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Check out Branda’s Lookbook.
Tell us about Branda. How did it get started? What is important about your brand that customers should notice?
Branda is our hand knitted accessories brand where you can find scarves, neck warmers, hand warmers and head warmers made with different kind of fibers and colors.
We started almost by accident, we were making these things for ourselves and friends and so we just decided to start offering them for sale. At first we only knitted simple scarves and over time we had added berets and hats. Since we started we became more interested in different fibers. We decide what to offer by thinking about what we look for when we shopping: basic models and colors.
Knitted Lavendar Scarf
Your background is in architecture. How and why did you decide to go into fashion?
We are so proud of our architecture background which is a good basis for any kind of design. Fashion involves design, construction, decision making, and it differs from the architecture on the scale but the methods are basically the same.
We are less interested in fashion as a changing phenomenon: we prefer the design of small and classic clothes. In these times everything seems to be invented and we can see there are two very strong currents. One is the chaotic that attempts to combine the impossible and sometimes achieves happy results. Our ideas are more subtle, trying to slowly incorporate new ideas into established themes.
You and your sister are the designers, knitters, models and photographers for your brand. What have been some of the benefits for being so well rounded?
So far we work alone and as independently as possible for economic reasons. Knitting is something that we absorbed from our childhood. In our home women always sewed and hand knitted. We grew up in an environment of sewing workshops, full pieces of fabric, and sewing machines. Our grandmothers often competed for who made the best stitch or pledge more sophisticated. They were the ones who taught us to knit.
The school of architecture gave us a solid foundation in design that allows us to make creative decisions and carry it out. It also gave us an autocratic vision of our work. The photography and modeling we learned for the necessity of exposing our work. We researched and then tried to make pictures that we like. We are always trying to improve.
Mustard Yellow Neckwarmer
All of your products are hand made. Has that been a challenge to growing your business? Do you have plans to start having your products manufactured?
We’ve started knitting commercially 3 years ago but since last year we’ve started to think about Branda as a possible brand.
Garments hand-knitted although repeated are unique. It allows a high degree of perfection if you spend the time for revisions. We like the craft way of doing things step by step. It has a high cost of time which some customers value, and allows working with rustic elements like hand-spun wool. The process though opens your mind, because the time dedicated to it allows to think about how the next product can be improved.
Until now our ability to work has been enough to cover the demand. As emerging artists we are in a formative and learning stage in developing our roles to transfer to potential employees. We are exploring the possibilities and potential advantages of manufactured products which could allow us to make more items per time.
You are based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Where do most of your customers come from? How do they find you?
We have customers from USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Italy and Australia. In this moment we are exposing all our work just on-line, on Internet. We have our online store on Etsy but not only that, we have a Clashe portfolio where we are publishing our last collections.
What is the next thing you are looking forward to in your business?
We still think we have a long way to go. For the moment we believe that our best means of communication is the Internet. Our brand is new and not widely known by what we are trying to make us more visible on the web.
With regards to production we are looking at new items to complete our collection of accessories while only using organic fibers.
Where can people find your products?
All our available products are posted on our store on Etsy Branda
Author Bio
Darryl had a problem. He needed to find clothing that was relevant to him, appropriate for where he was going, popular and affordable. He couldn’t find an answer on Google, Wikipedia, Dictionary.com or Flickr. So he started building Clashe.
