On our recent trip to London, our buyer Lucy sat down with the lovely Anais from Essentiel Antwerp to ask some of our burning questions about the brand. Dressed in a sequin embellished shirt, Anais’ style is the poster girl advert for the brand. Nestled between rails of multicolored garments (would we expect anything less from Essentiel?) at the London showroom, Lucy and Anais talked all things sequins and the secret to dopamine dressing.

What do you love about Essentiel Antwerp?

Where to start! What I love most about it is that our whole ethos and idea behind it is we want to make people smile. We want to bring fun to fashion, you know, you only live once – why dress boring? Why save your special pieces, your sequins and everything just for a special occasion? You can wear them all the time! It’s all in how you style it and mixing and matching, anything to put a smile on your face. It’s all about dopamine dressing, that’s what we’re about.

What do you think makes Essentiel Antwerp a standout brand?

It’s all about the sparkles, our sequin pieces are always really magical. You’ve got amazing sequin trousers in this season for example. We love a print, we love colour and different textures and keeping it really bold and exciting, yet wearable as well. So it’s nothing too crazy depending on how you style it. We just want people to feel confident, unique and empowered by how they’re dressed.

Is there a future vision for Essentiel Antwerp?

I think we’re always keeping an eye on the trends, so this season we’ve gone a bit cleaner because there is that quiet luxury trend coming through. I mean we do it our way, we always stay true to us as a brand but we still want to make sure we’re ticking those boxes as well. We’re expanding as a brand, we’re actually launching in the US in a couple months so that’s really exciting. I think the future’s bright, there’s going to be lots of exciting times ahead that will go on and on for many years to come hopefully!

Do you see any trends in AW23 you’re loving?

Ooh yes. There’s definitely some sequins around as always, a lot of black but with pops of colour and little accents, whether that be through a flash of orange or a little bit of print with a black base. I think there’s going to be a nice bit of leather or faux leather around as well. And always animal print, you can’t get away from the animal print.

What is your favourite part about working with independent boutiques?

Honestly, number one is the relationship we have. We’ve known each other about ten years? Maybe even longer? So, it’s having that relationship. But for me it’s the service that independent boutiques provide. It’s second to none, you don’t get the same service when you’re shopping in a department store, the staff doesn’t have the same knowledge or the same investment in you as a customer. You know a lot of your customers by name, you know what she’s going to want what she won’t like, whether she needs to size up or down in something and how to style it, whether she prefers it with a heel or flat and what she does for a living. You have so much knowledge about your customers, that’s amazing and why it works so well in independent boutiques.

Any fun styling tips?

For this season, lots of separates, lots of two pieces. I know you’ve got the amazing rose gold sequin trousers (that I’ve ordered myself as well), and really nice to put that with a print we’ve got a lovely animal print blouse which has pops of orange in it which works really well with the rose gold. And equally you can pair that right back with a grey cashmere jumper from another label if you wanted to. I think it’s just not being afraid to try things. Sometimes we surprise ourselves.

We hope this interview gave you a bigger insight into the Belgium brand Essentiel Antwerp. We are proud to be the only North Yorkshire stockist of Essentiel, with some of the best collection edits outside London. Shop Essentiel Antwerp now.