Together Now: ganni

Why do you think the women of today love GANNI? 

Nicolaj: Our aim has always been to keep our integrity and be authentic. Over the past few years, we’ve grown but we’re still a Copenhagen-based brand with a global outlook.

Ditte: The main thing for me when designing is making women feel the most confident version of themselves. GANNI is all about the feeling of dressing for yourself and wearing it your own way. I think a lot of people can relate to that.
 

What inspires you in the initial stages on design?

Ditte: I can be inspired by anything. Travel is great to come back with a fresh perspective, but, at the moment, books, films, magazines, songs and people-watching are what gets me going.

Nicolaj: I don’t really get involved in the creative process. That’s all Ditte. The beauty is that we do completely different things in the business.

How is GANNI as a brand moving towards a more sustainable future? 

Nicolaj: As a brand we want to do better every day, to be more responsible. We don’t call ourselves a sustainable brand, but we believe that being more responsible is our moral obligation and we are striving to evolve. For our latest collection, we’ve managed to increase the share of certified materials to 55 per cent of the order volume.
We've been introducing certified responsible fabrics, such as recycled polyester and 100 per cent organic cotton, into our collections and will continue to do this in the future.

Ditte: Our responsibility team is always working on finding new materials like bio-based pineapple leathers and we’ll be introducing recycled wool in the near future. Stay tuned!

What are both your roles in the business and how do they interact? 

Ditte: Nicolaj and I both bring very different things to the table, but we complement each other 200 per cent. I’m all about the creative process and Nicolaj brings his business-tech mind. We both like a good party and a laugh, and we can make fun of ourselves. Not taking yourself too seriously is probably key to our success in business, and as a couple. After 9pm we have a mutual agreement not to talk about work, but it’s hard to get both parties to withdraw from adding one more point...it’s never-ending, isn’t it? But we’re good at chilling out on the weekends and just hanging out with our kids and friends. 

Nicolaj: Just under two years ago, I stepped down as CEO, which has given me time to refocus on our responsibility efforts as well as brand and tech development. I also started taking the time to fetch the kids from school, tennis and football more often, which is really cool.

What have you learnt about each other in recent weeks?

Nicolaj: We’ve been together for 16 years, so not a lot can surprise me, but it’s been pretty amazing to see Ditte work with her team on restructuring the coming collection and pragmatically working towards change. 

Ditte: I haven't really learnt anything new, as we work in completely different ends of the business. We don’t have a great amount of overlap professionally, but it still works symbiotically. In terms of values, we are 100 per cent aligned and work towards the same things.
 

What are you doing for fun at the moment?

Ditte: We do a Friday cocktail evening and dance around the kitchen! But, honestly, I miss a real dance floor. During the lockdown, we also started recording a podcast series called ‘GANNI Talks’. 

Nicolaj: [In the podcast], we call up friends from around the world to ask them how they are doing in these crazy times, and it’s something I look forward to every week.