I got admitted to AMFI when I was just 17 years old. At age 21 I moved to NYC to intern and work at Anna Sui Corp. After a year I sadly had to return to Amsterdam to finish my studies at AMFI. I fell in love with the city and leaving NYC was like breaking up with someone.
Living in New York shaped me as a young woman and it was one of the first moments I felt my happiness was my own responsibility and to create a home somewhere so anonymous and lonely as NYC can be, you first need to be the home.
After the AMFi I saw stock and sample sales popping up like mushrooms all over Holland. I noticed there was so much excess stock and fashion brands wanting to dump their samples like crazy before the big season sales.
I have been a great bargain hunter since I was way too young to be one. When I visited sample sales I felt it was kind of sad seeing all these pretty items on piles and at the same time I noticed all these cute women spending their time and money on these sales.
That's when I came up with The Fashion Lisst, stock and sample sale which I hosted in the A’dam RAI. A typical nothing to lose, dream big go big move when I look back on it. I designed a fashion fair with bargains only and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to connect with a big crowd and for brands to sell all their stock.
Then my first miracle happened and I became a mom to my first out of three, my eldest Mick.
For the next 4,5 years I was basically pregnant non stop and there was hardly any room for a job as I felt I was starting up one of the most challenging companies out there; being a mom of three.
I have never seen fashion and art as a job but as my passion. At the age of 14 I started mixing designer goods with vintage from the Waterloopplein- and Noorder market, Zipper, Laura Dolls and Episode in Amsterdam. Later I would also visit dumpstores to hunt for more unique items. NYC took vintage to a whole other level and I carried on my treasure hunt. Dump stores around the upper fifth delighted me even more together with Patricia Field's boutique in soho.
In 2020 I wanted to sell items from my closet on Kingsday but due to the lockdown this wasn’t possible. I started selling items via instagram and I found it made so much more sense to make stories about the item, explaining my vision on the fabric and how I would wear it. My friends and acquaintances started approaching me to do the same with their closet and before I knew it the studio was born in front of my living room mirror.
Eventually I outgrew my apartment. At one point I was having nervous breakdowns of all the lego sculptures and Frozen merchandise in between shopping bags of stock. Most of it coming from closets bigger than my living room.
I made the step to my own studio space on the Keizersgracht 206 and expanded my assortment to vintage refurbished furniture from Old Skool Vintage Furniture and more lifestyle and art brands to come.