Female Founded: Aeyde

With a penchant for elevated takes on well-loved classics, accessories brand Aeyde responds to an industry steeped in micro-trends with a design ethos rooted in longevity and transparency. Founded in 2015 by Luisa Dames, the brand has grown and evolved alongside a shifting consumer landscape. It conquered through Covid-19 and the breakdown of retail giants with a direct-to-consumer strategy and excellent design. Exploring what makes Aeyde a standout amongst a crowded field, we caught up with Luisa, talking highs, lows and everything in-between.

In 2025, the brand will celebrate 10 years. How has the industry evolved since you founded it?
There have been mammoth changes in the short time since I founded Aeyde. Short in the sense that nine years has gone by so quickly. When I launched Aeyde in 2015, the luxury market was at its zenith and multi-brand retailers like Matchesfashion, who sadly went into administration this year, Net-A-Porter, Farfetch and their contemporaries were king. They were the de facto authorities on luxury. 

But that type of luxury appears to have been a trend, susceptible to shifting consumer demands because I feel that the luxury market has lost touch with its core community and customers. Now we’re in an era where brand and DTC (direct-to-consumer) is key. It’s a precarious situation to be in but if you leverage this autonomy in the right way, it can be the most powerful position to be in, the most effective one for growing and continuing to cultivate your community.

What have been some of the most rewarding and challenging aspects of leading Aeyde since its inception?
I am a creator by heart and truly love building and creating things. I learned to trust my intuition and to me there is nothing more rewarding than seeing visions become reality. But I will say leading a company in general is always a challenge and I did learn so many things over the years.

For sure the pandemic presented challenges we never could have expected but also, it showed me that the brand is stable. In general, logistical challenges in supply-chain operations confound us at Aeyde. It’s one part of the business that requires constant quick fixes, especially because production is based in Europe with very specialized partner factories–they really and truly are the best at what they do in terms of premium craftsmanship–and as such, the challenges are niche and never the same. But if we want to put a positive spin on this, it makes the team more agile and the brand more adaptable. And really, that’s the only way to make it work at the moment.

And then there are so many rewarding moments, I’m just as thrilled when we get amazing feedback from customers about their new Umas as I am when Madonna wears our shoes. Perhaps a bigger milestone was the recent Textilwirtschaft Award which I was, naturally, very honored to receive because of its German origins and the legion of other houses and designers who are previous recipients.

Aeyde started as a digital-first and direct-to-consumer brand. How has this unique approach influenced your growth and connection with customers?
Aeyde launched as a DTC brand and it very much works within this framework today. The online customer experience is paramount. But really, being a digital-first brand means we have more control over our distribution and production. We have more access to our customers and we’re able to implement quick changes or try out new things. It all relates to Aeyde being an iterative brand, a precise brand. It also presents challenges at times when we think about how we can really listen to our client’s needs–for example, how can we have physical touchpoints with them? For this, we decided on a series of pop-ups in 2024. We partnered with Selfridges in London and just this past August, we partnered with Le Bon Marché in Paris. We have existing partnerships with such retailers, sure, but a physical pop-up brings new and existing customers truly into the Aeyde World.

Can you describe the creative process behind the most recent collection, from initial inspiration to final product?
For me, it’s the first season where the conceptual side of the brand ties in so closely with the commercial, design, and editorial side. It was planned and executed to the most minute detail, so I think it’s Aeyde’s most cohesive collection yet. The Fall/Winter 2024 collection draws inspiration from Berlin, from Bauhaus and from Brutalism–truly an ongoing inspiration for the brand and for me, personally–and reflects the city’s historical and modern design evolution. We found the word “elemente” (the German version of the English ‘element’), which is what Bauhaus and Brutalism are essentially, right? On my team, we spoke about the essence of these design movements stemming from rough simplicity and an almost ascetic design sensibility, for example, using concrete as a material. From there, we dissected the collection into its compounds and composites, allowing us to explore different elements per drop.

Sustainability is a key aspect of Aeyde's philosophy. Can you discuss the steps Aeyde takes to ensure sustainable sourcing and production practices?
Yes, responsibility is a core tenet of Aeyde as a brand and it has been since the beginning. What I mean by responsibility is much more than ‘sustainability’ in the way we understand it according to current market norms. Responsibility, in my opinion, relates to designing products with the idea that they will become core styles–nothing is ever created from a single-season perspective. And then with sourcing, we only work with the finest materials, all of them byproducts from the food industry. The buying process is also crucial, we estimate the customers demand precisely and avoid overstocks which often becomes the main bottleneck for brands, especially if they grow. Everything is intentional and precise and I believe that’s key to being a responsible brand today.

What is next for the brand?
There are so many things happening for the brand that are so positive and much better then we envisioned them to be. One exciting element that I can share today is Aeyde’s expansion in Berlin (our home city). The office is currently based on this grand modernist boulevard, and finally, as we approach 10 years of the brand, we’ll build out this HQ into something more of an office, studio, and showroom space. It’s an exciting time right now for Aeyde.