockets and, nevertheless, getting started to create a new venture. While this is true for some design start-ups, most of the time, however, it’s the experienced professional that tries to position himself on the market “doing his own thing”. The first steps in the field of entrepreneurship are undertaken at an average of 5 years after leaving school. Many entrepreneurs will try as many as 5 times before they are successful with their attempts to found a company. Some have it in them to even become serial entrepreneurs. – This is certainly true for the fashion designer Daniela Huber.
After many years of designing for other brands she is about to launch her own label with the name SLOWW, bringing in her expertise and network built up during her years in the business. She does this not as another big fashion author, but simply as someone setting up a new brand, which is delivering a rigorous standard of excellent fashion with soul.
Daniela Huber already had 10 years of experience in designing sports wear before, in 2004, she started her own company DESIGNRESOURCE in Berne. She specialised in designing snow sports, active wear, outdoor apparel and beach wear for such renowned brands as The North Face, Head, Odlo or Esprit. She employs a small team of apparel and graphic designers and still actively pushes DESIGNRESOURCE, while she is launching SLOWW. So she has some help, a team to back her up and a partner supporting her in the financial area. Because there is so much to do at the beginning: shooting the right photos, setting up the webpage, and clarifying all the questions around customs and their formalities.
In November, Daniela Huber introduces as selected preview range of her Winter 16/17 line that will make feel women at ease and comfortable at home, outdoors, or when travelling. In her view, there exists a niche and a customer segment, which has not been exploited yet: the mature, most probably professional woman that effortlessly and relaxed wants to look good and feel good in less formal situations. As a consequence, the quality of manufacture is very high, the design is sporty yet elegant, and the material is innovative: a special fabric development that blends virgin wool with the first certified angora fibre. All these features line up to convey an experience of slow-down.
SLOWW can be experienced and bought at Blickfang in Zürich this year, at the Creative Hub stand. The official launch is planned for next Autumn; Daniela Huber intends to start with a limited number of shops in her first season and then to slowly grow (how else could it be, if you do not have big investors) from there. We wish her the best of luck!
