Anne Schollenberger is an accessories label that specializes in hats, bags and shoes. The special thing about the luxury brand, founded in 2022, is that it started out vegan with cactus “leather”. And not only that, part of the proceeds are donated to animal welfare. FashionUnited spoke to the founder of the label, Anne-Kristin Schollenberger, who has just returned from Neonyt and is nominated for a Green Product Award, about the beginnings, vegan production and what to expect in the future.
Schollenberger studied at the Hamburg Academy for Communication Design and Art Direction from 1994 to 1998 and then worked as a project manager in various agencies before setting up her own event agency in 2001. When there were no more events during the pandemic, she decided to realize her big dream and found her own label.
What was it like to make your big dream come true?
I would have loved to study fashion design after school. But my parents were against it and said, ‘Do something sensible’ (laughs). So I decided to study communication design and art direction, which helped me a lot. But shoes, hats and bags have always been mine, and during the pandemic I attended online seminars that reminded me of the old dream.
How did you find the manufacturing companies and was it difficult to convince them to work with cactus leather?
Finding producers was difficult, it took a while. During the pandemic it was not possible to travel and look at companies or materials. So I did the classic research, especially vegan “leather”. I was sure from the start that I didn’t want to make vegan from fabric, but rather as a high-quality leather alternative. Many customers still remember that a vegan bag has to be a jute bag. So I did a lot of research into vegan leather and had a lot of samples sent to me and the cactus leather impressed me the most.
Then I researched various production countries – in some, Turkey for example, you don’t even need to arrive with small quantities, i.e. under 500 pieces. From Italy the majority said ‘no, we only work with leather’. But then I came across Portugal – the country is very advanced in terms of sustainability. Here I met the first producer who helped me with the others. I needed three production companies for very different crafts and shoes in particular were difficult. I sent a lot of emails – I think almost 200 in one day – and first got to know people via Zoom. Finally I found my current bag production company, which kindly agreed with the words “we would be happy to be the midwife for your baby”. The experts there already knew about vegan materials and were willing to invest in small quantities. I soon found someone who made shoes, who then found me a hat production company.
And do you visit the companies yourself?
Yes, I’ve watched them now, in 2022. They were really good, just as I imagined.
In the first collection, a snakeskin pattern is very central. Isn’t that contradictory as a vegan label that is committed to animal welfare?
Yes, we often get requests to do everything with snakeskin, but that was just the first collection. Things may look completely different with the next collection; I’m not focused on cactus leather either. First of all, it was important to me to attract attention and show what a leather alternative can do, that it is high-quality vegan. And thus refuting the excuse of traditional brands that still use leather because they think it can’t be done without it.
Leather alternatives and especially cactus leather are criticized because of their polyurethane (PU) content. How do you feel about this?
PU is usually still necessary and cactus leather uses recycled PU as a carrier material. After all, it is recycled PU and the proportion is getting smaller and smaller. The material now consists of almost 70 percent cactus and the developers are working on reducing it.
Your accessories are already coordinated in the design process – how should you imagine this exactly?
When I start designing my fashion accessories, I think about, for example, how which distinctive elements can be used for the handbag, the shoes and the hat. Then I look for vegan leather that is available in different thicknesses but the same color so that it can be used for all three products.
4 percent of the profits from the bags, shoes and hats go to the organization “Celebrities for Animals” – how did you come across this organization?
I met Christian Ehrlich (managing director of the animal and species protection society “Celebrities for Animals”, editor’s note) at an event. At “Celebrities for Animals” there are various projects from species protection to supporting street dogs and every cent goes to the organization. He really checks and questions the organizations that the money goes to. That convinced me.
What’s next, will Anne Schollenberger perhaps become international?
The feedback is incredibly good and everything I do for the label is fun; it was absolutely the right decision. I would have perhaps thought it would have been a little easier to get into the shops. That’s why we’ll stay focused on Germany for now and then go international.
