Within a year, the designer of the NNedre brand opened a store on Baskov Lane, launched the production of a men's and children's line, and is now ready to fill the niche of the domestic mass market. At our request, Nelly gave a master class on how to build your own brand.
There were three difficult moments in my business when I thought I couldn’t handle it. The first one arose at the very beginning: due to problems with fabric suppliers, one store refused to return the goods to me and pay me money. I turned to my father for help, but he said: “Rely on yourself or close the workshop.” After that we didn't talk for a long time. There was no money, I worked late every day, cried at night, but did not give up. Three months later, everything got better: I took out a loan, rented a studio twice as large, and found new employees. Then my dad called - he saw an article about the brand in the Sobaka.ru magazine and realized that I was not doing custom tailoring, but something serious. He said he loved me very much, but that’s the way he was raised. And he raised me the same way - I had no intention of retreating.
They say that in terms of emotional stress, moving is equal to divorce. So, I have experienced many such divorces. When we opened a showroom on Kazanskaya, where we already occupied the entire floor, I carried boxes myself, took a long time to set everything up, and literally collected money from pennies to pay the rent. It was very difficult: I slept little, I was nervous a lot, but I was sure that I could handle it. Then he wrote about us “ The Village", and the people fell.
The third and most difficult test was the opening of a monobrand in Baskovoe. This time the family decided to help me because they believed in the success of NNedre. We took out a large loan and built a hundred-meter store in a month. Now not only the staff has increased - the responsibility and workload have also doubled. We turned out to be a real team, we worked seven days a week, supported each other in all difficulties and knew that soon our boat would sail exactly on course. And so it happened. At the opening, everything that could possibly happen happened: a fire, a quarrel with the building manager, we completed the repairs and cleaned the premises minutes before the guests arrived, but as a result, it seemed like the whole city visited our store that evening. People drank homemade limoncello and took pictures with firefighters, danced in the street and met my parents, my grandmother treated everyone to cake, and the first customers felt involved in the holiday. Probably something like this family attitude It helps to tell a business that there are real people behind the brand, and this is very important.
Force majeure happens all the time. Then the whole workshop fell ill and was idle for a week and a half, for turnover this is a gigantic loss. Then, during the sales season, half of all fabrics turned out to be defective and we had to urgently look for a replacement. You cannot prepare for such things in advance, but you can learn to exhale, and then there will definitely be a solution, and more than one.
I am incredibly grateful to everyone who comes my way. Each person brings a piece of themselves into the world of NNedre. Many people are surprised how I managed to assemble such a team and where I learned it. My principle is very simple: treat people the way you want them to treat you. Create conditions in which they will enjoy developing and feel comfortable. I tried to embody everything that I lacked in my previous jobs in my personal brand. It is clear that there is no limit to perfection and there is still a lot to learn, but what I have at the moment, is more than I could even dream of.
Photo: Valentin Bloch
We thank the Administration of Vitebsk Station (JSC Russian Railways) for their assistance in organizing the shooting.
St. Petersburg resident Nelly Nedre dreamed of working as a designer since childhood. While studying at the institute, she realized that she was not interested in designing expensive, extravagant clothes that no one could wear in everyday life. Having worked as a designer for a streetwear brand, a year ago she decided to create her own company and began producing laconic items in discreet colors that fit into the global fashion trends. Now Nelly’s clothes are sold in ten stores, and the company’s monthly turnover exceeds half a million rubles.
Experience
Nelly Nedre
Founder of the brand
At the age of seven, I told my grandmother that when I grew up, I would become a designer. Then she gave me a suitcase with felt-tip pens, and from then on, like an obsession, I began to invent and draw various outfits. After graduating from school, without hesitation, I entered the fashion design department. Education at the institute became a real school of life for me: they kicked me out every six months, they told me that I would be a bad designer, that I would never succeed. At the same time, from the third year I started making full-fledged collections, participated and won with them in international competitions. I experimented with forms, tried various fabrics, was looking for my own style. By the fifth year I was a fully formed designer. Teachers at the institute demanded that we show our potential by making the most of our imagination, but I quickly outgrew this approach to clothing. I realized that I don’t want to make things that no one wears, even if they look interesting.
The practice I took with various designers helped me understand this in many ways. Before defending my diploma, I managed to work in an atelier, a luxury brand, and a streetwear brand, and even supervised production in China. In general, I tested all the ground possible. In my last year, I was offered a job by the owner of the St. Petersburg streetwear brand Trailhead. The experience of working in his company turned out to be invaluable. This is a serious brand with a large assortment of products, the founder of which has been working with clothing for twenty years and is well versed in the market - he knows what the Russian consumer is ready to buy. He doesn't do anything fancy, he only works with basic forms and flowers. I started as one of the designers of his brand, and he could say: “Nelly, what are you drawing! Who needs this pink button on the side, I won’t sell it to anyone!”
The company had an experimental workshop in which we sewed samples, sent them to stores and, if we realized that they were going well, we launched large production in China. I was able to try a lot within Trailhead: developing a line women's clothing, which was almost never done before, organized shoots for lookbooks and an online store. At some point it became clear: I already know absolutely everything that is needed to open my own business.
Your own business
I decided to leave Trailhead, and at that moment my friend, designer Asya Malberstein, offered me to rent a twelve-meter room for a workshop. She had been pushing me to create my own brand for a long time, and I thought this room was a good sign. I spent all my money, about 100 thousand rubles, on sewing machine and purchasing fabrics for the first collection. After three months, I realized that this was not enough, and took out 300 thousand on credit.
With this money I hired three people and purchased additional equipment. I registered the brand name, it cost about 60 thousand rubles. They tried to dissuade me, they thought it was an unnecessary expense, but for me this protective measure was very important. I also made a website, registered an individual entrepreneur, and received permission to trade. A year later, when I had five people working on my staff, I rented a room with an area of 63 square meters, which now houses the production itself, a show room, and an office.
Now I have a manager, three seamstresses, a constructor and a designer on my staff. For me, this is the golden time of the company, because so far maintaining a friendly working atmosphere is not difficult, and each employee clearly understands what he should do and when. When the company has more than fifteen people, it will be very difficult to maintain the same trusting relationship with all employees. You will have to get used to communication in the “superior-subordinate” format. I managed to rehearse all the typical problems of working with a brand back in Trailhead, so stressful situations was ready. True, I had to develop an additional degree of rigidity, without which the boss cannot do it.
Working with stores
It is important to understand that I did not start from scratch. In addition to experience, I had good connections with the stores: we were friends with some of the owners, and we had collaborated with others before. Therefore, I knew exactly where I would sell my first collection.
At first, I sold 50 items a month. Now on average we sell about 400 items per month worth half a million rubles. We cooperate with ten stores scattered across Russian cities, the largest of which is Moscow - Trends Brands in Tsvetnoy. Now, I am sure, the number of stores promoting Russian designers will only increase.
I didn’t plan to open my own offline store: I simply didn’t have the space. However, it turned out that people, having bought our clothes in other stores, began to visit the site and write to us directly. So I opened a showroom, and now it sells as much as all the other outlets. Our online store brings us about 100 thousand more per month. This is beneficial for us, because we supply clothes to other stores at a fifty percent discount, but we can sell them at the regular retail price.
Markups in stores are very different: in St. Petersburg it is somewhere around 100%, that is, a store from us buys an item for 1,500 rubles, and sells it for 3 thousand. In Moscow, markup can reach 250%.
The cost of production also depends on how much time and effort the seamstress spends on this item. If, for example, we made an experimental model of a dress, I ask the seamstress how difficult it was for her to work with it and how long it took her. If it was difficult and slow, I exclude this model from the collection. I determine the price based on the fact that I need to pay my employees a normal salary and develop the brand. I would like to please customers by setting the minimum price, but I don’t agree to work for nothing, my work costs money.
Creating a collection
The system of work in a large and local brand is different in many ways. Industry giants are trying to predict trends several years in advance. They have special people who travel around the world and collect information about trends in all possible areas: from art to new technologies. They also take into account economic prerequisites. When you produce thousands of items of clothing at once in a factory in China, you take a lot of risks, you have to be meticulous, save on threads and buttons. Since we are still a small brand, we do not adhere to strict seasonality and prepare small capsule collections four to five times a year. It takes me about two months to create a collection.
I always start by looking at 60 of my favorite clothing sites and blogs for inspiration, figuring out what is most relevant right now. I’m putting together my moodboard, which can include works of art, excerpts from films, photographs of a friend, and music. On the Style.com website, new collections are posted six months before the official release, and I notice the details that appear most often in all brands. Having prepared the basis for inspiration, I lock myself in my apartment for a few days and draw. Based on my drawings, the designer makes test patterns, then we sew the first samples, measure them, and finalize them. When the collection is ready, we photograph it for the lookbook, send it to stores and wait for the reaction. A collection may have, for example, nine models in four colors. It is not necessary that each of these 36 items will be produced in more than one copy.
Choice of things
Store buyers usually know their customers well and understand what they will be willing to buy from them. Some take mostly basic classic items, while others, on the contrary, choose more extravagant models. First, they order a trial batch, then, based on demand, they purchase something additional. We do not have a warehouse where we store things, because we always sew a certain quantity for a specific order.
Gradually we realized which models sold best, so we created a separate Gills Classic line. These are things that are in constant demand regardless of the season. If you look closely, all global brands have their own base of models, which they reproduce year after year. Chanel jacket, classic Carhartt sweatshirt, pumps. These are proven items to which you can add a pocket or change the fabric, but essentially they are always the same. adidas best selling model is the classic black sports suit"three stripes" Brands always make money on the simplest, basic things. The same goes for color: black and gray always go with a bang, especially in Russia. My brand is also based on versatile pieces and a monochrome palette. From the fabrics I chose footer for work, because that’s what I feel best.
I have a principle: I will never do just beautiful thing, which I can’t make money on. When I come up with a beautiful and simple model, I look at whether it falls into trends, consider the cost of its production and calculate how much it will be sold for in stores. If I understand that no one will buy it for that price, I immediately stop liking it and I refuse it.
Photos: Yasya Vogelgardt
Clarify informationAssortment: a lot of fun basic models - almost every item has an element that catches the eye: for example, a cutout on the back or a slanted hem. The colors are predominantly monochrome: white, gray, black; each collection includes items as an accent bright color, which are released in a limited edition. The brand has an off-season Gills Classic line, which includes the most popular models. There are small lines for men and children from 3 to 6 years old. Items are delivered throughout Russia and abroad.
Uniqueness: absolute minimalism reigns in Nnedre collections. Here you won't find clothes with annoying prints or unnecessary details. Similar models can be found in Zara or Mango stores, for example, but Nnedre has a lower price tag, and the quality does not raise questions.
Relevance: clothes from the Nnedre collections can be combined with almost everything, so they definitely won’t lie like dead weight in your wardrobe. Trends are a story about fast consumption and NNedre is not close to it.
Pricing policy: budget. A knitted T-shirt will cost 1.5 thousand rubles, a loose cape made of thick knitwear costs a little less than 7 thousand rubles. Prices for children's items are no higher than at H&M kids: from 600 rubles for thick cotton leggings to 1200 for a footer dress.
Story: Nelly Nedre, designer Nnedre, received a specialized education, worked at the St. Petersburg streetwear brand Trailhead, where she acquired most of the skills and knowledge necessary to launch her own brand. After a year of existence, Nnedre items began to be sold throughout Russia.
The young and active founder of her own clothing brand NNEdre, Nelly Nedre, recently gave a lecture at the Be In Open forum of the new fashion industry with a lecture on the topic “Criteria for the commercial success of a brand.” “Monday” conscientiously wrote down the main points of the speech, and then talked with Nelly one-on-one.
“I initially position myself as a designer which has a commercial purpose. I believe that it is impossible to create a brand without wanting to be commercially successful,” Nelly Nedre began her lecture with this statement. The designer presented the ten most important aspects to consider if you want your brand to be profitable:
- Experience. Even a novice designer should have experience. The required base is specialized education, practice in the team of a successfully operating brand, and participation in competitions. Experience, according to Nellie, not only develops professional skills, but also helps to see the design “kitchen” from the inside, helps to establish useful business contacts that will be useful when launching your brand.
- Team. Nelly Nedre believes that one man is not a warrior alone, so when launching your brand, you need a well-coordinated team of like-minded people. The main quality of good employees is sincere motivation and belief in the success of the startup.
- Production. Availability own production helps the designer control the process from the very beginning to the last seam.
- Target audience. A thoughtful audience is what you should start from when creating your first collection. The designer must represent his client down to the smallest detail. In this case, there will always be those who will buy, says Nelly Nedre.
- Business plan. Nelly is sure that a good designer must also be a good businessman, and a clearly structured business plan is simply necessary at the very beginning.
- Patience. “You can’t go anywhere without him,” the designer noted with sad irony and talked about how she wanted to give up everything, sitting in a 12-meter studio with her team.
- "Chip". Each brand should have its own “zest”. In the case of the NNedre, it's the hoodie sleeve that connects between the thumb and index finger.
- Quality. This point hardly needs comment. Designer clothes must be of high quality, period.
- Openness. A designer, according to Nelly, should be as open a person as possible: actively communicate with the media, buyers, make new acquaintances, and take initiative. If the designer realizes that he does not have communication skills, he needs to find an assistant who will take on this function.
- Target. From the very beginning, the designer must clearly understand where he is aiming and what he wants to achieve in the end.
After the show, we caught Nellie actively handing out NNedre business cards to potential clients and asked her overtime questions.
— Nelly, tell us what difficulties may arise when creating your own clothing brand?
— The main thing designers face is the question of where to get finance. I was lucky in this regard: at the time I started, I already had a job that allowed me to take out an initial loan of 300 thousand rubles. Plus I had my own savings, about 200 thousand. This money helped me get started. Young designers often don't realize that no one will give them credit if they haven't worked anywhere. Therefore, if you want to launch your own brand, you need experience in the fashion industry.
— When did NNedre achieve its first significant commercial success? What was this connected with?
— It was probably the crisis at the end of last year, when the dollar and euro jumped a lot. I thought that everything would be bad, but already on January 10, offers from stores began to pour into our mail: they could no longer make European purchases. By that time, our brand had already established itself good quality and an affordable pricing policy, so we have replaced some European brands that have become more expensive.
— So, we can say that Russian brands have profited from the crisis?
— I think not all, but namely those who were already at a certain stage of their development.
— What was the pricing policy of your brand based on? Give advice to aspiring designers on how to set a price tag.
— First of all, the pricing policy is influenced by the target audience. When I launched my brand, I understood very well what kind of people would buy my things. I made clothes that I would buy myself in a store. I understood how much a person who liked me and was similar to me in views and income could spend on clothes. This is how the price was formed.
— So, when choosing an audience, a designer should start from his circle?
- Yes, and you need to analyze yourself very well. You shouldn’t get into “someone else’s sandbox.” You must understand what your environment is like and who you enjoy working with. At the same time, as you grow and develop, your audience also changes. When I started, my clients were people from a small, semi-creative crowd. Gradually, I began to expand my horizons, travel more, allow myself to go to more expensive restaurants... My level of culture is growing, and I am beginning to understand what things people who are already at this level need.
— Describe in more detail the target audience of NNedre
— Initially, these were creative, very active young girls, similar to me. But now the audience is expanding due to word of mouth. These are still people leading an active lifestyle, but adult women who learn about NNedre from their daughters and schoolchildren who can afford a designer item are already coming to us.
— In your opinion, which audience is the most commercially profitable?
— The bulk of clothing consumers in Russia are people aged 17 to 35 years. This is the audience that buys and often goes to shopping centers. By other criteria, this could be a very diverse audience.
— What clothes can be called the best-selling today?
- This is a classic base. You can find it if you go to any mass market or just look at what people wear: everyone has a black jacket, black trousers, jeans, T-shirts... But basic things can be interpreted in different ways. If we talk about my brand, then this casual dresses that can be worn for a walk or to the theater, sweatshirts, tracksuits.
— But almost all brands produce the base in one form or another. What should a brand do to stand out?
— Each designer has his own individual taste, and you need to work with it. For example, a cropped sweatshirt is a NNedre base, high-waisted sweatpants are a NNedre base. I modify basic things under the influence personal experience and personal culture. I can move the length of the sleeve or the entire product... These are all nuances, but it is these nuances that make us different.
— At the lecture, you talked about the “trick” with the sleeve of NNedre sweatshirts, how did you come up with it?
— I used to be into graffiti, skateboarding, and street culture. And such a sleeve is a very famous element in the corresponding crowd. At that time I myself bought sweaters with such an element, but skate brands make bright things, and I always liked the black color. Therefore, in my brand I combined the original cut of the sleeves and a monochrome palette. So this element is a part of my development, my history.
— What should designers start from when creating their own “feature”?
— I think it’s a combination of taste and experience. It seems to me that any beginning designer has a certain feedback. Therefore, the “trick” should already be in your head at the time of creating the brand. It arises naturally on the basis of experience and cultural development.
— How can a start-up brand attract the media?
“There are an insane amount of opportunities now.” Any Internet portal has an email that you can write to. Of course, you shouldn’t expect that they will answer you right away. You have to make a quality product, shoot good lookbooks. You have to be hooked by something. At the same time, no matter how it sounds, the most correct policy is to be a plug in every barrel. There are no unnecessary connections and acquaintances. As a result, at some point you already flash before the eyes of media editors so often that they think: “Who is this anyway? Let's write about him." When we launched a men's line this summer and posted a corresponding post on a social network, we received a comment: “Lord, you are just everywhere! What kind of things do you have, can I come and have a look? Otherwise I’m already curious!”
— NNedre positions itself both online and offline. Where are sales best?
- Now it’s almost the same. But at the time we started, we did not have an online store. And only a year and a half after its launch, it reached the same position as the offline platform. Mostly ordered through the online store regular customers who have already purchased from us live.
— What expense items should you consider first when launching your brand?
— The most significant expenses are production (provided that the designer opens his own): you need to purchase equipment, fabrics, there are also everyday issues, up to toilet paper and tea to the workshop. Of course, a significant expense item is employees. It is also necessary to make a presentation of the brand, although connections can come to the rescue here. In addition to all this, you need to prepare documents, and this also costs money. Many designers don’t think about the legal part, but I think it’s better to spend money on a lawyer so that no one will cheat you later.
I have very little time, and all my makeup can be applied very quickly. I have a tattoo on my eyebrows, it’s very light, but in principle I don’t have to tint my eyebrows, although for evening makeup I still do it. I’m also a fan of eyeliners and have been drawing arrows since the 9th grade, so I can draw absolutely anything in five minutes.
At one time I was some kind of space girl: I dyed my hair pastel pink and wore my usual dots on my lower eyelid. I've been drawing them with eyeliner for several years now, and it all started with the fact that I wanted to paint over a mole. One boy even fell in love with me because of these dots. And usually my makeup is pretty simple, but sometimes I put shiny stones on myself. They look very cool with bright lipstick and two tails.
About the community
Given my time, I can only go to MAC, Kiehl's and my makeup artist, and then only once every three months. I really love the Kiehl’s brand, although I paid attention to it because of the design of the cans, but then I got my mother hooked on their products. From decorative cosmetics I have the most MAC, largely because when the brand appeared in Russia, I just started wearing makeup. I like that their corners always recommend what I really need, and don’t sell it on me.
At one time, I moved to the “Temporarily” space, and we formed a community of such creative people who helped each other in everything. I work in clothing, so soon the guys at The Expanse started wearing black sweatshirts; a graphic designer drew everything for everyone, hairdressers helped with hair. When I came to one, I had white, burnt hair, he saw me and said: “Okay, we will work with you.” Eventually the hair was cured.
About appearance
I am a designer, and I have had periods in my life when I looked very strange. My parents have photographs of me in their house, which I hate: there are string eyebrows, blackened hair, red lips, a tan. WITH dark hair I went for four years, then I went to college, where I met girls who were makeup artists and made me grow normal eyebrows. As a child, my mother always gave me bobs so that my hair wouldn’t get tangled, and it also has a mousy color, which I don’t like.
Now everything in my life is somehow settled, and it seems that I have found both my style and makeup. Now I pay more attention to care, because I really have little free time and a lot of stress. I have very dry skin, so even when traveling on the Sapsan I do simple procedures: generously smear my hands with cream, use cuticle oil, remove makeup with micellar water, if necessary.
