Could the ‘Elsa’ dress be the working woman’s uniform for success?

It’s a pretty well known success secret that those who wear the same thing every day are pretty good at what they do (convicts excluded). One person who’s worn a consistent uniform for the past three years is the Swedish-born, Brooklyn-based fashion designer Maja Svensson.

Svensson’s claim to fame is the Elsa dress, a simple and clean looking dress that women have flocked to for its versatility and style. One could easily transition from a boardroom to a cocktail hour in the Elsa dress.

Svensson believes that this what has driven the success of the dress, “Man can have a suit you can wear to work and to a wedding, and women saw this dress as having the same versatility. We have customers who have the same dress in six different colors!”

One of those women is Svensson herself, who claims to have “basically worn the same design” for three years. “It’s just a very practical thing to do,” she said with chuckle. “Theres’ so much less creative energy put into clothing that you can use for work or other stuff instead.”

Other stuff like running a small business, which Svensson has been doing for the past three years. Svensson runs a tight ship with no brick and mortar retail store and inventory limited to sizing samples.

Svensson can keep such a small supply of dresses because Every Elsa and Me dress is made to order “We keep our inventory very low, and everything is made to order. That’s a system in it’s own that’s sustainable in a way.”

Svensson believes that this sustainable business model has also helped her small business flourish, “Retail is very difficult if you’re a small business and you get into stores. There are low margins and it’s very difficult to make a profit if you go that route,” She said. “At the same time you might also end up sitting on inventory that might never get sold.”

In addition to the sustainable inventory model, Svensson strives to use only certified organic cotton for her dresses. “From the beginning I decided I wanted to use organic cotton material where I could,” Svensson said. “I wanted to know that it was produced well and ethically made. I think as a person together with other humans on this planet that I wanted to be responsible for something that I made.

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