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Greenbug, made in Zug

Watch out Zug – Milan fashion and Swiss quality have combined in our backyard! More and more of the fashionable are wearing Greenbug clothes designed by two talented locals. greenbug.ch is the place to find scarves, ponchos, hats, wrist-warmers and plenty more besides, and to make things even better the website is in German AND English.

I recently visited their workshop and showroom in Hünenberg which is filled with racks of their beautiful handmade items, swatches of fabric in merino wool, cashmere, fox fur, and alpaca and gift bags brimming with goodies.
Katharina Zimmermann-Inderwildi and Ursula Schaumlechner-Probst, who have been friends for 20 years now, founded Greenbug in 2009, and business is certainly booming, especially now in the run-up to Christmas. They kicked off the season with a fashion show and sale at the Blinker in November which included their sporty pyjama line for women and men.

This season their best selling items are the Foxy scarf – wool with Swiss fox fur pompoms – and the fox fur and cashmere snood. My personal favourite is the Robin’s hoodie which is a hood-scarf trimmed with Swiss red fox, knitted from thick, soft wool in a plait pattern.

Greenbug now has over 1,000 items to choose from, all of them high-quality and unique and all of them handcrafted in Switzerland. I also spoke to Ursula and Katharina to discuss how the business had grown over the past three years.

How did you come up with the idea for Greenbug?
Ursula: Katharina had a skiing accident and was bed-ridden for a month so she started knitting again. She made me a beautiful present – a woollen scarf with Fox fur pompoms on the ends which I absolutely loved! I wore it to the Burberry store in Zurich and the saleswoman asked if it was designer and where she could get one. I called Katharina up and said “Start knitting – we have our business!” That design is now the Foxy – our best-selling item.

Katharina: We had a lot of ideas over the years for businesses but we needed one with flexibility so we can look after our young families. This business model gives us that flexibility especially with most of our sales done through our Internet store.

What do you have to offer the ex-pat community in Zug?
Ursula: Ours is a Swiss made product to buy for yourself or to give to family and friends back home that is not the typical cheese or chocolate! Our designs are modern, classy and of the highest quality. Don’t you feel better wearing something that you know is not made anonymously in China?

Where do you get your inspiration?
Ursula: I scour fashion magazines and blogs and get ideas from Chanel, Chloe and Missoni. Karl Lagerfeld is also a huge influence. I don’t like the image of old ladies knitting in the corner – knitwear doesn’t have to be boring and mass-produced. Our products can enhance your everyday wear with elegance and style.

How do you manage the business?
Ursula: The business is 50-50 and we work very well together. We are like yin and yang. I am the designer and business side of the house while Katharina is the technician. She deals with the patterns and fabrics, works with the knitters and sometimes knits herself!

What’s coming up for Greenbug in 2012?
Ursula: We are very excited that we will be taking part in the Klosters Snow Polo weekend from January 18-22. We will also have our first pop-up store where we’ll be exhibiting our goods alongside the British fashion brand Hackett, Parmigiani watches and Maissen jewellers.

We are also developing a new line for spring 2013 which we can't wait to launch, so stay tuned to our newsletter for more details. We have the designs completed and have picked our fabrics but we want all of our products to be perfect so we are waiting on prototypes of the items from our patternist and then we’ll fix any kinks before putting them on sale.

Each Greenbug item is handmade of the highest quality materials and can be made to order. Visit greenbug.ch to sign up for their newsletter and shop online or make an appointment to visit their atelier and showroom in Hünenberg.

www.greenbug.ch

Interview by  Alyssa Goddard

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