Packed with honest insights and bold ideas, The GANNI Playbook offers a practical guide to responsible business and the blueprint for reshaping fashion – and business for the future
Photography by Rosie Marks featuring GANNI’s collaboration with New Balance
The beloved Danish fashion label GANNI has never been shy about rewriting the rulebook. Earlier this year, the Copenhagen-based brand released The GANNI Playbook: How to Get Started Creating a Responsible Business, its inaugural tome by GANNI cofounder Nicolaj Reffstrup and industry writer Brooke Roberts-Islam.
This 200-plus-page hardback offers a look at what it means to build a purpose-driven brand in today’s fashion industry. Published by Penguin Random House UK, it is equal parts reflective memoir and practical guide, inviting readers – entrepreneurs, fashion insiders and enthusiasts alike – to rethink the relationship between profitability and responsibility.
For Nicolaj Reffstrup, former CEO of GANNI, sustainability isn’t just a marketing slogan; it’s a moral and ethical responsibility. But as he makes clear in The GANNI Playbook, the path toward running a more responsible business is rarely straightforward. In this book, he openly shares the challenges GANNI has faced over the years, alongside the strategies that propelled GANNI to international stardom.
Photography courtesy of GANNI featuring the brand’s FUTURE, TALENT, FABRICS exhibition hosted in collaboration with Copenhagen Fashion Week
Drawing on GANNI’s own evolution, the book delves into the weight of the fashion industry’s carbon emissions, the sense of guilt that accompanies growth and the difficult trade-offs involved in pursuing sustainability without sacrificing commercial success. With candid reflections and refreshing honesty, the GANNI Playbook is far from being a utopian manifesto – it’s rooted in practical advice.
Reffstrup acknowledges that sustainability is an ongoing process of negotiation. Yet the Playbook is rich with examples of how GANNI has turned words into action. Certified as a B Corp, the brand has made bold moves in recent years, such as committing to 100% traceable supply chains, phasing out virgin animal leather and embracing carbon insetting schemes to reduce emissions.
Plus, the Scandi label is switching 3 key fabrics to certified alternatives: organic cotton, recycled polyester and lenzing™ ecovero™ viscose. In 2023, GANNI achieved a 7% absolute reduction in carbon emissions from a 2021 baseline, marking significant progress in the brand’s environmental impact.
Photography courtesy of GANNI featuring founders Ditte and Nicolaj Reffstrup
GANNI’s annual Responsibility Report further underscores its dedication to transparency, while the decision to print the book on Forest Stewardship Council certified paper (FSC) further highlights the fashion brand’s commitment to reducing its environmental and environmental footprint.
At its core, The GANNI Playbook reflects the spirit of the brand itself: bold, thoughtful and unapologetically confident. Since its inception, GANNI has stood out with its playful, personality-driven take on Scandinavian style, but its real achievement lies in making sustainability and quality fashion feel approachable.
With offices in cities like Copenhagen, London and New York, and representation in more than 600 retailers globally, GANNI has proven that scaling responsibly isn’t just possible – it’s the future.
The GANNI Playbook: How to Get Started Creating a Responsible Business by Nicolaj Reffstrup and Brooke Roberts-Islam is exclusively available at GANNI.com and in GANNI stores
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