Twenty years in premium fashion retail — as an entrepreneur, buyer and retailer. This is the story behind the advice.
01 The Beginning
A Business of My Own in Premium Fashion
Twenty years ago, I took over Ste Claire Mode and continued under the name Benedicte Fashion — with a clear vision: quality, style and the brands that embody that vision. As an entrepreneur, I was responsible for everything: the collection, the team, the customer experience, the webshop, the marketing and the results.
These weren’t only years of growth. I ran the business through the credit crisis and through the pandemic — with a team, and later on my own. Those years in particular taught me what choices, figures and resilience really mean in retail.
02 The Craft
International Buying, from Sketch to Shop Floor
For each collection I travelled to Milan, Paris, Brussels, Antwerp and Amsterdam: assessing collections, feeling fabrics, managing budgets, and making choices the shop would rely on six months later. I negotiated in Italian, which I studied at the Università per Stranieri in Perugia and Florence.
Buying is about looking ahead — knowing what your customer will want to wear in half a year’s time, and daring to choose. That’s not a craft you learn from a book; you learn it at the buying table.
03 The Brands
Working with European Premium Brands
Over the years, I built lasting relationships with leading brands and agencies — from Etro and Fabiana Filippi to Santoni and Antonelli — and organised fashion shows and events that brought brand and customer together.
Those collaborations taught me how brands think, what they expect from a retail partner, and where things most often go wrong in practice.
“Fashion is about people.
That hasn’t changed in twenty years.”
04 Personal Perspective
Why Consultancy Feels Like the Natural Next Step
For all those years, my shop was far more than a place where clothes were sold. It was a place where people came for advice, trust and personal attention. Where collections, brands and stories came together.
That human side is what always drew me in most. Not just selecting products, but understanding what someone actually needs, and making the right choices from there. That’s as true for a customer in the fitting room as it is for a retailer looking to strengthen their collection, or a brand looking to grow.
Looking back, consultancy doesn’t feel like a new direction to me — it feels like the natural continuation of years of entrepreneurship, international collaboration, and personal attention to people and brands.
05 Today
From Entrepreneur to Advisor
After twenty years, it felt like the right moment to change course. I noticed that I’m at my best when I’m connecting — with brands, with retailers, with the market. Today, I do exactly that as a fashion retail consultant. My academic background — Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam and a postgraduate degree in Business Administration from Nyenrode — comes together with years of entrepreneurship.
I help fashion brands, agencies and retailers grow in the Benelux, with advice grounded in hands-on experience, commercial sharpness and an eye for quality.
My strength lies in connecting brand, collection, shop floor and customer. Not from theory, but from years of decisions that directly shaped revenue, margin, customer experience and brand value.
