Ganni Has Launched A New Collection At Browns, And It’s Full Of The Brand’s Best-Ever Pieces

For Ditte Reffstrup, Ganni’s creative director, the past six months have been a lesson in perspective. ‘It’s made me realise how much I value the good people around me,’ she says via email. Today sees the launch of her brand’s capsule collection at Browns, who's been a valued partner since the beginning. ‘We wanted to celebrate our friendship with a collection full of hero pieces,’ explains Reffstrup. Its much-loved smiley face tee (£90), seersucker maxi dress (£210) and puffed-sleeve minidress (£175) are all present and correct.

Ganni’s prides itself on house signatures like its oversized collars and check prints, tweaking them anew each season for its #gannigirls, and it’s just as well. When the pandemic hit, Reffstrup had already designed ‘the perfect collection’ for SS21, but was forced to decrease its size by 50%. ‘It felt terrible having to kill our darlings, but in the end it was a super healthy editing process, like writing a 300-page book and having to edit it down to 150 pages. It’s still the same story, now told more consistently.’

Instead of staging its traditional show, and wild after-party at last week’s Copenhagen Fashion Week, Reffstrup took the opportunity to, as she puts it, ‘hit refresh and do something different’. For its ‘202020 initiative’, the brand reached out to seven artists around the world, asking them to contribute to an exhibition staged at the Maritime Museum. The results ranged from spoken essays to installations made from a combination of vintage Levi's denim and repurposed Ganni fabrics. ‘The pandemic really showed us that we can stay close to our community even though we are physically apart. Only one out of seven creatives we worked with travelled to Copenhagen, everything else was created remotely,’ she says.

Despite this year’s challenges, it’s also seen the release of Ganni x Levi’s, an innovative collection that’s made entirely from upcycled denim and, here’s the kicker, only available to rent not buy. ‘The idea was to create something worn by many but owned by none, really pushing the bar on what circularity can be in fashion,’ says Reffstrup.

In fact, there isn’t much this year has changed for the designer, including how she gets dressed. ‘At the beginning of lockdown, I was getting the Sunday blues every day because I stayed in my PJs. Once I noticed this, I started dressing up even more than I usually would. It’s become so apparent to me that I dress for myself and nobody else, and that dressing up everyday can really inspire the way I feel.’

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