A moment with Ainsley Hansen, founder of Hansen & Gretel.
18/10/2022
What was the driving passion behind creating Hansen & Gretel?
I have always wanted to create a brand that was all inclusive, that offered affordable luxury. I also just love the way an outfit can make someone feel, it can bring so much confidence to the person wearing it, I love that it can have such an impact.
Hansen & Gretel was chosen to represent this synthesis of masculine feminine, that yin & yang where Hansen is a nod to my father’s name, and an ode to the brand’s mannish trace. ‘Gretel’ really constitutes for the idea of womanhood, the girl, the sister, and our journey as female’s which is always a prevalent theme in each collection.
What does your morning look like?
I have a two-year-old girl who wakes between 6am-6:30am. My husband works away most weeks, so I need to be ready before she gets up. I then move onto getting her breakfast and doing all the motherly things that need to be done before my Nanny arrives at 8:30am.
Coffee Order? A flat white, however I'm currently 25 weeks pregnant so off coffee for the time being.
Currently Listening to? When it's not the Frozen soundtrack it's Harry Styles
Reading? The Very Noisy Baby by Alison Lester - its my baby's favourite bedtime book
What does sustainability mean to you and your business?
Hansen & Gretel is acutely aware of the impact our industry has on our planet and its people. We will be the first to admit we are not perfect but as a brand we are passionately committed to driving change. As a business we really focus on three P’s; Product, Planet and People
We put our product first. The material choices we make has the greatest impact on our business. We are using UN Sustainable Development Goal 12 [Responsible Consumption & Production] to initiate a Material Strategy that ensures sustainable consumption and production patterns.
Not only do we want to understand where our materials come from - but how they affect the environment at every stage of development, well before our product reaches the shop floor.
As a commercial business, no matter what we will always have an effect and influence our immediate environment. While we still wish to grow internationally, through our new Green Strategy, we will strive to ensure we are minimising our negative impact, limiting our environmental footprint and implementing specific strategies to move our business operations closer to 100% neutral - in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 13
Our team at every stage of our business, are dedicated to bringing the companies vision to life. We strive to work with partners that share the same values and are working to build mutually beneficial relationships and to challenge our network to implement a new way of doing things.
Our goal is to evolve our company behaviour to reflect a more sustainably minded outlook, to continue to implement social and environmental practice to ensure we are delivering conscious fashion, and to be truly honest about our impact on the environment
I like to remind myself just how small we are when you compare yourself to the universe around
Daily ritual you swear by to maintain physical and emotional wellbeing?
Vedic Meditation, I practised this twice daily prior to having a child and cannot live without this ritual once daily.
What are you currently working on (personal or professional)?
Being a mum, a wife, and a great boss/business owner.
Hansen & Gretel pieces sold on Worn For Good support Children's Ground.
100% of profits from this collection go to Children’s Ground who walks alongside First Nations communities in the Northern Territory, delivering services across learning, health, economic development and community wellbeing, combining the expertise of First Nations knowledge systems with international leading practice.