Designer

From design to product

You may already own an Olsen garment that is so super-soft or a favourite jacket that fits you so perfectly that you could quite happily wear it every single day. Have you ever wondered how your favourite piece was designed and made?

Who thought up the pattern? Who decided that the sleeves needed to be long and slim, and that patch pockets looked better than welt pockets? And what inspired Olsen to choose this vibrant shade of red or that particular romantic lacy pattern?

To give you an impression of just how much work it takes to transform an idea into a finished piece in one of our collections, and how much attention to detail and passion for design it involves, we’d like to give you a brief look at the Olsen design and production team.

Developing ideas

Before a skirt, a pair of trousers or a coat is created, our design team goes travelling. They visit all our stores worldwide, attend trade shows; they take a close look at what people are wearing on the streets to gain an impression of what colours, shapes and stylings are emerging right now and decide which of these could evolve into a trend.

With these ideas and images in their minds, they return to the office and hold the first of many, many design meetings to discuss which trends could be relevant for Olsen, and thus for our customers. Ideas are suggested, debated, discarded – it sometimes even gets a bit heated – but in the end the team always agrees on the trend colours for each month of the coming season, the materials, the silhouettes and styles. With these ideas, our designers get down to work. Naturally, foremost in their minds is you, our customer, because we want each new collection to provide the fit you are used to and the quality you’ve come to expect from Olsen.

Production

The sketches produced by our designers are sent to our manufacturers in Italy, Greece, Poland, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Turkey. The first sample pieces are made up and sent back to Hamburg where we scrutinise them carefully. Are all the seams exactly where they’re meant to be? Have the very best materials been used? Is the craftsmanship up to our high standards? Is the red really red, and the lavender shade exactly as we visualised it?

The sample piece is sent back to the manufacturer along with our modification and alteration requests, and the real production work starts. Our expert garment technicians are always there to keep a watchful eyes on the production conditions; when they say that everything is perfect, each item is given a label, packed up and shipped to our vast warehouse in Hamburg for sorting, packing and delivery to our many retailers and for our new online shop.

At last ......

The new collection is shipped to the retailers and displayed in the stores - waiting for you to come in, try something on and choose your new favourite pieces – fabulous, wearable design in top quality at affordable prices.

So how long did all this take? Eight months from the first idea to the finished garment. Eight months during which we invested our best efforts and much love to ensure that our favourite pieces become yours, too.

Go to top