“Hi Anita,” is how I hailed Sabine, as she welcomed me at the entrance of “Blanche” in the Schneidergasse. And this despite the fact that I had prepared myself so thoroughly for this interview and had even researched the history of the two women who run it together. So embarrassing! But in fact, they reassure me, this is not the first time this has happened. Sabine and Anita look as though they could be sisters. And in a way that is what they have become, after all the years they have shared. “Sisters by choice,” as they put it. Business partners. But friends as well. They run the “Blanche” store at the Schneidergasse together. It also incorporates a workshop and is home to their own brand “etmoietmoi”.
They sell a carefully and expertly selected range of fashion and accessories here, almost exclusively Swiss brands – around 60 of them in the meanwhile. And their portfolio makes it evidently clear: the variety of fashion design currently being produced in Switzerland is huge. This can sometimes be a bit of a challenge for their customers, because nothing is just “off the shelf” here. “If you shop with us, it is a very individual experience,” says Sabine. “It usually feels more like you’ve come here for a personal appointment and a nice conversation.” And apart from that, Anita and Sabine know the history behind each piece they sell in their shop, because they know almost all the designers personally.
Bound in friendship and leather
Blanche is more than just a fashion store. Blanche is also a leather manufactory. The products of their label “etmoietmoi” which they sell in the shop, are produced in the workshop on the fourth floor of the same building. This is where the key rings, cell phone cases, wallets and leather armbands are cut to size, edged, perforated, sewn and put together. The ornate braided details typifying their brand, are sometimes created at the table downstairs in the shop, because the two designers want to be there for their customers. They enjoy offering their help. And that includes repairing people’s favourite accessories, even if they were not originally bought at Blanche. “It’s not a particularly profitable business,” grins Anita, “but it does reflect our philosophy: our aim is sustainability. And that includes freshening up an old bag or repairing the seam of a much loved leather jacket, so that they can be worn with pleasure for many more years to come.”
When Anita and Sabine tell their stories they do so calmly and their words are carefully chosen. They never interrupt each other, but do sometimes add something when the other has finished speaking. They give each other plenty of space, but intervene if they deem it necessary. They show each other respect and share a deep mutual trust. When they talk about their 25 years of friendship, their eyes light up. They first got to know each other while they were both studying Fashion Design at the FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. Anita was in the last year of her degree; Sabine had just started. “I remember very clearly how determined Anita always looked whenever she swept through the room,” grins Sabine. One thing they already had in common back then was that they were among the older members of their years – they had both already started their careers before they came to study again in Basel. In fact, Anita already had two. Sabine had worked as a teacher at a primary school in the Canton of Lucerne for a few years. Anita had left her home in Bern at the age of 16 to attend the ballet academy in Antwerp. Having completed her training there, she moved to the Bally shoe factory in Schönenwerd where she trained as a technical shoe modelist.
We are committed to sustainability.
A lot of luck and even more hard work
Sabine and Anita bumped into each other in town again by chance, years after they had first met while studying fashion design. They had both established their own labels, Sabine was designing clothes and leather jewellery, Anita shoe collections. During this chance meeting they arranged to eat dinner together and they ended up sharing a studio in the Hammerstrasse. “When we were decorating the shop window together, we noticed that our products fitted together brilliantly,” Sabine tells me. And because Anita had become a mother, she was reconsidering her options. “It had suddenly become impossible for me to spend weeks in Italy supervising the production of my latest shoe collection. I had to come up with a way of making my work more economically viable and less time-consuming,” she adds. She began to accept more commissions for designs and to manufacture bags herself in the studio.
I admire Anita's incredible creativity, and I'm impressed by her energy.
While trying to come up with a joint product for the Christmas shop window, Sabine and Anita designed a cloud bad and a braided key ring – both products are still part of their current collection. They tell me that there were a lot of things they did not discuss down to the very last detail; what they developed resulted from an intense and yet always playful process of design and realisation, and all happened quite naturally. It was the same story with how they ended up with a store in the middle of Basel’s old town, which they hadn’t even been looking for but have now been running for three years. Sabine and Anita are doers. Sabine takes a more strategic and structural approach, analyses the situation, and sometimes even pulls on the brakes. Anita, on the other hand, is more impulsive and ebullient. She likes implementing her ideas, if possible, immediately. “We complement each other and do each other good in this regard,” adds Anita. In fact, the two women have coalesced into a close-knit team over the years. “I am full of admiration for Anita’s incredible creativity and impressed by her energy,” says Sabine. Anita shoots straight back with: “I think it is really incredible how carefully and discerningly Sabine can approach products and ideas, without stymieing them. I still look forward to working with her every day.”
They both treat their relationship with great care. They know they have something special in each other, both at work and on a personal level. Although they both have a lot of family commitments – Anita’s daughter is 13 and Sabine’s son is 8 years old – they are never short of ideas or the energy to put them into practice. “Sometimes I think: Here we are now, sitting in this store in the historic town centre, selling our products. Maybe we should see if there is something else we can do here, a different way of using these premises,” Sabine ponders. “Obviously, Blanche is just the space, like a vessel. We can do what we want with it, whatever we find exciting …,” Anita agrees. Sabine and Anita are an inspiration. Because at “Blanche” they have created a space for things of beauty that endure. And because the years of close collaboration with other designers have transformed Blanche into a platform, a goldmine of outstanding, striking and carefully handcrafted Swiss fashion design. Because they are not too timid to take the path untrodden and thus show that, although you cannot plan life perfectly, you can make the best of the situations it leads you into. And because they have cultivated this friendship for half their lives, a friendship could not be conducted with more care or sensitivity. Who knows how these two will surprise us in the future – one thing is for sure; they are not going to run out of creativity.
THREE QUESTIONS FOR ANITA & SABINE
Your style when you were 18?
Anita: That was when I started wearing high heels. Until I turned 45 you would never have caught me in anything but heels. While I was in Belgium training to dance ballet I often used to sew – as a boarder, I had a lot of spare time at the weekends – but I was still dressing quite tamely. Only a touch of inspiration from Cindy Lauper, Madonna and co.
Sabine: I was at teacher’s training college at that point and was almost always dressed in denim. Well, it was the 1980s. Fashion was already important to me at that point, but it hadn’t yet become a form of expressing myself. What I did have was a really impressive mane of hair: long and curly – I was Flashdance!
What can we learn from you?
Sabine: To be open and flexible. We approach people, we are inquisitive and are prepared to move out of our comfort zone sometimes too.
Anita: That everything – even superficial fashion items – takes time. That there are people behind the scenes who put more heart, experience and time into their products than can ever be measured in monetary terms. Which is why you should treat your day-to-day trousers and tops with a little humility; you will get more pleasure out of something if you try to understand better what exactly it is you are holding in your hands.
Is there anything about you that’s a bit conventional?
Anita: Oh yes, loads! We are basically a very conventional specialist store. For example, we don’t sell plants just because it’s trendy at the moment. We have clothes and shoes. In that way we are rigid and boring.
Sabine: The current phase of my life is not terribly exciting or fancy. I’m either working or at home with my family. But an era of independence will reemerge at some point …!
