Interview – Niels Martinsen You didn’t form InWear alone. Who else was involved? “I had met Kirsten Teisner, a designer. We lived together the first couple of years. In the beginning she handled the design. We worked together for 18 years until 1987.” What was the gap in the market that you wanted to fill with InWear? “Young people were beginning to earn their own salaries, and a demand had arisen for new ways of dressing. I think I was among the first to spot this, because I had no real competition for several years. And there weren’t many stores that sold these kinds of clothes.” Did your nightclub adventures help you identify the tastes of the younger generation? “Yes. I think so. For me, a significant part of nightlife was seeing what people were wearing. Then, as we got to travel with InWear, it was even more important to our growth potential that we paid attention to what was happening.” Is it true that InWear was the first brand to introduce washed denim? “Yes. In 1970, the only jeans available were stiff, so customers had to wash out the excess dye in their bath tubs. I figured there had to be something to do about this. I was in Hong Kong for two weeks before finding the right look for the denim wash. But the first shipping container that arrived in Copenhagen was filled with mouldy jeans. They were all white, because the high Hong Kong air humidity had stopped them from drying out before they were packed.” Did you have to throw away the entire shipment? “No, no, it just needed to be washed. It was a huge hit, and we sold it all. People had never seen washed jeans before.” While we’re talking about the early years, why was InWear originally named InnWear, with two n’s? “Haha. Back then, ‘in’ meaning ‘cool’ was a new thing, so to be sure I was spelling it correctly I looked it up in a dictionary. I saw ‘inn’, so that’s what I went for. After a while I realised that ‘inn’ means ‘roadside hostel’, so we deleted a letter.” Oops. “Well, I was only 20. There were a tremendous number of things to decide on every day, so it was full speed ahead.” Is it true that you personally tested new fabrics? “Yes. I studied how they felt on the skin, particularly wool, which can be a bit abrasive. I often had a piece of fabric on my stomach for a few days at a time, to work out if it was itchy.” Were there any expensive mistakes along the way? “I remember a collection of down coats in 1977 that were on the front page of our catalogue. Down coats hadn’t been seen before, and we knew there would be a demand after we sent 500,000 catalogues to retailers in several countries. The jacket sold 20,000 pieces, but the problem was that the lining – some type of polyester – protruded through the outer fabric. It may have cost us some money, but we learned a lesson.” All these years later, how do you feel about being a guest at InWear’s big celebration, rather than the host? “Absolutely fine. I have grown used to it. But at first, it was hard to give up my life’s work.” It must have been tough. “Yes. But now I’ve had 15 years to get used to not being a CEO, working from my home. It did take time, and it probably didn’t help that I still showed up at the office daily! Product development is a part of me, so I still miss that.” If you had the final word, what direction would you take InWear today? “Fortunately, the new owners seem to have a fine sense of the InWear DNA, so I have no worries there. I do hope that the brand will continue to develop and remain relevant and exciting.” InWear Brand Book – Chapter III 77
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