July 14, 2008
dandi
If you ever doubted what a difference good napery makes then these pics should surely dispel that idea. It makes me want to fling open my cupboards and rid them of anything that isn't fresh and funky. I recently featured Dandi's beautiful bamboo range so thought you might like to find out more about the brand that was founded and is run by six very talented women.
How and why did you start Dandi? We all met after studying industrial design and wanted to share our passion for fun, stylish and affordable homewares with a real Australian feel to them.
What has been the response? There has been a growing response to the range over the last few years but there has definitely been hype over certain products such as our halter neck 50s style pini, gorgeous ironing board covers and the new sustainable bamboo range.
How is having your own business different to what you expected? Despite the fact we are all trained industrial designers and love that aspect of the business in reality it's about 5% design and 95% marketing/sales/distribution.
What has been a highlight? There have been so many! Making the step from fabric products into the bamboo range has been quite exciting for us, it's great to see how it co-ordinates well with the napery range and still has a very Dandi feel to it.
Where do you look to for inspiration? We are crafty girls so we do a lot of experimenting and show and tell to each other. All of us subscribe to different design blogs and magazines as well as collecting objects which inspire us. These range from twigs, branches and seed pods that we pick up on our travels to vintage kitchen and homewares. Basically we are constantly on the look out for inspiration for both products and patterns.
What's the best lesson you've learnt? Don't wear high heels to a trade fair - no matter how glamorous you look!
What are you passionate about right now? We are trying to restructure our business to make it kinder to the environment. So far we have redone our packaging to make it recyclable as well as releasing our range of sustainable bamboo products. We hope to continue moving the Dandi brand forward with this in mind and have been looking at ways of recycling fabric remnants - see our blog for some examples.
If you could meet one person, living or dead, who would it be? Audrey Hepburn or the Queen's Mother - we can't decide!
What are you looking forward to? Our dream of having a Dandi retrospective exhibition in Paris... maybe in about 20 years time?!
What are you reading? A Guide to Elegance by Genevieve Antoine Dariaux.
How is having your own business different to what you expected? Despite the fact we are all trained industrial designers and love that aspect of the business in reality it's about 5% design and 95% marketing/sales/distribution.
What has been a highlight? There have been so many! Making the step from fabric products into the bamboo range has been quite exciting for us, it's great to see how it co-ordinates well with the napery range and still has a very Dandi feel to it.
Where do you look to for inspiration? We are crafty girls so we do a lot of experimenting and show and tell to each other. All of us subscribe to different design blogs and magazines as well as collecting objects which inspire us. These range from twigs, branches and seed pods that we pick up on our travels to vintage kitchen and homewares. Basically we are constantly on the look out for inspiration for both products and patterns.
What's the best lesson you've learnt? Don't wear high heels to a trade fair - no matter how glamorous you look!
What are you passionate about right now? We are trying to restructure our business to make it kinder to the environment. So far we have redone our packaging to make it recyclable as well as releasing our range of sustainable bamboo products. We hope to continue moving the Dandi brand forward with this in mind and have been looking at ways of recycling fabric remnants - see our blog for some examples.
If you could meet one person, living or dead, who would it be? Audrey Hepburn or the Queen's Mother - we can't decide!
What are you looking forward to? Our dream of having a Dandi retrospective exhibition in Paris... maybe in about 20 years time?!
What are you reading? A Guide to Elegance by Genevieve Antoine Dariaux.