Driven by Nostalgia: September Salon
Appetizers prepared with loving care, sparkling wine and handcrafted clothes arranged by style: September Salon´s stand at the showcase at Aarhus City Hall gives a pre-taste of what the label´s actual fashion salon is like. Just like back in the days, September Salon is not sold at department stores or in online-shops. Instead, the two founders of the brand, Trine and Mette, meet and treat their customers personally.
Twice a year, for either the spring/summer or autumn/winter collection, they send out invitations to people who have registered for attending a salon. Five salon days are held in Aarhus and three are organized in Copenhagen. Per day, two to three sessions invite 25 women to view, try on and order the new styles. “As a designer in the industry, you never get to actually know who is wearing what you make. You always sell the collection to a salesperson and then the salesperson goes and tells the message. For us, it´s different. We can tell exactly why we did what we did, and build up a relationship with our customers”, Trine describes. “Every day, we receive text messages from somebody saying ‘Oh, today I´m all September Salon’ or, sometimes, people send us pictures”, adds Mette. Through this concept, the brand has won about 450 customers within only two years.
Appetizers for the visitors of the showcase at Aarhus City Hall © Nicole Goszczynski
Besides providing a classic, personal shopping experience, Trine and Mette place value on high quality and sustainability. “In Denmark, everything is about price, so the quality is lacking. We don´t have this tradition for well-made clothes, not any longer”, says Mette who studied in Milan and worked in Italy for many years. “We want to create pieces that you can and just love to wear year after year”, she continues. While the prevailing way of designing clothes in the industry follows the steps sketching the style – buying suitable textile, Trine and Mette start out from the material. “We are both inspired by beautiful fabrics that we get in Italy. Sometimes, it´s like: ‘This one is nice for a jacket, this one would make for a nice shirt’”, Mette illustrates. “It´s strange to sketch something without knowing what it will be made of”, Trine affirms.
In line with their understanding of sustainability, these fabrics are leftovers from other designers. They do not want to add to the waste that is already being produced by the big brands but instead focus on using it up efficiently. Therefore, they have to calculate carefully how many orders of each item they can take. “Our customers know that if they want something, they need to be fast. Because of the limited material we have, things get sold out quickly”, Trine explains.
Part of the new collection © Katja Scheibler
The actual production then takes place in either Italy or Latvia. As both designers had worked in the industry for many years, they have established close relationships to some of the manufacturers. The one in Latvia is a Dane who oversees the production of September Salon´s knitwear. In Italy, the two designers cooperate with a family-owned factory that makes the woven clothes for the brand. It usually takes eight weeks from when the salons are held until the designers get, pack and send the apparel to their customers.
So, what is September Salon? “It´s long-lasting pieces that you can style both classically and in a very fashionable way. It´s eclectic”, describes Mette. Check it out on http://www.septembersalon.dk/ (@septembersalon).
Trine (left) and Mette (right) at Aarhus City Hall © Katja Scheibler