Co-Founder and Creative Director, Ganni A/S
#NEVERWORNS with GANNI's Ditte Reffstrup
#NEVERWORNS goes international during Copenhagen Fashion Week to exclusively visit the closet of Denmark's best export GANNI and its Creative Director Ditte Reffstrup. Her closet is a cornucopia, of yes, colorful fun GANNI items, and also some treats like a bag that is reallllllly tiny (we've all made that buying mistake before!) and some very uncomfortable shoes. Fun fact: You can buy all of Ditte's GANNI #Neverworns pieces on Ganni Repeat, a platform that is dedicated to GANNI lovers who want to give their pieces a second life--and buy looks from previous season. Something else I love: Each...
Transcript (39 segments)
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Lyanna0:00
Hello everyone, my name is Lyanna and I am the host of Never Worns. I'm here today in Copenhagen for a special international edition. So first things first, the city is known for several things: Vikings, biking, universal health care, and one of its most chic exports, the fashion label Ganni. And today I am going to the creative director's house, Ditte Reffstrup, to explore her never worns. So I'll see you there.
I am here with Ditte of Ganni and we are going to be exploring her stellar closet. How are you doing today?
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Ditte Reffstrup0:43
I'm great. I'm really excited. It's the day before the show, so everything is a little bit crazy busy, but the good energy.
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Lyanna0:52
And you look great. We should do this like, you know how like in Cribs on MTV — did you guys have Cribs in Copenhagen?
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Ditte Reffstrup0:58
Yeah, yeah, we did.
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Lyanna0:59
Yeah, they like open and they're like, 'Welcome to My Crib.' We're gonna do like, 'Welcome to My Closet.' We're gonna do it together. Teamwork.
So why don't you point out which one it is?
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Ditte Reffstrup1:15
And I actually still really love this dress. It was from our spring summer show 2018 and it was one of those who didn't really went through. The commercial team didn't believe in it, so it was hanging in the showroom for a long time and no one really knew where it was going. So I brought it with me and thought that this is going to be one of them that I'm gonna wear if I'm gonna do something special. But I don't know, she's still just hanging there.
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Lyanna1:46
Oh wow, the commercial team — I need to have a word with them. We gotta bring them up in here. I like this dress. Wait, so you haven't worn it since it came out?
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Ditte Reffstrup1:55
No, there was still a tag on it.
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Lyanna2:00
Oh my God, that is the sign of a true never worn — is a tag situation. We want to talk more about the detail too, so let's bring it to the bed. Let's bring her to bed. So do you want to talk to me about what inspired you to do this and the design process behind it?
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Ditte Reffstrup2:16
I think it's a very classic piece. The approach we have when we do the collection is very much about the balance in the clothes. So working with sequins, a little bit of something that sparkles, and it's very feminine, but then adding some sporty contrast to it in terms of the stripes. I have a lot of friends who are not in fashion and they always felt very excluded from fashion. You kind of didn't feel invited. It's a very closed world. If you don't look a certain way or if you don't wear a certain kind of clothes, then you don't really feel comfortable in it. There was also something I really wanted to do where people would — it was much more about the community, much more about being inclusive.
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Lyanna3:07
Why don't you show me the next never worn?
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Ditte Reffstrup3:13
Next one — this is super funny. This is one of those where I'm actually a little bit embarrassed. I thought I did like a scoop. I found a Chanel bag and it was really a good price, so I was so excited to receive the bag. And I couldn't understand when I came home and there was this mini tiny package. And it was because it was this — oh my God, it's like it's for a Barbie doll. It's for a doll. I don't even know what to put in it. You cannot even have a lipstick. It's nothing. AirPods maybe.
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Lyanna3:52
This is like what Robin Hood would wear if he was like a Ganni girl. Show me the next never worn, we're on a roll here.
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Ditte Reffstrup3:59
Which are also very beautiful, sparkling. And I remember when I saw them, I bought them at an outlet near where we have some of our suppliers in Italy. I was so lucky that I was going to the British Fashion Awards and I remember I didn't even take 10 steps and then my feet were like, oh crazy. And they were like, 'No, no, no, take them off, please.' I was wearing them that night and then they just went into the closet.
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Lyanna4:33
I just wanna — this is like the telltale sign of a never worn. Look how clean the shoe is. And like I always say, you could fry an egg on that. And wait, where should I put these besides my bag? I know Ganni has sort of a really nice sustainable philosophy. This word is so overused, sustainability. I've heard it over and over and over again. Pretty tired of that word.
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Ditte Reffstrup4:58
So I actually had Ganni recolored 'responsible.' We're trying to act in the most responsible way. This collection that we're going to present is actually 100% certified, very sustainable. I think five years ago it was such a struggle in the design team. Working with sustainable fabrics was super boring. It was very dull, dry cotton. But now I'm really super positive because we have a whole sourcing team with the CSR team who's providing us with a lot of new fabrications — innovative products that come out from labs. There are so many crazy initiatives going on in the fashion industry.
This is one of the super darling pieces because it has a good story. It was one of those dresses that really went viral. But it is leather. In 2019 we decided to phase out virgin leather. In the beginning it was just a struggle for the design team because it's such an easy fabrication to work with. It's luxury, it feels nice, it has structure. But I have three kids and I'm afraid that if they're seeing this in my closet when they get a little bit older, they will kind of cancel me.
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Lyanna6:22
Canceled by your own kids, that's a new one. And we don't want to go there. But so I'm ready to let her go.
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Ditte Reffstrup6:28
Because even though it's emotional, I feel like it's the right thing to do.
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Lyanna6:35
So what are you using in place of leather?
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Ditte Reffstrup6:38
We talked a lot about evolving our suiting category but also our denim. We approached the denim a a little bit differently than normally. Of course we have our super stable, but then we're also doing more suiting — super structured. You maybe know the Obama — we call it the Obama Blazer now because he was wearing it and we were so proud. That's a structured blazer in denim. And we're doing dresses and a lot of more elevated looks in denim and suiting.
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Lyanna7:18
This lovely piece that we have here, which will be going to a new home for a very stylish girl or whomever, is going to be going on Ganni Repeat. I want to know what is exactly Repeat.
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Ditte Reffstrup7:32
It's a resale platform of Ganni.
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Lyanna7:36
How does that work? Do people bring pieces in? Do you have things that—
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Ditte Reffstrup7:40
Yeah, so people are able to bring the stuff in that they want to resell, and then we provide them with all the technical stuff.
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Lyanna7:48
All the stuff that people don't want to deal with on their own.
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Ditte Reffstrup7:53
Yeah, all the annoying stuff that you don't want to deal with. And actually, a few seasons ago it was all about wearing new stuff, new stuff, new stuff. They wanted to have the collection that wasn't even created yet. I can really see how the young people are really looking back and want all this stuff that they were not able to buy.
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Lyanna8:15
Okay, well guys, stay tuned, Ganni Repeat, exquisite signature shapes and it'll be going live. That's really cool.
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Ditte Reffstrup8:23
I think it's important to say that I have nothing against the leather industry, this is nothing personal. But for Ganni, one of our missions is to reduce our carbon footprint. And we could see that even though our full collection was only seven percent leather in terms of shoes and bags, it was still the biggest sender of the whole collection when it comes to carbon footprint.
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Lyanna8:56
So would you ever use already used leather, already worn leather, and use it in the collections to design?
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Ditte Reffstrup9:04
Yes, we're using recycled leather. And we're working on alternatives and there are a lot of good ones. We did a collab with MycoWorks — oh, the mushroom leather — yes, exactly. And now we're going to introduce a bag with something called Ojopan. It's a scrub from orange production. There are so many young suppliers who really want to make a change and come up with alternatives.
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Lyanna9:38
Super cool. Wow, that's — I did not know this. Wait, when is your bag created from processed orange leather coming out?
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Ditte Reffstrup9:48
It's coming out in Fall/Winter '23, so it's the show you're going to see tomorrow.
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Lyanna9:54
Oh perfect. So thank you everyone for joining this special international edition of Never Worns with Ditte of Ganni. This is a stellar brand and I love your philosophy.
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Ditte Reffstrup10:06
Thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming. Nice having you.
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Lyanna10:09
Yeah, I'll stay an extra month, don't worry about it. Don't ask me twice when I'm here. But as they say, 'Hej' means goodbye.
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Ditte Reffstrup10:18
Hej hej. Okay, see you soon.