I’m Marianne Ingeborg Gerda and I’m a Danish Fashion Designer with capital letters. I’m born north of Copenhagen, Denmark in 1983.

I started my career by never really getting the streamlined fashion design education however I still took courses in fashion design in 2001 and 2002. I was rewarded an internship at the Women’s House in Copenhagen, Denmark. Yes I know it doesn’t sound very fashionably. But check this out….

The house was divided into three sections. One section was a Clothing shop. Another section – a three stories building with different activities & a women’s café/bar. The third section – a smaller additional building called Gallery Bauhaus, where one of the floors was for fashion design & sewing. This was practically my home for a couple of years. During this period of time the coolest thing for at poor fashion designer (what I really was at that time) was that all materials were secondhand and most important – for free. Only your creativity was the limit. It was the perfect place for a person like me to jumpstart my carrier.

But the desire for something new kicked in - like working with menswear. Naturally there are no men allowed in a Women’s House so I had to seek other playgrounds. In 2004 I moved to Barcelona. It was the right city for me. When I got back to Copenhagen I was full of inspiration and energy. I started sewing men’s accessories for a small niche shop in Copenhagen, Denmark.

One day I was biking around Copenhagen and found a fascinating little shop space for rent. I called a good friend of mine & we decided to try out our luck back in 2006. The shop called ÆG…Ø…Å was addressing both men and women. A lot of the items sold there were of course secondhand re-design, and lucky I was, cause I still had contact to the Women’s House and got a lot of materials to start with. It was the cutest little shop with a cozy and busy workspace in the back.

Soon I found out how independent I was. I loved the idea of working with others but not being able to make all of the final decisions in due time could be a true creativity kill for an independent woman like me.

Therefore in 2007 I took the decision to try my own luck & started a new company “Marianne Ingeborg Gerda”. I rented a studio from another Danish fashion designer: Niels & Klaus.
This place was truly ideal for the company Marianne Ingeborg Gerda to grow. New collections were launched, new stores were interested in the design & soon you could find Marianne Ingeborg Gerda in Sweden & still in several other stores in Denmark.

But then the financial crises came & we had to plan in new directions to stay above waters. So together with a few other designers in the beginning of 2009 i started the company Style Crackers
- a company for designers on their way up. Together we could take bigger steps toward our independent success – at least we believed at the time being.
Fashion shows were held, showroom, shop & large studios were established. But to many people with different ideas for their independent company can also make a crash since we all lived our brands and wanted our own lines to do best.

I learned to focus more on the company Marianne Ingeborg Gerda and to be true to the brand, which turned out to be the perfect solution. Already now we can see changes and development in the company.
Additionally we now own a studio for creative artists, designers and more in Copenhagen, Denmark.

A lot of new projects are in the pipeline for the year 2010 and we look forward to showing you the truth of our brand day by day. Lookout here we come!

AWARDS/PRESS

http://www.kismetmagazine.us/february_issue_usa_2010/february_issue_usa_2010.html