Ganni needs no introduction — at least not to the environmentally and fashion conscious, or anyone working in the creative industries of the Western hemisphere. With over 650 stockists, 62 stores and 605 employees worldwide, it’s Denmark s largest fashion brand.
But there’s still a large part of the consumer universe left unexplored. The company doesn’t disclose earnings but the ambition is to more than double the business over the next five years. Cue CEO Laura Du Rusquec, who left her position as deputy CEO at Balenciaga to join Ganni in April 2024. A few months later, in September 2024, Ganni showed for the first time at Paris Fashion Week; a move that sparked a lot of conversation, as it had been showing in Copenhagen pretty much since the fashion week’s inception (2009), with the two growing in tandem.
A few weeks before the brand’s second show in Paris, as well as her first anniversary at its helm, I met Du Rusquec at a showroom in the French capital. We went over the Spring/Summer 2025 collection (the one shown last season) and talked about her mission and vision for the brand. What follows is an edited version of that conversation.
Vogue: Your first collection with Ganni is about to hit stores. How does it feel?
I’m thrilled to see this collection come to life in stores. We’ve been working on it together with the design, brand and commercial teams since my first day at Ganni. It’s a really good feeling when you’re new in a company and the team is up for helping you realise your plans and vision. I’ve been very welcomed, everybody has been really open and that’s helping me understand the Ganni community and what it stands for. It’s been an amazing journey so far.
Vogue: What attracted you to the role?
The Ganni brand identity is very strong and clear, and that’s attractive to me. I also share the values of the brand. And what I was seeing from the outside is actually what I saw once I joined. I’ve been travelling a lot — to Copenhagen, obviously — but also across the world, spending time with our teams in the US and in Asia. Every single individual that works at the company shares its values; the creativity, the authenticity and obviously the responsibility.
Vogue: You must be relieved. What’s your brief now that you are in the role?
My mission has been clear; it’s to take the brand on a journey of what we call ‘elevation’. Which to me really is more of an evolution than an elevation. The brand has very strong pillars, I just have to push those forward.
Vogue: You started your career at Morgan Stanley. Did you move into fashion by chance or were you looking for a way in?
A little of both. I started in investment banking because it’s a classic path after business school. I’m a very analytical person — I like strategy and thinking about how companies develop — so it came naturally. But I also always loved product and fashion and I had the chance at Morgan Stanley to work on some projects from within the industry. And this eventually helped me change paths and move into what back then was the Gucci Group [now Kering, owner of Balenciaga]. I learnt so much about this industry, which is so interesting, so complex. I’m not a creative person, and so I’m impressed by creative people.
Vogue: Don’t you think your job requires you to be creative as well?
It does, but I think what really matters in my line of work is to respect creativity and to be the person that enables it.
Vogue: What’s the biggest difference between Balenciaga and Ganni, in terms of how you work?
Well, the point of view changed. Ganni is not a traditional luxury brand. It’s also been a change to work for a brand that is not part of a big group. I learnt a lot at Kering about the luxury customer and the retail environment. Learnings that help me shape our strategy and our trajectory at Ganni.
Vogue: A little after you started at Ganni, the brand moved from showing in Copenhagen to Paris. What does that mean? How is the company changing to make that pivot?
Because I come from this more traditional luxury world, the codes of a brand are very important to me. And one of the codes of Ganni is Copenhagen. The brand was born in Copenhagen. But it doesn’t mean we need to show in Copenhagen. It’s about making sure the culture of the brand is everywhere — in our New York office, our Shanghai office and in every single store.
As the brand is growing and becoming significant, we are willing to address a wider audience and that audience is in Paris. Having said that, we are very keen to continue to be patrons of Copenhagen Fashion Week; we are working with the new talent programme on bringing up the next generation of creatives.
On a practical level, we had a Paris office before I joined and this office is just becoming bigger. The teams are also very flexible and digitally savvy, so I don’t see a barrier as long as I pursue my mission of ensuring the strong company culture is everywhere.
Vogue: Is Ganni a luxury or contemporary brand? Or are you defining a new niche within the contemporary market?
Listen, we could go on for hours about what is luxury, what is contemporary, etc. I think what sets Ganni apart is that we are a creative brand. We don’t look like any other brand. That’s really key for me. The conversation surrounding luxury versus contemporary... is it a matter of pricing?
Vogue: This is the question of our time I guess — how do you define luxury today? We recently did a survey at Vogue Business and it showed consumers don’t trust traditional luxury brands to deliver on their values.
Exactly. I think it’s a lot about creativity and craftsmanship. And we are going to focus on craftsmanship even more at Ganni. We are doing it already with the collection that we showed last season, and with the collection that we are about to show.
Then, there is the community conversation — a lot of our clients are what we call traditional luxury consumers. We know that they buy from luxury brands and they buy Ganni, too. So in that sense, we are part of this world. But we don’t try to put ourselves in a box.
Vogue: On the customer — the Ganni girl — I’ve been one. I remember the first Ganni dress I bought in probably 2015; it was green, floral and long. I have memories of working in the i-D office wearing one of the check dresses in 2018. The brand defined my journey into adulthood, my mid-20s to early 30s. Is the customer now older like I am, or is she still in her 20s? Who are you targeting?
That’s something we have been discussing with the teams as well. There’s the original girl that’s been there from day one — that community grew organically and it came of age with us. We’ve been going through all the stages of her life with her. In parallel, we are seeing this new generation of girls that are discovering the brand; we see it a lot on socials.
And then our community is also growing because we have been expanding geographically. Our global teams are in conversation and there is always this curiosity to understand what the design specificities in different markets are but whether in Shanghai, New York, Paris, that woman is there. It’s not really a demographic question, it’s about mindset: our customer is a confident woman who cares about what she’s buying and about the planet.
Vogue: For 2025, what are the priorities?
Priority number one is people. We are leveraging the strength of the teams that have been at Ganni from the beginning to make sure that we stay very true to the values of the brand. At the same time, we are bringing in new team members with new skill sets. It’s the mix of both that will aid us on the journey forward.
The second priority is the elevation that we have been discussing — whether on the product side, communication or customer experience. In terms of product, we have been working a lot on fabric innovation and we have also been refining our messaging; our SS25 campaign is shot by Mark Kean, styled by Vanessa Reid and stars Frederikke Sofie, who is a long-time muse of Ditte [Reffstrup, Ganni co-founder and creative director]. On the customer side, we are opening in more traditionally luxury neighborhoods and I’m also focused on a new store concept that will showcase the work that is being done on the product. I think it’s important to a brand as community-led as Ganni; our client is expecting to feel like home when entering any of our stores.
And then the always-on priority is sustainability. We’ve done a lot already but at the end of the day, elevation also means pushing the boundaries in the sustainability field. The entire company is all in on that strategy — we have an internal carbon squad of around 25 people. They are people from every single department and they work together on our carbon reduction objectives.
Vogue: Tell me about the show that is coming up.
We are in the frantic last few weeks before the show, which I love; it’s why I work in this industry. It’s going to be a more intimate show than last time. We decided to take a more curated approach that will showcase our values and creativity in a more relaxed way. So material innovation, craftsmanship and sustainability will be the focus — all styled by Vanessa Reid. The collection looks amazing and I am very excited. It’s a promising time for Ganni.
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.
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