INTERVIEW: Marie Claire meets Felder Felder

We caught up Dani, one half of the twin designer geniuses, to disuss celebrity style, career advice spring/summer 2013

When we heard that Baileys, the world's number one liquer, had teamed up with fashion designers Felder Felder we weren't suprised. Cool, confident and utterly stylish; it sounded like a match made in fashion heaven.

We caught up Dani, one half of the twin designer geniuses, to disuss bottle bags, celebrity style and career advice.

You debuted a Baileys bottle bag during your SS/13 runway show. Where did the idea of the bottle bag come from? A strong part of the Felder Felder collections is always our accessories. We wanted to ‘Felderise’ and create something that you wouldn’t expect of Baileys but that would incorporate really well on the catwalk. Leather can often look hard so we used the Baileys Irish cream colour to reflect the brand but also to keep it looking soft and feminine. What kind of woman did you envisage using the bag? She has a strong personality, she knows who she is but doesn’t want to be categorised into one box. She has different sides to her personality and loves expressing them all whenever she feels like it. She’s lots of fun and a bit wild as well. We thought the bag would be perfect for using at festivals. What have you enjoyed most about the collaboration? We loved lots of different aspects. Obviously designing both the bottle bag and cuffs was really exciting. We attended the shoot for the advertising campaign and loved seeing how it all came together. Then seeing it on television for the first time and seeing the models using the bag and wearing the cuff was amazing. We were speechless! To cheer us up in this cold weather we’re already looking at the SS/13 collections. Felder Felder had a bit more of grown up feel. Can you tell us about that? I think the general mood is going a little bit away from that very hard, tough woman and we are beginning to show a little bit of a more of a softer feminine side. In the past, I guess, we were a little bit more ‘spirit’, and now we’re a little bit more ‘cream’. Maybe it’s also that we’re growing a little bit older, so it’s a time when we’re looking at what we want to wear, and what our customers and our friends who are surrounding us, what they feel comfortable in and what they want to wear. We take that all those aspects on board and incorporate them in our collections.

FELDER FELDER SPRING/SUMMER 2013 You showcased some beautiful prints. What were they based on? We love to work with things that seem to be something but then on closer inspection are something different and not so obvious. We love leopard print and always wanted to use it in our collection but we didn’t want to use it in a regular way. When you look closely at the design you’ll see that it’s actually broken butterfly wings which are put together to look like leopard print. It’s all about finding the perfection in imperfection. Do you still get excited when you seen celebrities wearing your designs? We are always quite inspired by music so to see so many musicians and creative people wearing our clothes is such a great honour for us. But I have to say, when we’re out in a restaurant and see just a normal person wearing our clothes, it’s almost a bigger honour. We always go up and say: ‘Hello! You’re wearing my dress, thank you so much!’ We always get a little bit over excited! What about your own style. As twins, do you dress the same? Yes, we do dress pretty much the same. Sometimes, for fun, we wear matching outfits when we go to events. It’s so much fun, you can play tricks on people! As twins what’s your working relationship like? Do you have defined roles? It’s amazing to have the trust we have with each other. Like to know that you can just, without any conclusions, trust the other person. We work together on what designs go into the collection and what direction we want to go in. I work closer with the technical team such as the pattern makers and my sister works a bit more closely with the accessory team. But we make all the key and important decisions together. FELDER FELDER AUTUMN/WINTER 2012

You’re both obviously very hard working. Have you always been so focused? Before we started studying at Central Saint Martins we had done lots of modelling and travelled all over the world. So when we started studying fashion we knew it was exactly what we wanted to do. We only started it because we were really sure it was what we wanted to do. Whereas I think a lot of people that start studying something at say 17 years of age change their mind by the time they finish studying it and go and do something completely different. So is that the advice you would give to a budding fashion designer? Maybe to explore life a bit more before deciding on a course? Yes, I think definitely they should get their experience beforehand. They should do as many internships as possible, so that they can see what it is like, because one thing that I learned is that it’s completely different to any fashion school. In fashion school I feel it’s very safe but in reality there are so many things that you do not learn in any college that you end up doing most of the time. Like working with production and communicating with people. Whereas when you’re in college you are in your chair and you can do pretty much keep to yourself the whole day. I’d also recommend they get some experience on the business side as well. So what’s next for you? Well we’re working on our AW/13 collection and have lots more exciting things planned with Baileys but I can't reveal what they are just yet. LATEST FASHION NEWS ON MARIE CLAIRE