We Speak With Isabella Löwengrip About Her New Shoe Brand Flattered
These days bloggers are everywhere, writing about anything and everything. There are fashion bloggers, lifestyle bloggers, food bloggers, you name it. However there are only a handful of bloggers with real substance; bloggers that can take their musings and turn them into an entrepreneurial idea in today’s world.
Sweden’s biggest blogger Isabella Löwengrip has done just that with Blondinbella, and from the age of 16 has dipped her toes into several different companies. She is partner in five, including Blondinbella AB, Blog Spotlife, investment company Löwengrip Invest AB and Economista AB. Alongside these, Isabella also set up Löwengrip Care and Colour and even used to edit her own newspaper Egoboost. Phew, she is a busy girl isn’t she!
On top of this Isabella has a beautiful baby Gillis and recently announced she is expecting another baby.
We caught up with Isabella and her business partner Hanna Kwiatkowska from the Flattered team to talk about their latest venture, which is all about creating the ideal ballerina flats and slippers for women.
For Isabella, tired of wearing ‘frumpy slipper booties’ around the house, it was important to create a chic indoor slipper that was perfect and comfortable whether she was blogging or running around doing household chores.
The flats are classic, feminine and subtly sexy in some cases, whilst the slippers appeal to the newer desire for indoor shoes as opposed to a bulky slipper. Hanna tells us, ‘I’ve always been obsessed with the idea of creating the perfect ballerina flat.. Isabella had a very good idea of the concept and i was able to give it shape’.
Having this strong awareness of a product missing from the market, the idea has only been further reinforced by the initial reactions from customers and the CEO of Sweden’s largest shoe chain. Flattered came into fruition in 2013, with four co-founders – Hanna, Isabella, Pingis Hadenius and Gustav Lidén – and gained momentum pretty quickly, within three months they had developed samples and were taking their first orders!
With any new brand it can be difficult to tell the story and establish the brand, but Hanna tells us they have had a great reception in Sweden, helped by Isabella, and the next step is introducing the brand to the UK, the rest of Scandinavia, Germany and France. ‘This will of course be more of an uphill task, but we really believe in our product.. At the end of the day, if you don’t have a good product, the customer will never be faithful.’
It goes without saying that Flattered do have a good product, and aimed at women between 25 and 60 there is a style for anyone. For Hanna and Isabella, Flattered is a hugely important factor in their daily lives. ‘This is not a plug – I can honestly say I incorporate Flattered into almost all of my indoor life’, Hanna explains, coveting heels but also savouring the thought of her fleecy Flattered flats at home. As the brand’s Creative Director, Hanna is an important source of inspiration when it comes to designing. ‘Most of my ideas evolve from something I’ve seen on Pinterest or street-style blogs, and when it comes to colours, I take inspiration from bits and pieces of everyday life’.
The colours for Flattered are earthy and classy and are tailored to suit any outfit, yet always remaining true to the brand’s aesthetic: ‘Clean, classic, minimal and thoroughly Scandinavian’, and keeping in fitting with Hanna’s own style. Favouring jeans and a shirt or tee, or a fine men’s sweater in smaller sizes, paired with men’s tennis shoes in a smaller size – ‘I think the overall fit looks so much better!’ – Hanna fits the classic, simple, Scandinavia bill just perfectly.
As Flattered’s success continues on its uphill journey, Isabella’s blog continues to maintain its popularity with over 1,3 million unique views each month. But with so many projects on the go, it’s admirable how Isabella maintains a balance. ‘I love multi-tasking actually – it’s what I do best and and it makes me feel alive.’ Isabella explains, ‘When I first started out, I would work 12 hours a day, but I’ve since learned to prioritise and delegate. There are always ways to make time for everything that’s important to you.’
Isabella’s work ethic is simply fascinating and as a result it’s unsurprising that since the age of fourteen she has come this far, especially since she dabbled in the idea of politics in her early teens. Eventually she found her calling through the blog and skipped her final year of high school to become a full time entrepreneur, a decision she has never come to regret. ‘Being an entrepreneur suits my personality, it fuels my creative energy’, she tells us, abuzz with enthusiasm for her multiple projects.
The majority of the time, the brand ideas are Isabella’s ways to solve problems, gaps in the market for which she finds a way to fill them as the example of Flattered shows. After starting the blog at fourteen and her first company at sixteen, Isabella’s life has always been public, something she finds difficult at times. ‘I am my own brand, which makes it difficult sometimes to distinguish my private life from my public persona. Since starting a family it’s become a lot easier to draw those lines.’
It is inspiring that Isabella starts each day with such get-up-and-go, knowing that each day holds promise and possibility in more ways than one – for her blog, her business, her family; Isabella spins a lot of plates and she does so incredibly well. ‘My overall goal is to inspire women around the world that anything is possible – to be the next Oprah if I can!’
The way Isabella’s projects and her work with Hanna on Flattered are going, this could be a possibility in the next few years, and we can’t wait to see the way their success develops.
To view the collection and to get your hands on these super chic and cute ballerina flats and slippers, visit www.flattered.se
Photo courtesy of Beata Holmring, www.beatagustava.com