Meet the designer: Anine Bing

Her USP was simple but significant: she wanted to create a brand that was seasonless, defied day and night dress codes, and gave women a daily dose of sartorial confidence with an effortlessly stylish capsule wardrobe. “At the time, no one was really creating those perfect basics that women needed. I wanted to create [them] but with a twist, so they stayed interesting from season to season… Our brand is growing every day, but I try to stay true to our mission from day one: to build the perfect modern wardrobe and help women find a cool, daily uniform that makes them feel their best.”

When Anine Bing was a little girl, all her friends were wearing a new style of jeans that she couldn’t afford, so she cut up some of her old pairs to make her own. It was inevitable, then, that someone with such an innately entrepreneurial mindset would go on to launch her own brand. Born in Denmark, raised in Sweden and now living in LA, Bing dreamed of creating a brand that combined sleek Scandi minimalism and a cool Cali spirit in a label that is modern yet timeless. “Duality really inspires me creatively, and I love to wear pieces that embody that,” she says.

Channeling that same ambitious nature, she started her eponymous brand out of a small garage in 2012. “Those days were crazy, and I wouldn’t change them for the world. There wasn’t a part of the business I didn’t work on. I packed every box, drove with orders packed into my car to the post office, answered every customer-service email. I learned how much goes into building a business, and when it’s yours you aren’t above anything, you’re every team member; every responsibility is yours.”

Fast-forward seven years and ANINE BING is a globally revered label (with 10 stores worldwide) and Bing has built a team she describes as “one big family”. A personal approach is important to her – in the beginning she launched as a “social-first” label, which has helped her tune into what women really want. “Our community on Instagram has always played a big part in how we run our business. If we release something in one color and we have 100 comments asking for it in black as well, we try to come out with the new color pretty soon after.” Real women are constant sources of inspiration for Bing, and this season she referenced French icon Françoise Hardy’s insouciant, bohemian style, as well as modern Parisian taste-makers: “French street style is that perfect blend of masculinity and femininity that modern women want in their closets.”

As her label continues to go from strength to strength, Bing’s words of wisdom for budding female entrepreneurs is to go with your instinct: “Trust your gut. My best advice is to keep going, to push through with what you know is right for your business. No one is ever going to get your brand the way you do, so at the end of the day you have to trust yourself.”