WHO WE ARE

: Is the motto of Verdandy-founder Manuel Rauner. Born south of Vienna, Manuel is a self-made entrepreneur with a small, enthusiastic team full of ideas that helps him realize his dream.
: Verdandy is a jeans brand. When you get up in the morning and leave your cosy bed, you wanna take something of that feeling, that comfort with you and bring it into your day. You can do that by putting on Verdandy jeans. Verdandy is wearable emotion.
: Feeling great creates self-confidence, and that is what our day is about. Our success throughout the day in different situations, from the office to our leisure time depends on our emotions. If you feel comfortable in your skin a.k.a. in your clothes, people notice. Verdandy conveys that great feeling. We emanate, what you wear. Feeling great improves our day. And this is Verdandy’s mission statement.
: We are putting a big emphasis on fabrics that meet these requirements. You touch it and go, wow, this is different than the other stuff that hangs in my closet. This takes a lot of time for us. We go through hundreds of materials, we work closely with various fabric makers that are required to meet another claim of ours: sustainability and local production in Europe.
: Yes, we are continuously raising our own bar. Our goal is local, sustainable and as much as possible organic. We are not ever going to come to a standstill on this but keep reaching for a higher standard. This shows in our newest collection, where we created pieces from organic and recycled cotton as well as polyester.
: Yes, especially now it is very difficult to find comfortable designs, because the trend goes towards vintage, as we know it from the 1980s and 1990s. To produce comfortable fabrics that are sustainable on top of it, is a whole different ballgame.
: Exactly! Plus, the wearer looks really good in them, too!
: I wore a lot of different clothes and obviously also a lot of denim where I often felt, okay, looks good but comfortable it’s not. There must be something else. Something like your favorite piece of clothing that you want to wear all the time and that looks great on top of it. I couldn’t find any. And that’s when I though, I wanna look behind the scenes and explore the questions: what are the obstacles in making chic jeans that meet both requirements – looking good and feeling good? I ended up meeting with a lot of fabric designers and found 90% of the material unsuitable for what I wanted to create. We all know those jeans that grow in size after half a day and then you have to put them in the washing machine, so they shrink again. That wastage of water is not exactly sustainable.
: That one I chose very consciously. The idea was born from lack. I spent a lot of time sitting at a desk, and my pants cut off my circulation. I was happy when I could take them off at night. I could see even the marks of the seams on my thighs. I thought, it cannot be that there isn’t something better than this. And if I feel that way, there must be many more, especially men. I found a gap in the market that had not been filled.
: Verdandy comes from Nordic mythology. I was looking for a name that embodies our fabric and that comes with a story that weaves the whole line together, and that’s where I came across Verdandy. She is the goddess of fate, that also weaves the thread of fate. This connection with fabric in a literal and metaphoric sense appealed to me. And that the goddess Verdandy personifies the here and now, the decision making and the creativity. This is what we want to communicate: the decision for a local brand, the reduction of carbon monoxide emission, but also the personal decision to feel good and that I may choose a brand that is not as well-known, simply because I like it, not because others tell me what I should like.
: And self-confidence. You know the story: you are going through a big life-change, and you get a new haircut. You feel good and everyone says, hey, you look great, did you get some sort of rejuvenation treatment? This is the response we often get with our jeans. Our customers tell us that people comment on their pants, like ‘did you lose weight? You look fantastic! Something is different about you from before…’ Sometimes they are real emotional, not just, oh, you make great pants but stories of life-changing experiences.
: Those reactions. The newfound charisma that customers experience. That we have more than a good product, that we are getting better and better.
: Well, there is actually a couple where he complains that she is constantly taking his jeans, because she feels so comfortable in them and they look good on her as well. And then there are those who bought the same jeans for each and kind of do that partner-look thing. That’s why I won’t preclude that there will be a solution to that problem soon. There will be a women’s collection with the same theme: chic, comfortable, sustainable.
: We will take our customers on a virtual journey behind the scenes of our productions. We will answer questions like: how many people make one pair of pants? How and where is it made? What is the journey from thread to finished product? The creation of the piece of clothing that you are wearing right now, so to speak.
: That was the THOR, that only exists in limited editions nowadays. It morphed into the DONAR. Exactly the same cut. Donar is the god of thunder in Nordic mythology.
: A dark blue Mustang, washed out in the front. I was very proud when I bought it, but in hindsight I have to say, it wasn’t comfortable at all. None of them were. Nowadays, technology makes it possible to do much more, which also has to do with the weaving that makes for a god stretch, not just the elastic.
: There were a few that in hindsight were positive. Our first collection wasn’t what we wanted it to be, because the pants were all too long. So, I turned them into shorts. The run on those was tremendous, which is why we are still being asked when our next summer pants are coming out.
: When my parents applauded after our show at fashion week. That gave me a lot of strength and empowered me. My parents always said when I wanted to try something new: “Do what you believe in, even if it doesn’t mirror our plan for you but your own. We will always support your choices.” My parents’ bright eyes at Vienna Fashion Week symbolize a wonderful moment.
: I always set little goals for myself, take small steps. Right now, it is the launch of this new website, that I have been looking forward to. It signals a complete makeover. Verdandy radiates joie de vivre and that is what you see in our videos. It is for our customers, our faithful fans that return this joy of life to us via their feedback. I didn’t think it possible that a piece of clothing can have such a massive influence on our well-being. This is where I want to expand and reach more people with our product.

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