ELZA WANDLER

It All Started with One Bag

By Bonnie Langedijk

Whenever there’s a Dutch brand that grows beyond the limits of the tiny country I call home, I’m always instantly interested to find out more. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Dutch mentality, I’ll give you a quick rundown. There’s one saying Dutch people use that describes it perfectly: ‘Doe maar normaal, dan doe je al gek genoeg.’ It translates to: ‘Just act normal, don’t stand out too much, don’t deviate too much from the rest and just keep going’. It’s a saying that on the one end can keep you grounded and focused. But it can also refrain you from excelling and pushing boundaries. Luckily, Dutch designer Elza Wandler paved her own path. Her namesake brand, Wandler, launched in 2017 with the Hortensia bag. Building the brand from scratch in just one month. Since then, the brand has solidified its status as an industry favorite with a cult following. Spot the Dutch brand’s designs on anyone from stylist and long-time collaborator Georgia Tal to the Hadid sisters to celebrities like Lady Gaga and Michelle Obama. 

In 2019 the brand expanded into footwear. And with the global luxury footwear market valued at over $25 billion in 2022, Elza Wander was smart to set her sights on the full spectrum of the accessory market. But the Dutch designer didn’t stop there. With Wandler’s background working at Levi’s Made & Crafted, the brand launched a line of pants in denim and leather fabrications last year. 

Having just celebrated the brand’s five year anniversary in August with a party and art installation by Elsemarijn Bruys at Amsterdam Fashion Week, we caught up with the Dutch designer. We discussed the realities of building a business, her love of art and interior design and how being a natural hustler has contributed to the success of the brand.

Bonnie: What has always intrigued me about the brand is that every woman who wears Wandler, has her own way of wearing it.

Elza: We always keep an eye on the posts we’re tagged in on Instagram and it really ranges from super glamorous women in Dubai to women with a more Scandinavian aesthetic. I like the fact that the woman wears the bag, the bag doesn’t wear you. For me, a bag has to add some elegance to your outfit. I always call it table value. In the end, a bag is a luxury product, it’s not a necessity. 

On that topic, building a successful brand goes beyond creating great products. What was your approach to building the Wandler brand? How did you create that signature aesthetic?

Elza: That’s an impossible question to answer. It’s a process. You start with nothing. I didn’t come from a family that could loan me money to build the brand. You have to look into how you can create something meaningful with few resources. Maybe I’m just a natural hustler. 

“A bag has to add some elegance to your outfit. I always call it TABLE VALUE. In the end, a bag is a luxury product, it’s not a necessity. ”

That’s a great quality to have. 

Elza: The thing is, if you don’t have a sense of direction, you won’t be able to create the things that are right for you. It’s not a formula you can hand to someone. You either got it or you don’t. I’m not saying that I necessarily ‘got it’, but I got to where I am now because I have a sense of what’s right for Wandler. One of my greatest strengths, which is simultaneously my biggest weakness, is that I’m an extreme perfectionist. I often think things aren’t good enough, and I’m also not easily impressed by what other brands are doing. You can check it with my team, they will probably crack up over it. Sometimes it gets so bad that I have a full-on physical reaction. Whenever I visit the factory and they show me the first prototype of something new I designed, I honestly feel sick to my stomach. It’s difficult for people I work with. And as I’m explaining it, it may sound a bit more extreme than it actually is. But I do believe that I trigger something in people so they can get the most out of themselves. And I think that's a big part of the formula. The moment you start to feel too comfortable in what you're doing, it's time to do something else. There’s a thin line between being comfortable and being cocky. You continuously have to evolve.

I agree, especially if you want to compete at an international level. With being so critical of yourself and your brand, are there other brands or people in the industry that inspire you in terms of image or branding?

Elza: Of course there are brands that are doing really exciting things. But it’s also a difficult question. Look, producing content is extremely expensive. At Wandler we’re working with tiny budgets. I know what kind of budgets bigger brands are working with, and sometimes I wonder: that’s what you come up with? But I’ve also worked at bigger brands, and I know the politics of it. It’s tricky, because I set the same standards for Wandler as the bigger brands, even though they have hundreds of thousands to spend, while we only have a fraction of that budget. And don’t get me wrong, it also has its charm. That family feeling we have created within the business is really something. 

As a smaller brand, you have to work smarter. Wandler collaborating with people within the art world is a great way of taking a different approach. I think you were also one of the first to collaborate on homeware pieces. 

The connection between fashion, art and interior is at the core of Wandler. We always work with vintage interior sourcers to find pieces for our showroom. For me interior design and art live within the same realm. I’m probably not allowed to say that, but it’s something I believe. There are so many contemporary artists who make objects that become part of your interior, but are art pieces at the same time. 

What’s your approach to building that bridge between fashion and art?

Elza: We collaborate with an artist about every three months. We’re really developing our own voice now. It’s difficult when you start out. You can find smaller artists to work with, but that can be tricky. With someone like Julio Rondo [who the brand collaborated with], I think I sent him Instagram messages for a year and a half before he even sent anything back. His wife is very fashionable, and told him that it would be  worthwhile. What’s so great about these types of collaborations is that they don’t just happen because of Wandler. It works because we have an interest and appreciation for each other's work. 

It’s interesting, because both industries exist in the world of culture, but still operate in silos. There’s still little crossover. 

Elza: Yes. I really have to push to bring these types of artists in. Especially as artists don’t always want to associate themselves with fashion. But the first project we did with Amsterdam Fashion Week really helped. It allowed us to showcase that we’re able to build an installation. We collaborated with Nikki Hock, and he’s breaking through internationally now. Casta, our producer, is best friends with Hock so we were lucky. People from [Museum] Boijmans [Van Beuningen] visited the installation and approached us to collaborate. That’s how you get the ball rolling.

It also allows you to step away from being a brand that’s just about product and commerce. 

Elza: That’s true. Product and quality are important to me. Ultimately, you have to like the product. You can do all the collaborations and use different platforms to promote your brand, but if the product isn’t of great quality, it’s not going to work.

As we’re circling back to product, does art in any way inspire how you pick colors for new designs? 

Elza: I would love to make up a great story here, but it actually has nothing to do with art. I’m not really inspired by specific things, it’s a very intuitive process. I go to the leather fairs, and after I lock myself into my office with my color fans. I put all the pinks I’m loving next to each other, and all the yellows, and from there I start making a color board combining those different colors. In terms of inspiration it's hard to tell what you’re inspired by. If you’re constantly looking at different art works, you’ll always be creatively stimulated by it somehow. 

That’s true. When I think about Wandler I always think of the apple green. 

Elza: It’s the first color we ever did. It’s been four years and we still use it. Since then the color has kind of been hijacked. But that’s life. I look at it as an opportunity. There’s so much more room for us to grow. 

It’s funny you say that, because I remember a few years ago I saw Wandler everywhere. All the influencers, buyers and editors were wearing it. Did you ever worry about overexposure?

Elza: We launched our first bag, the Hortensia, four years ago with NET-A-PORTER. I remember the buyer telling me: ‘A bag only has four life cycles’. That’s about a year and a half, so pre [collection], main [collection], pre, main. Four years later, the Hortensia is still one of our bestselling styles. I don’t believe Wandler is a hype brand. Yes, there was a moment where everyone had the Hortensia bag, but that was when we had just launched the brand. We were really lucky with the support we got from industry leaders. There are brands that live on a hype or a certain trend, and that’s a dangerous foundation to build a brand on. But I wonder if anyone does that deliberately. How do you control something like that? 

True. In terms of those life cycles, what’s your approach to growing the brand in terms of adding new styles or categories? 

Elza: It’s like releasing your first album. There’s this danger of releasing ten albums that are pretty much the same, but on the other hand it can also be great to know what to expect. The first two years were a struggle for me. Everyone asks you: ‘What’s the new Hortensia?’. I didn’t even realize it when I created my first best selling bag, it just kind of came to me. But I’m over that fear now. I’m happy we’ve been able to build the brand in a way that it’s not reliant on the success of one bag.  

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

ELZA WANDLER’S PICKS

Elza’s favorite products, carefully curated by the designer.