The New Society: From a Gap in Children’s Fashion to Developing a Global Wholesale Model

For Estefanía Grandío, production, logistics, design, suppliers, teams and sales are inseparable parts of the same conversation. As the founder of The New Society, they are closely connected to each other.

During her second pregnancy in 2018, the entrepreneur founded the brand, which originally started as a children’s fashion brand. At the time she was living in Germany and working in the design department at Hugo Boss. Today the company operates as an international structure with women’s fashion, a teen line and a presence in over 600 points of sale in the wholesale channel.

In September, the brand will open its first concession at the Spanish department store El Corte Inglés. She is also already planning her first retail store opening for 2027.

Grandío’s professional career traces the different speeds of European industry. From Spanish fast fashion to British luxury, she has worked in large corporate structures. There, design, procurement, logistics, sales and product are inevitably linked. At Inditex-owned sportswear label Oysho, she was part of the management team that analyzed weekly sales, operations and business strategy. At Hugo Boss, she headed the creative department for luxury leisurewear for women from Germany. In parallel, she was involved in various creative direction projects as The New Society began to grow.

Grandío describes this phase not as romantic, but as an intense school of business acumen. She speaks of endless meetings between departments, constant product analysis and a culture of continuous questioning. This culture still influences how she runs the company today. “What you’re left with is the need to question everything in order to continue to grow. If you think you’re doing everything right, you get stuck.”

As she prepared for motherhood, she noticed a very specific gap in the children’s market. She visited multi-brand stores where she enjoyed combining clothes from different brands to get what she wanted. “I saw that there were brands that made very good sweatshirts, others made knitwear, others made a more romantic style, but very few offered a complete look,” she explains. That was exactly the challenge she set herself when creating her brand.

“If you think you’re doing everything right, you get stuck…”

Her collections include denim, knitwear, swimwear and outerwear. There are also embroidered garments inspired by vintage references from old tablecloths, napkins and found fabrics. She admits to collecting them “compulsively”. Later they become collection details after she “plays” with them in her design room.

However, the focus of the conversation inevitably shifts to multi-brand retail. For Grandío, the survival of this channel is fundamental for independent brands like hers. There are very clear differences between the markets. While the network of concept stores and children’s fashion multi-brand stores remains strong in the Netherlands, the channel barely exists in Spain. This is due to the growing weight of large verticals that are able to absorb market share, primarily through price.

The company has not grown through its own retail, which it plans to develop in the next financial year. Instead, it relies on a network of agents and distributors who operate on a market-by-market basis. It currently works with around 24 agents for its kids and women’s fashion lines as well as sales partners in regions such as Asia and Canada. They help maintain contact with the more than 600 outlets they currently work with. These include major retail chains such as Le Bon Marché and Galeries Lafayette, as well as luxury fashion retailers MyTheresa, Luisa Via Roma and British department store John Lewis. “They understand how each country works, which businesses make sense, which product works and how to build customer loyalty. I couldn’t do that alone.”

This operational control seems to be almost inextricably linked to the personality of the founder. “I delegate, but I keep an eye on everything,” she admits with a laugh. “I can’t switch off.” The internal structure is in fact relatively small for the international volume that the company handles. Around 20 people cover the areas of design, production, purchasing, logistics, wholesale, digital content and e-commerce.

In the Spanish market, the brand has long been collaborating with El Corte Inglés under the wholesale model. Next September 2026, she will open her first concession in the department store.

The development to Women’s fashion happened, as she explains, less strategically than it might seem. It was the customers themselves who asked for adult versions of certain items of clothing when the brand was still aimed at kids. What started as a small ‘Mini-Me’ capsule, driven by a trend of mothers and daughters dressing similarly, eventually grew into a line in its own right.

At the same time, the ‘teen’ segment has become the fastest growing category. It acts as a bridge between childhood and adulthood and strengthens customer continuity within The New Society ecosystem.

The New Society’s relationship with sustainability is based on an understanding of the product. Much of the brand’s imagery revolves around natural fabrics, artisanal techniques and garments designed for everyday use with longevity in mind. The company produces mainly in Portugal, works with European suppliers and prefers organic, recycled or natural materials.