Julia Leifert is nervous. Today she will be interviewed for the first time in her life. To be prepared, she has jotted down her thoughts in a notebook, clutching it tightly to her chest. However, it doesn’t take long for the nerves to fade, her voice becoming stronger as soon as this Berlin resident begins to speak about her brand Philomena Zanetti.

“I live as a vegan and so I also wanted to dress as a vegan”, she explains. But she couldn’t find any vegan clothing that suited her fashion sense. “Especially in the fashion industry, it’s hard to find great sustainable alternatives”, she adds. So, the 32 year old decided to start her own label in order to close this gap in the market.

From law to the art of sewing

Self-taught in the art of sewing, the former law student began to stitch together her first designs. In addition, she started looking for materials that were both organically certified (with the GOTS stamp) and, on top of it all, were produced in Europe. Against the odds, she lucked out and found a few GOTS-certified manufacturing facilities in Berlin and the surrounding area. This avoided excessive packing and transportation concerns and also guaranteed fair working conditions.

Animal alternatives

The former equestrienne never uses leather or horn buttons and is always looking for alternatives to animal products. “In the current winter collection, I use recycled buttons which are produced from old materials and cellulose,” she says. If you’ve been paying attention, you’re probably starting to get an idea of how hard it is to comply with all of the many ethical standards in fashion. “You reach the limits quickly and learn early that the possibilities are finite,” she adds.

Julia will not be beaten however. “It’s a reversed process”, she explains. The materials dictate the design and not the other way around. Her ethics have not done any damage to the quality of her fashion. Her purist and styled collection could easily hang next to COS in the stores, or even Jil Sander.

“When you think about the problem of sustainability, you immediately think of the ecological and not the fashionable,” she says. But she is committed to high fashion design. So it is only logical that in the Berlin Fashion Week her collection was presented in the Premium showroom instead of the Green showroom.
Naturally, high-quality organic fashion comes at a price. A white sweater with bat wings from Philomena Zanetti can cost you up to 250 euros. “However, it’s very durable and made with a clean conscience,” she says. Her own wardrobe consists of mainly vintage and re-tailored items.

One does not need a new shell every two weeks that is never worn and again thrown away,

she wisely remarks.