Sabine Kelle has loved fashion since she was a child – but she became a designer in a roundabout way. She found fashion too commercial. Instead, she studied something else until she ended up back with her passion and studied fashion design. Already during her studies she realized that she did not agree with the production rhythms and working conditions in conventional fashion. The appreciation for people, animals and nature have always been neglected.
After working as a fashion editor for various media, Sabine Kelle became self-employed with WiDDA. A win brought her a studio space into her life. In this studio in Berlin Friedrichshain, Sabine still designs all of the collection pieces herself.
Her label WiDDA combines everything she had been missing.
As a child of the GDR, the original Berliner and graduate designer has a penchant for ‘meaningful’ fashion. For fashion that makes you feel good. Reduced to two meaningful collections with long wearable looks per year instead of endless drops with a short half-life. Your WiDDA collection should accompany women in different phases of life and also be able to function as maternity and nursing fashion.
Sabine started with streetwear with a feminine touch. Convertible clothing for modern heroines, she called her designs. In the meantime her label has grown up. Her collections are much more feminine with careful asymmetries that meet practical details. Your design principle?
What doesn’t work isn’t pretty.
That means: Everything that doesn’t fit, pleases or is too cumbersome is not pretty. At the same time, ‘doesn’t work’ stands for everything that doesn’t work for people and the environment and basically can’t be beautiful.
Sabine produces small series and custom-made products in her studio in Friedrichshain together with tailor Friederike Köpsell and the WiDDA team in Berlin. Larger quantities are manufactured in a family business in Legnica/Poland. Both variants secure local jobs. With fair wages and fair working conditions. Short transport routes also save CO2. Speaking of CO2: the WiDDA founder had the energy consumption checked by the Berlin trade energy saving network and updated certain topics.
Sabine sees sustainability as a process. For its collections, WiDDA uses natural and resource-saving materials such as Tencel, organic cotton, modal and linen. Gradually more and more is converted. It is produced under fair conditions in Germany and Poland. The goods are packaged plastic-free and shipped CO2 neutral.
And the name? The zodiac sign Aries stands for temperament, strength, will and creativity. Giving it the ending ‘a’ makes it feminine. Just like in WiDDA.
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