Fam
FamThe LabelInfo
ABOUT
Conscious Fashion
Over the last years, the word ‘sustainable’ has become fashionable. It is being used often and in a lot of different contexts where it always seems to take on a different meaning. In many cases brands use this word as a marketing tool, in some cases this word is abused to greenwash. 100% sustainability is impossible but we do try to be conscious about our responsibilities as a label. Let us state what our approach to conscious fashion looks like to us and to our FAMily.
Everything we do has an impact, leaves a footprint. It is our goal to make this imprint as positive as is commercially possible. We reduce our carbon footprint in a number of creative ways and make sure that all the people involved with FAM are positively empowered.
How We Achieve This
Sustainable Design
Short-lived trends are not in our vocabulary. We strive to make clothing that transcends seasons and stay with you for the longest possible time. We like to think of our collection as a capsule. As our environment changes and temperatures fluctuate, we deem it important that our clothing is versatile and that certain pieces can easily transition the seasons with you.
Each year we design and produce two transseasonal capsule collections for which we choose fabrics that are suitable for summer as well as winter.
Sustainable Production
We have chosen to have all of our clothing produced in Europe to ensure a minimal amount of transportation and a working environment that is congruent with European Social law.
Ilda and Manuel are the proud owners of a small family business in Portugal and have themselves sewn our very first FAM pieces. This was the start of a very fruitful collaboration and a way to make sure that our clothing is made to last by well paid happy people. Happy people are important if we are to build a new world together.
Sustainable Fabrics And Printing
Technology and industry have made impressive advancements in the last years however we still have a long way to go to produce fabrics that are versatile, durable and ecologically innovative at the same time.
Although the possibilities are sometimes still limited, we put a lot of effort into sourcing fabrics that help us achieve both our goals in regards to conscious fashion as a company and our aesthetic goals as a fashion label.
All of our prints are designed in Belgium and printed in Europe with inks that pollute less and with a process that significantly reduces water consumption.
Transparency
It is important for us that you, our beloved FAM, are provided the tools to make decisions with integrity and enable you to consume and buy in such a way that is in line with your environmental and social ethics.
In striving for perfection, we have learned it is unattainable. Today it is strictly impossible to do everything 100% sustainably but we are encouraged to know our society and economy are slowly changing directions. We have you to thank for this and it is you and your choices as a consumer that can help us achieve a world where a well thought through approach to conscious fashion can become our collective reality.
Washing Prescriptions
Buying conscious clothing is an excellent first step in reducing our carbon footprint. The second step would be to make our clothes last longer so that we don’t have to throw them away
The Story
Before she created FAM, Vanessa Beniers was racing through life, like a lot of us, working a busy job with little creative satisfaction. Right after losing her mother and later also her job, she hit a metaphorical wall and crashed.
Loss is destructive but destruction always means opportunity, so Vanessa started digging for things that could give her life a renewed sense of meaning. She promised herself to never put another dream in a box, to unapologetically stand for what she believes in and to let love and passion guide her way. Turning her setbacks into wins ultimately guided her back to her childhood passion, her love for fine clothes.
Friendship And Collaboration
Life has a funny way of bringing the right people together at exactly the right moment. Around the same time Vanessa decided to enroll herself in several courses on patternmaking, fabrics and business she met Clarisse Rocha.
Clarisse was making a sustainable impact with her organic farming business in Portugal until the economic crisis hit. She felt forced to leave her home country and family to become a cleaner in Belgium and found a job working for Vanessa. As they both shared their stories about life and loss, they also shared their dreams and found common passions. A deep friendship was born and so was the drive to share their love for fashion and sustainability.
A few years later this friendship has grown into a strong collaboration. Clarisse was able to move back to Portugal and now manages FAM’s entire production process.
Meet The FAMily
We are a fashion brand but first and foremost, we are people. People who laugh and cry and crave connection. People who love hard and believe in the magic of community.
We are a fashion brand but first and foremost, we are human. We are more than cold measurements of size and weight, of revenue and efficiency. We want to put our humanity front and center in all of our endeavours. We don’t build a community around our brand, we build our brand around our community. People are the driving force and people are the reason we center our values around sustainability and inclusiveness. It is our connection with one another that makes our work worthwhile. When we feel we are all working towards a common goal we feel united and empowered. When we see that we share the same values, hopes and dreams, we start to consider ourselves a FAMily.
This is us, the FAMily.
Get to know us.
Vanessa
Designer & Founder
My favorite song: La Foule – Edith Piaff
Most loved FAM item: Our Mona dress, for its endless versatility.
A talent I am proud of: My creativity, being grateful in every situation and my ability to forge deep bonds with people.
On being a FAMme: It’s all about authenticity for me and embodying the duality of my sensitive sides and my badass edges.
FAMbitions: Make our brand grow by building it with the right people; our FAMily. Bringing about a change in our mindsets when it comes to dressing sustainably and making FAM an established value in this market.
Clarisse
Head Of Production & Quality Manager
My favorite song: Here Comes the Sun – The Beatles
Most loved FAM item: Our Hanna Jumpsuit
A talent I am proud of: Connecting the creative aspects of the brand with the technical. My ability to easily connect with other people and making them smile in stressful situations. I love taking care of people and am also considered the mom of the family.
FAMbitions: To see FAM grow into an internationally successful brand.
Anaïs
Creative Community Manager
My favorite song: Lazy Nina – Greg Phillinganes
Most loved FAM item: Ash & Lee in Dark Clay Tencel
A talent I am proud of: My creative side – exploring & expressing new ideas.
FAMbitions: Spreading our message with creative content that reflects our FAM values. To not be afraid of being a little silly or breaking boundaries in order to reach our goal of a sustainable and ethical future.
Ilda & Manuel
When researching how we would tackle the production of our garments, one of our fabric suppliers gave us an address. We didn’t have a phone number to make an appointment so we just drove there and were immediately welcomed as family.
Everything just clicked and after discussing some things over a nice dinner that Ilda and Manuel had prepared for us we decided that these were the people who would handle our production. Soon after that Ilda made our very first FAM piece because she deeply believed this was the start of an amazing adventure together. She couldn’t have been more right.
Ilda and Manuel are now irreplaceable members of our FAMily. Our connection is deep and the amount of care and perfection they put into the production is uncomparable. We could not do this without them.
Katrien
Print Designer
My favorite song: Roam – The B52’s
A talent I am proud of: My sense of color, my capacity to capture ambiance and feeling with my drawings.
On being a FAMme: Sharing values and visions with a community of likeminded people is what’s important to me.
FAMbitions: To make women feel joyful and unique in their FAM outfits.
Celine
Wordsmith & Visual Content Creator
My favorite song: Millionaire (ft. Andre 3000) – Kelis
Most loved FAM item: All of our Kate trousers, they are incredibly flattering.
A talent I am proud of: Living and thinking outside of the box.
On being a FAMme: Embracing the full scope of what I am, trusting my intuition and not waiting for anyone’s approval to stray off the beaten path is what makes me feel complete.
FAMbitions: To be a drop in the ocean of people who are working towards a sustainable and inclusive future. That our mindful way of doing business will one day outweigh the impacts of fast fashion.
Sophie
Producer Prototypes
My favorite song: Boys will be boys – Dua Lipa
A talent I am proud of: My ability to turn a 2D design into a 3D garment and the sewing skills I need to accomplish that.
Most loved FAM item: I absolutely love the Elise jumpsuit.
FAMbitions:I want to keep improving communication between the design team and production team to produce high-quality garments.
Christel
Marketing Coach
You
The FAMme We Design For
You’re the star of our FAMily because your choices as a consumer are driving the real change. You are making our dreams possible and for that we love you, we thank you, we see you. Keep shining, keep doing you.
Ooievaarsnest 16 Gentbrugge 9050 Belgium
Info
ATMOSfashion is a Belgian fashion brand offering the modern woman an elegant and sophisticated style. It is ladies prêt-a-porter that combines rich, subtle colours and new materials in a very contemparay and timeless collection. Atmos designs for this generation of woman, reinventing a style expressing feminine grace.
SENSO is our second brand. Also very feminine and for occasion but a little more sporty with more casual influence.
Both collections are bringing complete outfits for an evening out and festive clothing but also for every weekday.
Vision
For the end user we are working in the larger region or circle around Brussels and Belgium. We try to be fully aware of the typical needs and fashion habits that are living in our region. Also important is to pick up all new influences and ever changing fashion trends. Keeping in mind and respecting all of these, we are trying to extract our new collections. These collections are supported with a maximum of service and flexibility.
Business-to-business we are a flexible player very in the neighbourhood of our customers, boutiques or ladies clothing retailers. During the running season we are supporting our catalogue and collection with the possibility of repeat orders. We are also adding in the full season new items and new ‘short term delivery’ themes. These new ‘express’ collections are based on new fashion trends coming up in the season itself and are really giving a new fresh input for the retailer in the season running.
History
As Belgian ladies garment manufacturer ROVECO started some 46 years from now in a textile province town near Ghent named Ronse
Also family owned sister company ATMOSPHEREprovides the more distributing and commercial activities. Atmosphère was based for more than 35 years in the old fashion heart of Brussels called ’triangle’ but has moved since 2002 to Strombeek-Bever very near by Brussels.
Some 28 years ago we decided to start up with the brand ATMOS and to present a long term ’total look’ collection..
In 2000 SENSO became the second and more casual influenced brand.
About 55 people are working within our two companies. About 80 percent of our productions are made elsewhere. We are working with partners in Belgium, Poland, Roumenia, Italy, Tunesia and China.
Chauncey
ChaunceyInfo
Chauncey is Belgium brand, founded by knitwear designer Nathalie Bouhana, who worked for Hermès, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Ferragamo and photographer David Sdika. The brand is a mix of traditional elegance, with a touch of humour and surrealism. Using only the highest quality yarns, Chauncey prides itself on craftsmanship. All pieces are made of the softest natural yarns in Italy
Stan & Loesje
Stan & LoesjeInfo
We love to make creations that are clean cut, playful and sensual.
Our mission: ‘Design to make you look good.’
Naturally we work with ecological fabrics to create these designs, and we want you to say: Like, Like, Like!
Have a look around, to see what we mean!
Jan van Aelbroecklaan 33 Gentbrugge 9050 Belgium
Info
ABOUT CESAR
In addition to being a model, food lover, traveler and proud author of my two cookbooks Model Kitchen and Cesar’s Kitchen and the travel guide Trippin, I have launched the Cesar Casier Knitwear Collection. While growing up, I was always surrounded by fashion. My mom owns a high-end fashion boutique “OONA” in Ghent and my stepmom is a fashion designer. They were my biggest influencers and shaped my views on fashion while growing up, the logical next step was to start my own collection.
100% MADE IN BELGIUM.
KNITWEAR COLLECTION
The Cesar Casier Knitwear Collection is 100% made in Belgium, something that is very rare nowadays. Everything I design is produced in a small family owned factory located in Sint-Niklaas, a city between Antwerp and my hometown Ghent. Fact is that back in the days there were about 300 factories located in this area and now there are only two left, a sad reality. Therefore, it is important to support the revival of Belgian knitwear as much as possible!
GENDER NEUTRAL FASHION
Next to my roots, my brand represents Gender Equality. A human right I hold dear and it is something I stand for. I translate this into my designs, as they are mostly unisex. I want my brand to lead the way in gender-neutral fashion. In my opinion, gender no longer dictates the way people dress and it does not force anyone into a box. That is why I try to design as much gender neutral pieces as possible, this allows us to express ourselves exactly the way we all want to. My designs are timeless, comfortable and basic, yet fashionable and with an eye for detail and great quality
CHARITY
I’ve always loved nature and even more, the animals who live in it. That’s why, for every sold item on my website, I’ll donate 1 euro to a charity. For my previous collection I’ve donated money to help save the dolphins, The Great Barrier Reef and the Giraffes in the wild. By donating money to a good cause, I want to send awareness to the public about the beauty of nature and to support animal and nature welfare!
Hubert Frere Orbanlaan 629 Ghent 9000 Belgium
La Rosa
La RosaInfo
Matteo La Rosa started the brand in June 2019.
In October 2020, he showed his first official collection to the public during Paris Fashion Week.
In June 2021, his second collection was shown through an online show. His first official men’s collection was shown then.
Matteo La Rosa is a Belgian/italian fashion designer and stylist from Antwerp. In 2019 he started his label MATTEO LA ROSA .
He mainly takes inspiration from the 80s. Where he is inspired by music such as new wave. The darkness and the color black he draws fully on to his collections.
Matteo designs for the powerful woman. A woman who knows what she wants and is not afraid to show it. He embraces the female body in a way of pure elegance and adores how the garments fall over the body. The essence of this comes from his strong bond with his mother and grandmother. Two power women in Matteo La Rosa’s life.
Although he designs his silhouettes based on the female body, gender neutrality plays a very important role in Matteo’s designs. He actually designs for the person rather than the gender.
He usually shows his creations on models where the phenomenon of “woman” or “man” is non-existent. Only a true harmony between the garment and the body.
The sustainability aspect is very important in Matteo’s design process. Thus, everything is made in MATTEO LA ROSA’s own ateliers in Belgium.
He does not have a large stock of garments which means that no unnecessary fabrics are used and no waste is produced.
The brand MATTEO LA ROSA is built from a love for recycling old pieces and transforming them into new pret a porter pieces. As a result, each new collection will be a mix of archive pieces and newly produced pieces.
Collections include pieces for both men and women who feel good in an edgy basic silhouette of monotone colors.
Weg naar As 255 Genk 3600 Belgium
Info
ALICIAAUDREY is the name of the friendship between co-founders Audrey Joris and Alicia Meus.Their friendship started with a shared drive and a passion for styling and life.
Based in Belgium, ALICIAAUDREY creates a trans-seasonal outerwear wardrobe.
Combining a timeless perspective with bold and playful attitudes.
Info
all Joseffa products are made from re-used or recycled material.
A minimum of 95% of all used materials have a circular origin.
Av des Combattants 146 Bousval 1470
Marius Janusauskas
Marius JanusauskasInfo
Founded in 2014 by designer Marius Janusauskas, a graduate of the prestigious Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp who has been recognized on various international talents’ platforms for his fem-eye and intellectual take on occasional-wear.
Collections often reference art, literature, and menswear and are perfectly fit a female’s form.
Balance of contemporary shapes and luxurious and innovative textiles are the key elements of the label’s identity.
The woman of Marius Janusauskas is modern and elegant. She is seen and admired for her personal choices. She is every woman with a joie de vivre, who cares to dress for a special occasion.