another small one we want to be the
first commercial Belgium brand to have
international success we want to dress
your emotions we want to battle boredom
we want to butterfly you we have big
dreams we want a big thing it’s not
always be like this we know what we want
but it wasn’t like this so let me take
you back to the beginning I always been
a woman without a mission with our plan
I wanted to laugh to be life to be easy
fun not too hard work earn quick money
traveling so in between my modeling I
started traveling I lived in India I
lived in South Africa and then I met my
husband
it’s from DF it is Adi who was born into
fashion he is the son of a very
well-known Belgian fashion designer
Nicole cadena and he was little really
raised in the fashion factories and in
the shops so we met and it was 2000 and
we had a plan a big plan we wanted to
make a small collection of four t-shirts
with in a lot of colors a plan but no
money but we had luck we had a very nice
turkey supplier who told us you know
what guys
you make the collection you sell it your
clients pay and then you pay us we
always had that flock true I work at the
air we had this sparkle of luck so we
started selling in the apartment I went
on the road I did the prospection my
husband was selling and mostly seducing
the female customers in our office
because I was very handsome and sexy
husbands it’s always easy and in fact we
conquered the Belgian fashion
get quite busy because you have to
remember in the 90s the fashion was gray
was a little bit boring black white very
very calm and suddenly we were there
with a sparkle of colors with his
combinations of prints and fabrics and
we said used to people I think there was
really a demand for this extravagance at
that moment and we did one year we went
from a collection from four pieces to a
full collection because the clients
demand at us why don’t you do a sweater
why don’t you dress and suddenly our
collection was a full collection and I
remember being on the Belgium fair and
there was a French agent coming by and
she told us we really want to represent
you in Paris why don’t you come so we
went to Paris as tourists we had these
little hooks from Mackay I put it on the
wall showed our clothes on there and we
had this color in this mass of gray and
within the first five minutes a client
came in this was a client from Dubai who
came on the fair and she said can we buy
the collection and we were like yeah
sure and we had to call friends who came
to help us sort of fair we was we were
writing orders on the ground because we
didn’t eight chairs enough and I still a
highlight of our career because I think
at that moment we realized that people
didn’t buy because they like us or they
thought we were synthetic or but because
they like the product and it’s still
something when I remember something
that’s for me very touching I I still
think it was one of the greatest moments
to know that people loved our product we
opened our first shop which was also
very very lucky because it was a new
complex in Antwerp and there were 400 a
month and seven shops and it was a lot
we and we won so again this luck came
into our life 2004 2005 it was the birth
of the men’s collection but also the
birth of my two sons
there was a really thin line between
private and work it was tough it went
fast with
it was fun I remember us living in the
office at that moment with a baby of
three days because after maternity
hospital four days I went directly to
work of course what else to do and I
want to do the perfectionist I wanted to
be the perfect mother I wanted to be the
perfect businesswoman the perfect wife
and it became really really tough I
remember traveling from Paris and Milan
with a baby of one or two weeks and Nana
calling me from his hungry what to do to
Harvey Nichols I met a second floor I
breastfeed that in the changing rooms on
the fares in the factories 2004
everybody saw my breasts in the fashion
it went so quickly we had suddenly 3,000
Tulsa clients 70 agents a turnover of 50
million our life was a complete rush no
looking back
pure pure chaos exciting fun everything
we did we did with a gut feeling with
salt at the world we were like a
straight V train without a destination
but we didn’t had a strategy no
structure nothing crisis came disaster
multi brands were very very careful and
selective a lot of them went broke but
the worst of us we didn’t had an image
anymore
we had lost our image we had lost our
DNA we had sold at so many people we had
wanted to place so many people we had
made so much compromises that a
collection that once was so strong
didn’t didn’t had any DNA anymore it
didn’t look like a collection anymore
what to do our revenue went from 50 to
25 where were we what to do we needed
somebody to help us we needed somebody
to solve this problem and to find a
structure in this complete complete
chaos
but we need some really strong with a
gut feeling because at the end fashion
is no mathematics it’s emotion so 2010
Stephanie and I came into the office and
he asked me what’s your mission vision
value and I was like what he said who
are your competitors no idea and
suddenly we realized that we didn’t know
who we were we didn’t know what we
wanted and we didn’t had a clue HR one
to one tops never heard about it I did
my interviews and I hired my people at a
cafe in the bars it was like this so we
needed to find a solution we need to
learn from our mistakes and that started
a big long road started permanent
questioning also in good times always
thinking ahead challenge yourself
there is no status quo keep surprising
innovating especially in fashion we
don’t smite we really really really
stimulate exotic and wild ideas in
fashion surround yourself with young
people at a certain moment we drew out
without with our customers what is the
worst in fashion you have to be
surrounded by young people with strong
goals we increased importance of
accessories that’s why you can get in
fashion the young people back it’s
cheaper you can go bold you can go
exciting you don’t need to be commercial
it’s accessories and passion everything
I undertake I do with passion and I
demand it of the people next to me they
have to be loyal hard work passionate I
don’t care honestly about the grease I
think I select people on character and
attitude I’m a control freak on image
I’m not giving this out of my way you
cannot you have your message has to be
your own and it needs to be clear retail
shops so important when you walk into a
shop you walk into the world of label
so we needed to concentrate on shops for
the moment we have 28 shops in Belgium 7
in Korea – in Dubai 3 in France and 1 in
Swiss we want to sell no products we
don’t sell products we sell dreams and I
think in fashion certainly for the
moment it’s important to sell dreams
also the market is changing consciously
the clients want new things they want it
quick this is social media and internet
doing we need to go alone instead of to
collections we need to offer eight
collections we have three collections
flash collects and capsule collections
we don’t stop that’s what a market
demands ecommerce huge booming market we
had to jump on this train we have now a
team of 10 person doing Facebook Twitter
ecommerce social media you name it and
my biggest lesson I think is less is
more you have constantly to downsize
everything we don’t have six hundred
cups pieces in a collection anymore we
have two hundred the three thousand
wholesale clients the thousand best one
you have to select 70 70 agents went to
ten agents but they go for it we not
that speech rain anymore we a bulldozer
but the bulldozer with a structure and a
strategy in fact all those figures
they’re not a most important thing we
survived I survived with behind me a
perfect team young people with a gold
and a passion and the most important
every morning when I go and walk into
that office I’m still as passionate and
happy as I was 15 years ago my home it’s
my second home my office my team is my
family and I’m a lucky happy woman who
made for my passion my job together with
her husband I like very much I love very
much
thank you [Applause]