In Conversation with Anne Vest
Luxury outerwear label, ANNEVEST, was founded in 2009 by Anne and Joern Vestesen. Combining Parisian chicness and Nordic design, ANNEVEST has become one of the most well known outerwear brands in the industry due to their creative use of sustainable materials and innovative shapes and designs.
Coggles have conducted an exclusive interview with designer, Anne, to talk about her inspiration, favourite designs and future plans for the luxury brand...
What were your first experiences with designing?
I spent my childhood growing up in a creative environment with my mom running a brand and a small store under her own name. So I started making my own doll-designs from an early age. I never really made an actual choice of designing as a career, I guess it was a path already laid out for me.
Where did your love for shearling come from and how often do you wear it yourself?
After graduation from design school, I started out in 2001 by moving to Paris to start out under own name. I discovered early on - while studying, that I felt drawn towards outerwear and felt a passion in particular for shearling. Founding my brand on an eligibility of renewing the fur design influenced my fundamental designing process.
I must admit I rarely wear other design but my own. Not as dress-dogma but just because no item enters into our collection unless, I want to wear it myself. That and the fact that I always try to slip into a shearling jacket whenever the weather allows it.
This kind of material is a huge trend, how do you see the materials being used in the future?
It is crucial to me, that each piece is able to stand alone and that it is not the material but the design that gives it its eligibility. The fact that I design mostly in shearling must never clouden my eye for the design-element in each piece. Therefore we constantly aim to explore how ANNE VEST designs can incorporate shearling. ANNE VEST is about renewing and having an exclusive and natural material such as shearling to work with, is just a bonus.
We love the collection that has landed on Coggles, which is your favourite piece and why?
PEONY is my favorite piece, because it capsules our DNA of presenting new ways of interpreting shearling by combining hair lengths as a clear design feature. Further, the dotted theme reflects our fresh approach to shearling in general.
What is it like working as a couple when designing? Do your opinions ever conflict over the finished look of a piece?
Jørn, my husband is CEO, and is actually much more financially oriented than I, so we have a clear distribution of work areas between us. That said we of course draw a lot from each other in our respective areas and bounce ideas off each other all the time. Do we conflict?...of course all the time, anything else would be strange, but I value his input as much as he does mine. Being a couple also allows us to really stretch a discussion, because we know each other so well, and this often gives us the better result.
Sometimes we disagree, and that is where the final decision, design-wise, lies with me. As does financial aspects, they evidently rest with him.
Where in the world would you say you take most of your inspiration from?
Having spent many of my early design years in Paris, this is my design crib to which I always return, but I often go to London and New York for inspiration.
It is clear ANNE VEST designs take on structure and volume in their shapes, is there a creative reasoning for this?
I love sculpting and that part of the design process interests me a lot and always has done. Shearling as a material allows a lot of structure and volume, which is also why I love working with it. Although our collections are entirely new and modernistic, there is also an understated chicness with the use of shearling that inspire thoughts of early 20th century luxury, and we aim to present a juxtaposition of themes in our work. I let my imagination unfold far in the design-process, not following a straight theme, before I start to think in terms of what works in a conceptual collection. This fosters a wide variation of prototypes from which I develop different directions in the collection. I guess ANNE VEST is - and always will be about vast diversity. My collaboration with Our Atelier is followed and directed closely by myself and is something in which I put great effort. Since I work from pieces rather than full lines, tailoring each style is only natural for me and our team, and ANNE VEST is appreciated for our shaped silhouettes – them being fitted or perfectly oversized.
When you’re not designing where could we find you?
Cunningly combining my my design curious mind with my much treasured family life by inviting my family to visit new restaurants and cafés in both Copenhagen and abroad.
Who would you most like to see wearing your outerwear pieces, and why?
The women I direct my designs towards are strong-minded individuals, with an open minded take on life - not with an distinct urge to be loud, but they like to show the feel of empowerment and femininity they as women, possess.
In the future, do you see ANNE VEST adapting any other materials? What can we expect to see in the future?
We have in previous collections, had the shearling sit up against many different materials and we will continue to do so to keep the design process inspirational and fun. ANNE VEST is formally an outerwear brand, however as a designer with a curious eye the brand will never dictate any creative directions I might feel worth investigating. Right now outerwear is major, but you will surely see other materials entering our collections in the future.
See the ANNE VEST collection at Coggles >>
A minimalist fashion fan with high interests in the odd print or check. Constantly trying to make my home look like a catalogue; you can find me shopping for cute bedding, candles and other Instagrammable interior accessories.
