Donn Ya Doll, thirty years of slow fashion
Cofounder of this Copenhagen institution, Anne Engsted reflects on three decades of thoughtful, curated fashion.
“How long has Who’s Next existed? Because I have a feeling that we were here from the very beginning.” Anne Engsted recalls the early days of Donn Ya Doll, the Copenhagen store she cofounded in 1997. At that time, she traveled Europe in a van to make her first purchases, with almost no money in her pocket, looking for pieces with a little extra something. Almost thirty years later, Donn Ya Doll has become an institution, And Anne one of Who’s Next’s most loyal buyers. She reflects on three decades of slow fashion.
How did you get your customers to adopt slow fashion at a time when it wasn’t popular?
We educate them a lot and we use the proper words for it. When something is fake or made of plastic, we say it. People usually don’t know when something is made of plastic, because it’s named otherwise. They just buy it because it’s soft, but the reason why it’s soft is because it’s plastic!
How have your customers evolve?
It seems like they grew with us. Back in the day, we sold a dress for an occasion, like a one-time purchase. Nowadays, a purchase is more of an investment, so items have to be versatile and last for many years. They have to be really durable and feminine, but not too much because they don’t want to get fed up with it. It’s actually quite funny and challenging to meet those criteria.
Which brands caught your attention during this session of Who’s Next?
Today I found an Indian company that hand-preps everything, from dyeing to gluing. The amount of work they put into one piece is insane, so much so that their production period lasts for half a year. Such brands are not represented in Denmark. This is why we always come to Who’s Next. It never works to simply do what everybody else does, you need to find what appeals to your heart and stay true to it.
You’ve come to Who’s Next for almost three decades. How do you manage to keep a fresh perspective?
I try not to become lazy, because if I do, I can close my store. We always look for those nitty-gritty brands that our clients appreciate so much, and in order to find them we need to go through everything, every time. That’s the rule!
