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Thu 9 Mar
WORDS Steve Salter
PHOTOGRAPHY Andreas Waldschütz
IN REACTION TO A POLARISED ACCESSORIES MARKET AND GUIDED BY CUSTOMER REQUESTS, VEECOLLECTIVE DESIGNS VERSATILE, EVERYDAY BAGS FOR THE MODERN WOMAN.
Driven by the desire to create the go-to multi-purpose bag for the modern woman, Lili Radu and husband Patrick Löwe focussed seven years of experience, market research and client feedback from the Frankfurt-born accessory designer’s eponymous brand to launch VeeCollective in 2017. As the accessories market was polarising between luxury and fast fashion, the duo spent time on shop floors and listened to customer feedback before creating the lightest, most versatile bag on the planet. An everyday essential – both fashionable and responsibly designed – for travel, sports, work, and leisure. Today, VeeCollective has three lines offering a variety of shapes, but everything started with the Vee Tote. In the five years since, the duo have continually evolved its archetypal design, always listening and designing consciously. As they work toward B Corp Certification and market launches in the UK and US, we sit down with the husband-and-wife team to explore the past, present, and future of VeeCollective.
BEFORE WE LOOK AT VEECOLLECTIVE’S TOMORROW, LET’S START AT ITS BEGINNING. WHAT WAS THE CATALYST FOR LAUNCHING THE BRAND?
Patrick: Lili founded her first handcrafted leather bag brand in 2010, we met two years later and were married by 2014. At the time, I was working for an Italian chocolate company but we decided to join forces shortly after Lili Radu became the first German brand to create laptop bags for Apple. As we travelled and met customers, the gap in the market for a lightweight everyday bag became clear. So, we put everything we had learned so far it into designing the Vee Totes.
VEECOLLECTIVE HAS ALWAYS DESIGNED FOR THE REALITY OF LIFE, RATHER THAN THE FANTASY.
Lili: It’s really like a white T-shirt, right? Every woman needs a bag to carry their stuff. Here’s your go-to gym bag, your go-to travel bag, your go-to work bag. There’s so much potential because we see fashionable gym goers with their expensive kit and laptops carried in gifted tote bags. Of course, while satisfying this demand, we’re 100% recycled and use vegan leather.
RESPONSIBLE DESIGN IS INGRAINED IN YOUR PRACTICE. LAUNCHING IN 2017, YOU WERE EARLY ADOPTERS AND, AS THE BRAND GROWS, YOU’RE CONTINUALLY PUSHING FOR BETTER PRACTICE.
Patrick: It’s not easy but this desire was always at the fore for VeeCollective because, by design, our bags are responsible as they are multi-purpose. We push limits and have always balanced lightness and durability but it always had to be recycled. It takes time and we had to find the right partners. We look at the entire process, the full value chain.
FROM PRODUCT DESIGN TO IMPACT, YOU’RE CONSTANTLY PUSHING BUT THERE’S A SOFT POWER IN YOUR APPROACH.
Patrick: We don’t shout about what we’re doing and we don’t settle. It's super cool to do a 100% recycled product, but it's much cooler to do a product that has zero petroleum in it at all. That’s the next project.
Lili: We know where we want this brand to go. The lives of modern women have evolved and we want to support these changes as best we can. We recently launched our collaboration with the Toni Garrn Foundation with 100% of profits going to the education of girls in Burundi, Ghana, Rwanda and Uganda. We sold 1000 bags in three weeks and it’s just the beginning.
WHAT OTHER PLANS DO YOU HAVE IN STORE?
Patrick: The UK and US markets are two great opportunities that we’re excited to explore fully this year.
TO WHAT EXTENT DOES WORKING AS A HUSBAND-AND-WIFE TEAM DRIVE VEECOLLECTIVE?
Patrick: Working together affords us so much liberty in decision making, and how we plan our days, but provides so much support, too. We’re working for our success, so there are difficult moments.
Lili: Ultimately, we love what we do and we believe in what we do. When one of us is down, the other always gets them up, so we’re great at managing those moments. I tend to be the more enthusiastic person, and Patrick is the more rational one.
SO, DO YOUR PERSONALITIES WORK WELL TOGETHER?
Patrick: Even if you have a healthy product, healthy financials and everything, if you over pace and or over stretch, you can ruin a business. So, we take it step by step.
Lili: But as we seek opportunities and push for positive change, we take risks. We see opportunities, change, adapt and run together. When you stand still, you fall. So, we’re constantly moving.