EUROWOMAN

INTERVIEW

They've built up a strong brand, shot campaigns with Helmut Newton

and are represented in Saks Fifth Avenue, New York. For Søren and

Lene Sand, success means following your dreams and enjoying a

happy life every day. This is the story of the couple from Randers who

knew from the start that they wanted to join the big names.

TheStory

Sand When Søren was 18 and Lene 16 he invited her on a trip. The trip lasted a week and was the beginning of a journey that continues today.

Text: MILLE COLLIN FLAHERTY. Photo: JONAS BIE.

EUROWOMAN

They wake up in the morning in room 26 in Skovshoved Hotel, where they al-ways stay when back in Denmark. Their

room looks on to the water, as does their house on Lake Como, where they live. Four years ago they sold their residence in Vedbæk to move closer to their suppliers and manufacturers in Italy. They were spending so much time down there that it didn’t matter anymore which di-rection their home lay. In fact, the decision to move was easier than moving from their home town, Randers, to Copenhagen. Then there’s the weather, of course: when gale-force winds whip through Copenhagen and disrupt traffic, Søren and Lene can bask in the sun. “The light and the way it brings out all the col-ours – you never grow tired of it. There’s no such thing as Monday morning blues in Italy,” says Søren. They know they are lucky. Privileged. And people often tell them so. “Yes, you are,” is a common reaction when they talk about their life together, feeling happy every day. And they work hard for it.“It’s little things,” says Lene. “We don’t do things by halves. We go the whole hog.”

There is a Lene and there is a SørenThey are in Denmark to shoot lookbook and we are sitting in the showroom on the first floor of the shop in Strøget, the central pedes-trian shopping area in Copenhagen. They took over the lease from Georg Jensen, the famous Danish silversmith, who moved

out in 1994 and the shop on the ground floor became the first ever Sand concept store – their very own. Prior to that their clothes were sold in the Danish department stores Magasin du Nord and Illum, both of which were con-cerned about their revenue when the concept store opened at the prominent address. How-ever in both stores sales rose by 20%.“What matters is brand awareness. You shouldn’t worry about having enough custom-ers,” says Søren.Today Sand sells to 1,200 multibrand doors around the world – in 32 countries – and last May the first of a number of in-stores opened in the American emporium Saks Fifth Avenue in New York. The American market means a lot to the couple, and Søren, in particular, is fascinated by the American way. Sand is rep-resented alongside brands such as Armani and Paul Smith and often refers to the American way of seeing things. Like when he describes the typical Sand customer in the words of Saks New York’s vice-president Tom Otts: “It’s the grown up guy who wants to look young and it’s the young guy who wants to look cool.” And it’s this and more that Søren says when present-ing Sand to 40 or so staff members at a morn-ing meeting at Saks.“To sell Sand, they have to know who the peo-ple are behind the name. It’s about sympathy. Do they like the product? Do they like me? Real people in the background are definitely added value. There is a Lene and there is a Søren. We want to reach into their hearts,” says Søren.

Søren and Lene’s story goes back to the 70s. They both went to college; Søren was in the same class as Lene’s brother and she was in the year below. One day when Søren came round to visit his friend, Lene opened the door. It was love at first sight.“She was beautiful.” Søren leans over to Lene and gives her leg a squeeze. “Like now.” She

INTERVIEW

"We just wanted to be

together. The whole time.

We wanted to run a business

together. And we wanted a

child. We never expected it

to happen all at once."

Søren and Lene say no-one's ever said no to them. It's easy to see why.

No expense was spared when Sand started to hold shows in Copenhagen featuring top models such as Alek Wek (l.) and Naja Auerman (r.)

Today British Sophie Dahl is an author, but in her time she too

added glamour to Sand's extravagant fashion shows.

The design studio in Como where Søren and Lene Sand work in the sunlight.

The new spring collection includes

much of what Sand is best at: dresses that

are not too fussy and well-fitting jackets.

EUROWOMAN EUROWOMAN

smiles and says he’s sweet.“You were very stylish,” he says. “You had long, black, shiny hair and were wearing a black shirt and trousers. You looked striking – like a Native American, with bold jewellery. It was really cool.”Lene thought Søren smelled of soap and had a cute smile. He was 18 and she was 16.“You asked me out for a drive. Søren had a car,” explains Lene.The car was a Renault 4s and after going out for a few weeks, Søren painted it Lene’s fa-vourite colour – green.“It was a bright, cheerful green. An eye-catch-er,” remembers Lene, who persuaded her parents to let her go on a trip round Denmark with Søren.“So we drove around and found out that we could put up a tent together,” says Lene. The trip lasted a week, but it was the start of a jour-ney that continues today.

In charge of their livesUltimately, they felt a connection not so much through fashion, but through the feeling of wanting to be something themselves. Wanting to create something. Be in charge of their lives. Lene’s family had always been involved in fashion. Her aunt was a dressmaker, other rel-atives worked in sales and a few ran shops. Af-ter secondary school, Lene did an apprentice-ship as costumière at Aarhus Theatre. Søren, after trying his luck as an artist one summer holiday, ended up studying economics, having a financial degree.

It was when Lene was newly qualified and on maternity leave with their daughter Marie, that they designed their first collection.“We just wanted to be together. The whole time. We wanted to run a business together. And we wanted a child. We never expected it to happen all at once. But it did,” says Lene.

They packed their suitcases, tucked Marie into a baby basket and set out to sell their clothes. “We took Marie with us when we drove around in our spare time and visited customers on Thursday and Friday evenings and Saturdays. We were very selective, only interested in leading names,” says Søren.

Both of them speak with a Jutland accent and they have a melodious intonation – ranging from a barely audible whisper to enthusiastic exclamations, a fast babble to slow, deliberate diction when emphasising something impor-tant.

The first collection was different from the standard fashion available in the shops.“People tended to dress the same way unless they were Bohemian or hippie. I think what we made was somewhere between the two. It was simple designs, graphic cuts. Maybe not so feminine,” says Lene.

They also kept to neutral colours such as black, grey, sand and blue tones. Soon the first collection was completed and the clothes were available without buttons or buttonholes.“We didn’t have a buttonhole machine. They were expensive and first, we had to see how we were doing.”They fared much better than expected. It snowballed. First in Jutland and then in Copenhagen.“There we were, a young couple with a baby and a collection, and ask if people were inter-ested in seeing it. No-one said no,” says Lene. “No-one has ever said no.”

A proper businessOrders came pouring in. Søren took the orders while Lene modelled the clothes in the shops and Marie looked on from her basket. The shops wanted the clothes straight away and Søren and Lene worked hard. They employed Lene’s mother and aunt and seamstresses, bought in large quantities of fabric and started manufacturing.

In the evenings they would clear the dining ta-ble, roll out the fabric, lay out the patterns and cut out the pieces so the seamstresses could get going the next morning. Every Thursday

they filled the Renault and went to the post office where the week’s orders were sent on their way. They had trouble keeping up and Søren quit his financial job. Then they attend-ed a Danish trade show, just to see how they would get on.“We wrote down orders non-stop for four days,” remembers Søren, who soon started to say no because they weren’t equipped for large-scale production. This only sparked fur-ther interest. “Once you are out there, things move fast. Be-fore we knew it we were a proper business.”The business was called “Lene Sand” until 1989, when men’s fashion was added. They decided to drop “Lene” and continue under the name “Sand”, which proved to be a good decision. “Anyone anywhere can pronounce “Sand”,” says Lene.Men’s fashion was added because Søren was having trouble getting hold of shirts he liked.“That was your brain wave, wasn’t it?” says Lene. “Did you get it in the morning or the evening?”“In the morning”, answers Søren. “I always get my ideas in the mornings.”

InternationalWith the addition of men’s fashion, Sand start-ed to grow. It was based in their home town, Randers, where Søren and Lene had their own design studio, office, showroom and store-room. But with the increasing number of in-ternational customers and hence internation-al business travel, Randers started to feel too remote from Copenhagen.“We began to realise that we were still in the provinces. We wanted to be out there with the big names,” says Søren.

In 1994 they transferred all activities to Copen-hagen and four years later, the family followed suit and moved to the capital. This gave them a thirst for more and in 2004 they opened a showroom in London. The idea was to have a Scandinavian showroom in Copenhagen and an international showroom in London.

They ran the showroom for three years be-fore an American distributor arrived on the scene and announced that they wished to do for Sand what they had done for Armani and Valentino 25 years earlier – create a success story in the North American market. The showroom in London was replaced by a local agent.

A peep in the booksWhich is one of the reasons why they moved to Italy. Relationships are important. Also relationships with the people you work with. Sand’s collections are produced almost exclu-sively in Italy and Portugal.

This may be more costly, but every time Søren and Lene have been to the East to investigate alternatives, they have agreed that shifting production there would go against their prin-ciples for good governance. They want to be

proud of their products, which they couldn’t be if the parameters were not in order.“Basically we think it’s wrong sending goods across the world. We need to bear in mind so-cial responsibility. It’s important to produce locally as far as possible and to pay decent wages,” says Søren.

By living in Como, they are close to the source. Søren and Lene gain inspiration from fabrics and often travel around and visit local weavers.“Some of them live in small, tumbledown but charming palazzos. They show us their ideas for the season and we ask to see their archives. So they take out huge books of fabric samples. Some of them are over 100 years old,” says Lene.

“Gorgeous,” says Søren, blowing a kiss into the room. “Contemporary in the right way. Art. They are brilliant.”

Discussions over half a centimetreWith four collections a year for men and women respectively, they are kept busy. Despite a nine-strong designer team, Søren and Lene are ultimately the ones who design Sand. For the most part they are in it togeth-er, and even though there are bumps along the way, they always start a new collection, a new process, by cleaning up. Physically and mentally.

INTERVIEW

Star photograph Helmut Newton made an impression on the couple with his fashion

photos and his tiny bathing trunks.

"We have managed to keep

the business at a level

where we still enjoy it. We

wake up every morning

feeling happy. That's our

biggest success."

EUROWOMAN EUROWOMAN

"When we make a women's blazer we make it like a miniature men's blazer. It makes a girl look interesting," says Lene Sand.

“It’s like sitting down at a tidy desk, wouldn’t

you agree, Søren? A sort of spiritual cleans-

ing,” Lene says.

They start with colours, basically taking

boxes of fabric samples and pieces of yarn

collected over time and laying them out on

the table. And when they have picked the

colours, they visit weavers in Paris and Mi-

lan to find and order the right fabrics. The

weavers know beforehand what Lene and

Søren have in mind – it could be more lin-

en, richer material, matted structures, etc.

– and after a preliminary chat, the weavers

return to the mills and produce samples.

“We either say “doesn’t work” or “just right”

and while that process is going on, we work

on the silhouettes and the style packages,” ex-

plains Søren and continues, “It’s so important

to get a good fit – the garments should sit per-

fectly. We sometimes discuss over half a cen-

timetre. Should leg width be 17 or 17,5? 18,5 is

completely passé...”

Cinnamon and cardamom

But how do you know what’s in and what’s

so last year? Lene compares it to a chef who

knows that combining cinnamon with carda-

mom gives a particular flavour.

“You just know instinctively. It’s like breath-

ing,”

They discuss all the time. Why the chic-look-

ing guy they saw on the street in Milan looked

so smart. What it was about him that caught

their attention. Sometimes they just fall in

love with a fabric because it’s beautiful.

“We hang it up and look at it. The fabric speaks

to us and tells us what it would like to be made

into,” explains Lene.

Finally they give all their styles a name and

pin labels to a large board with a small fabric

sample. That way they can check that the col-

lection is well balanced – that there aren’t 20

white jackets and only one black one. Then

they work on the details such as lining, but-

tons, buttonhole colours, single or double

stitch.

“It’s like a huge puzzle that gradually falls into

place,” says Lene.

Ultimately they make clothes they them-

selves like. They do keep to a number of pa-

rameters when designing collections, though.

Søren mentions the tailoring as one of Sand’s

strengths, while Lene mentions the dresses.

“Our dresses are good and not too girlish.

We borrow ideas from the men’s collections.

When we design a women’s blazer, we design

it like a miniature version of a men’s blazer

and have it made at factories which normal-

ly only tailor men’s garments.

I think a woman can look interesting if she

borrows from men’s fashion. Like combining

mannish shoes with a dress or wearing some-

thing unexpected underneath a blazer,”

she says.

200 black umbrellas

Sand is known for reaching for the stars. The

company is just as uncompromising with

its fabrics and craftsmanship as it is with its

shows and campaigns.

For several years, the brand held eagerly

awaited, extravagant events featuring inter-

national top models on the catwalk and ad-

vertising its elite status, rarely seen in Danish

fashion week.

But why give priority to that?

“Why not?” Lene retorts. “You’re only asking

us that because you’re from Denmark.” She

laughs but she’s also serious. Søren intervenes.

“We felt international very early on. We had to

compete with other international brands, so it

felt like the natural thing to do.

The first show was the most expensive we’ve

ever had. We never asked ourselves whether it

was too much,” he says.

The first show was held in 2001 in the court-

yard of the Danish National Museum. Rain

was forecast and Søren and Lene took along

black umbrellas for everyone. 200 in all.

Among the models was the German top model

Nadja Auermann and the Sudanese Alek Wek,

the music was specially composed and the cat-

walk was set up by the people who set up the

famous Danish Roskilde Music Festival. No

expense was spared.

They have talked about moving the show to

New York, Paris or Milan.

Dream of Helmut Newton

They have always done what others have

thought about. Taken chances. Fulfilled their

dreams. Like they did with Helmut Newton.

Their first art investment was a blueprint by

the world-famous photographer. They bought

it at a gallery and it has meant a lot to them

since.

“One day we decided we’d like him to do our

campaign,” says Søren.

They shot the pictures on the slope by the sea

in front of the royal palace in Monaco. Helmut

Newton stood under a parasol in the sun and

held the position for three to four minutes be-

fore taking the picture. He shot a maximum of

six for every set.

“We were used to getting many images to

choose from. He stood for a long time and ad-

justed the models and the camera. He didn’t

take a single picture before it was perfectly set

up. And they were all spot on – every one of

them. Very impressive,” says Søren.

When they were finished on Friday afternoon,

Helmut Newton asked them to meet him at

Monaco Beach Club on Sunday, two days later.

“In tent number 312”, says Søren. “We got ac-

cess to the club and he arrived ... “ Lene takes

over, “... in the tiniest bathing trunks I’ve ever

seen.”

Helmut Newton offered them coffee in his

tent and went for a swim while Søren and

Lene looked at the result – beautiful pictures

in black and white.

“He was a really nice guy. People who know

their stuff are always friendly. They have no

reason to be otherwise,” says Søren and con-

tinues: “We bought 18 of the big Helmut New-

ton coffee table book that had just come out

and placed them in the boutiques as part of the

campaign. It was a great experience,” he says

and looks at Lene.

“One of the highlights of our career.”

Just the two of us from Randers

Sand was founded in 1981. If you count the

years, it’s been over 30. With such a long peri-

od, there have of course been ups and downs,

but mostly ups. If you look at Sand from the

outside and on paper, you would say without

a second’s hesitation that it is a resounding

success. But how do Søren and Lene measure

their success?

“It’s about accomplishing some of your goals,”

Lene says. “Success was doing a photo shoot

with Helmut Newton, watching Nadja Auer-

mann stride down the catwalk with her long

legs.

But success is also us managing to keep the

business at a level where we still enjoy it. We

wake up every morning feeling happy. That’s

our biggest success.

Søren has gone quiet and looks at his wife.

“Well put,” he says.

“We take what we do seriously. When you

put something out there, you believe in it and

hope others will accept it.”

At the end of the day, what makes it all worth-

while?

“Doing something you care about. We all want

to do something we think is meaningful,” says

Søren.

In a couple of days they will be flying back to

Italy, which they are looking forward to. Peo-

ple say they seem happier since moving.

“You feel somehow balanced. It’s a good way of

life. Of course people want different things but

I’d say everyone owes it to themselves...” says

Søren, and Lene finishes his sentence: “... to

try out different things.”

Søren has the final word:

“You don’t regret what you do. You only regret

what you don’t do.”

INTERVIEW

Star photograph Helmut Newton made an impression on the couple with his fashion

photos and his tiny bathing trunks.

"We have managed to keep

the business at a level

where we still enjoy it. We

wake up every morning

feeling happy. That's our

biggest success."

EUROWOMAN EUROWOMAN

"When we make a women's blazer we make it like a miniature men's blazer. It makes a girl look interesting," says Lene Sand.

INTERVIEW

Star photograph Helmut Newton made an impression on the couple with his fashion

photos and his tiny bathing trunks.

"We have managed to keep

the business at a level

where we still enjoy it. We

wake up every morning

feeling happy. That's our

biggest success."

EUROWOMAN EUROWOMAN

"When we make a women's blazer we make it like a miniature men's blazer. It makes a girl look interesting," says Lene Sand.

INTERVIEW

Star photograph Helmut Newton made an impression on the couple with his fashion

photos and his tiny bathing trunks.

"We have managed to keep

the business at a level

where we still enjoy it. We

wake up every morning

feeling happy. That's our

biggest success."

EUROWOMAN EUROWOMAN

"When we make a women's blazer we make it like a miniature men's blazer. It makes a girl look interesting," says Lene Sand.