The Making of a Name
What's in a name? When it comes to a fashion brand, everything. The right name can convey a whole aesthetic, ethos and style in just a few syllables.
So when we set out to name our new women's fashion line, we knew we had a tall order. This name would represent not just garments, but an entire vision for modern femininity.
What's in a name? When it comes to a fashion brand, everything. The right name can convey a whole aesthetic, ethos and style in just a few syllables.
So when we set out to name our new women's fashion line, we knew we had a tall order. This name would represent not just garments, but an entire vision for modern femininity.
Client:
Her Kind
Project: Naming, Brand Story
Location: Vietnam
Time: 2022
We bandied about ideas for weeks - names that danced, names that roared. Names that sounded like a sigh or a laugh or a whispered secret. Anything to capture that ineffable feeling when you slip into a perfect outfit.
There were lists and lists - words plucked from poems, songs, street signs, scraps of conversation overheard at cafés. Sundry, soliloquy, serendipity. Copenhagen, carousel, clavicle. On and on.
But every great name, like every great outfit, arises from constraints. Our criteria were simple. We needed a name that embodied strength and grace, ease and edge, timelessness and now.
There were lists and lists - words plucked from poems, songs, street signs, scraps of conversation overheard at cafés. Sundry, soliloquy, serendipity. Copenhagen, carousel, clavicle. On and on.
But every great name, like every great outfit, arises from constraints. Our criteria were simple. We needed a name that embodied strength and grace, ease and edge, timelessness and now.
During an late-night online search, we came across Anne Sexton's iconic poem "Her Kind." As soon as we saw it, we knew - this was the distillation of the spirit we wanted to clothe.
"Her Kind" - both gentle and fierce, quietly revolutionary, one of a kind. Sexton's poem celebrates women who walk their own winding way, unbothered by societal pressures. It seemed the perfect ethos for our line designed to empower individual style.
"Her Kind" - both gentle and fierce, quietly revolutionary, one of a kind. Sexton's poem celebrates women who walk their own winding way, unbothered by societal pressures. It seemed the perfect ethos for our line designed to empower individual style.
In the poem's own words:
"...A woman like that is not a woman, quite. I have been her kind."
"...A woman like that is not a woman, quite. I have been her kind."
Yes, we decided, this is her kind - the free-spirited, self-defined women who will wear our pieces. The name conjured up our dream customer.
So in the end, "Her Kind" chose us. And with that, our collection had a name - our compass for everything we hoped to design henceforth. A name to guide us forward, one thoughtful stitch at a time.