Yvonne Koné: Even in my dreams I´m sourcing and looking for new materials
Konstantin Vulkov: Which one of these processes takes you more time - design or sourcing the finest materials?
Yvonne Koné: To me design equals sourcing of new materials and it´s an ongoing process that never sleeps. Even in my dreams I´m sourcing and looking for new materials. It might not sound healthy, but everything I do is somehow related to the design process...
Yvonne: Of course it always add something extra to the shopping experience to meet the people who sell the product. That said, I think that a lot of people (like myself) like to shop from their home to avoid the fuss and chaos in a physical shops. If the service and shipping is fast and efficient in an online shop I always come back for more. We have several clients from all over the world who only shop in our web shop so I´m sure that in the future the physical shops will experience a tuff competition from the best online shops.
Yvonne: I still really like the first items I ever designed in each category such as the classic oversized bum bag, the pumps, the pierced sandals or the bucket bag. All are simple favourites that only gets better in use
Yvonne: My family and me are going to the tiny island, Formentera with friends. I have been there a couple of times before but as it it´s more than 10 years back I´m excited to see if the island is still as cute and beautiful as I remember
Yvonne: It totally depends on my mood but right now I´m listening to Sza´s ur, kendrick lamar´s King Kunta and everything from sampha and frank ocean, while I´m waiting for their new albums to arrive.
-- Designer Yvonne Koné founded its company in 2011. She is graduate from the Royal Danish Academy of Arts.
Yvonne Koné: To me design equals sourcing of new materials and it´s an ongoing process that never sleeps. Even in my dreams I´m sourcing and looking for new materials. It might not sound healthy, but everything I do is somehow related to the design process...
Konstantin: How important is the packaging of a product that is sold online?
Yvonne: It´s quite important and something I´m looking forward to improve all the time. However if the product itself does not stand alone the packaging can never hide that. In the end it´s the product and the service that really counts.
Yvonne: It´s quite important and something I´m looking forward to improve all the time. However if the product itself does not stand alone the packaging can never hide that. In the end it´s the product and the service that really counts.
Konstantin: Do you think an experience in shopping online can match the personal experience of the analogue physical shops?
Konstantin: Tell me - do you remember the first time you saw a person wearing something from your collection, what was the feeling?
Yvonne: That was several years ago when I was still attending the design academy. I had made some hand knitted scarves I sold to 3 shops in Copenhagen and suddenly I started to notice people around me wearing them. I felt very proud. I still do this day today.
Konstantin: How you are finding the suppliers - are they small artisans that still feel the family spirit while working?
Yvonne: It all began with Piero - the leather man. He is 65 years old and started to work at tanneries in his school holidays when he was 13. Since then he never stopped working in the the industry and through him I met all the other producers in Italy. It has been a long and hard journey to find out who were the good, honest and hardworking people among them. I now know them and their families as well as they know my family. We depend on each other and the personal relationship is everything to me.
Konstantin: Is it necessary to change your collection for every season and how tiresome is this for you?
Yvonne: My collections are not changing completely every season. I picture them as a big group of friends travelling together, sometimes some of them get off the train, while other continue, sometimes they meet up in another constellation. But always moving forward. Discovering new materials, new techniques, new colours, but the core is the same. I love this ongoing process, designing accessories is. It´s so much different from designing clothing where you have to look into trends, tendencies and what´s next. With accessories I can just go with my intuition.
Konstantin: What is your all time favourite item you’ve made?
Yvonne: I still really like the first items I ever designed in each category such as the classic oversized bum bag, the pumps, the pierced sandals or the bucket bag. All are simple favourites that only gets better in use
Konstantin: Summer plans?
Konstantin: Finally, choose a song for us.
Yvonne: It totally depends on my mood but right now I´m listening to Sza´s ur, kendrick lamar´s King Kunta and everything from sampha and frank ocean, while I´m waiting for their new albums to arrive.
-- Designer Yvonne Koné founded its company in 2011. She is graduate from the Royal Danish Academy of Arts.