Her Personal Brand
Danish fashion designer Malene Birger mixes metaphors from different cultures to create a sophisticated, international atmosphere in her modern designs. Right now she is working hard to keep up with her tremendous success while building an organization that personifies her values through strong dedication.
The mind of Danish fashion designer Malene Birger is an extraordinary place. She has a special ability, intuitive rather than acquired, that allows her to store impressions and inspirations systematically and then use them months later for her next collection. Metaphorically, she talks about a set of drawers from which the memories are easily reclaimed once she sets down to draw her designs. And the contents of the drawers can be anything, truly anything- conversations, hotel lobbies, movies, a nightclub, food, bookstores, and very often something she encounters during the 130 days a year she spends away from home. The vividness and the sheer amount of images so readily available continue to surprise her.
“It’s one of the major reasons why I do what I do. I cannot imagine what my work and my life, so thoroughly intertwined, would be like without this ability,” she says.
We can only guess that it would probably be very different from what it is now, as she is currently establishing and running her own amazingly successful fashion brand, By Malene Birger. Currently she has forty-five employees, export deals with a long and rapidly growing list of countries, shop-in-shops opening in the best locations, including the department store Printemps in Paris, a new flagship store in Copenhagen and a highly successful haute couture collection called THE SALON.
This ability to systematically store inspiration has always been part of Malene Birger and her work. After establishing and running the very successful fashion company Day Birger et Mikkelsen from 1997-2002, she ventured into the world of fashion once again in 2003, in alliance with IC Company as her financial partner and under her own name with 49 % of the shares. And in this case, the name really says it all. Every design by By Malene Birger really is by Malene Birger - which means, on a practical level, that she is a very busy person.
“It is a paradox, of course, but it’s very difficult to be a successful company. We have grown to forty-five employees in three years, which means that the organizational development is just as demanding, if not more, as the creative development. For now, there really is no way of getting around it, but I firmly believe that I’m working towards being less overworked in the foreseeable future,” says Malene Birger.
And she certainly does not neglect to tell us about the importance of the people working with her behind the scenes. Without her close-knit team, the current success would be unimaginable. While all creative ideas still come from her, her dedicated and highly skilled staff has such a fine-tuned understanding of her artistic vision that they are then able to execute those ideas.
“In that sense I’ve never had more support. The team actually enables me to work with every detail, and I strongly believe that is part of the reason why this company is making a difference to the people buying my clothes,” she says.
The torchbearer
Malene Birger’s creative and organizational talents are not the only things that run throughout the entire company; there is also a set of values to go with her talents – values that shape the culture of the company.
For instance, Malene Birger’s commitment to detail must be felt in all divisions of the company, and she recognizes the need for her to personally communicate those values to the employees and integrate them into the DNA of the company.
“The people working here must be proud of what we stand for, otherwise they shouldn’t be here. It’s essential that they feel they’re part of the company and that they’re close to their colleagues. Members of the same team are each other’s professional family. You must enjoy spending time with your co-workers,” she says.
Naturally all of this is demanding. So, as the highly disciplined person Malene Birger is, we would expect her to focus strongly on always being in excellent physical shape in order to be able to put in all the hours necessary for the company to thrive. Not so. She admits to making sure that she drinks lots of water. She admits to the occasional yoga class and long walks. But she loves to indulge in good food and very rarely finds the time for more strenuous physical training. She has one vital piece of advice to her fellow workaholics though:
“I sleep a lot, and sleeping is sacred to me. People will sometimes comment on how I go to dinner parties and leave at 9.30 p.m., but I have learned from experience that if I get my nine hours of sleep every night, I have a very large capacity for hard work. If I get less, however, it affects me deeply. I’m like a child robbed of her candy without my sleep, and for me, getting the necessary hours really has made all the difference,” Malene Birger says.
Recognition
The latest collections from Malene Birger’s hands have all been very well received. The Far Eastern markets are currently developing at an amazing pace, so it seems that Malene Birger’s Scandinavian roots and the design tradition she has grown up with are by no means incompatible with success in faraway places. Her own impression is that her latest designs are actually more popular than ever on the foreign markets, although she never explicitly attempted to create designs with an international appeal.
“That would never work. I can only draw what corresponds with my inspirations and hope that I share this vision with the people who will hopefully buy the clothes. It has been wonderful to discover, however, that people elsewhere on the planet truly are appreciating my work,” she says.
Her private dream is to reach that final level of international recognition. To be recognized as a brand and as a name among the most prominent of her international colleagues. This dream is put humbly forward by the designer, but considering the development of By Malene Birger so far, her goal seems both reasonable and attainable. One of the milestones is opening far more flagship stores, preferably one in every metropolis in the world. This will enable customers to explore and appreciate the depth and scope of the brand. Apart from that specific ambition, Malene Birger is not willing to share her strategy for the growth and expansion of her personal label. She willingly admits that it is all written down though. The rest of us will just have to wait and see in what direction Malene Birger’s dedication will take her next.
May 2006