Anita Benes, the brand’s leading designer, explain:
“My philosophy is that if I respect not only my own work but also that of my colleagues, then I have to create suitable working conditions for them. This approach is much more typical of the business world if for example, we compare how beautiful the banks or the Prezi offices are to a typical suburban dressmakers shop.
For me, the work of a dressmaker is just as valuable, or in my subjective opinion even more valuable, than that of a software engineer.
So even if I don’t put a beanbag in the dressmaker’s shop – the creative element of our work is brought to life with strong manual skills – I wanted to create an environment which inspires them and reflects how greatly they are valued. I believe that this shows in the final result. We can read more and more about how badly multinational companies treat their employees in Asia and Africa. As a mother of three, I could not bear the thought of children sewing or beading my dresses in inhuman conditions, regardless of the financial benefits compared to maintaining a twenty person dressmaking shop in Budapest.
Many companies talk about fair trade business, but I think few of them deliver in practice. If there is an accident or a problem arises, then most of them deny responsibility. However, any big multinational could easily afford to build a dressmaking shop with normal conditions from their profits, yet they don’t do it.
I think it is important to make my dresses in Budapest, and to employ Hungarian people, I hope that this adds value to my dresses for others as well as for me.”
