Anne-Lisbeth IS LisBETH Oslo

Anne-Lisbeth IS LisBETH Oslo...

All work and no play... it's a bad combination unless your work IS your play, your hobby, your dream. Anne-Lisbeth is one of the lucky ones. LisBETH Oslo, her Miami-based clothing company, has been the synergistic combination of all her interests, experience and desires.

She remembers growing up in Norway making doll clothes from beautiful scraps of multi-colored fabric. Even at this very young age Anne was fascinated with the feel and look of cloth; how it draped, how light played across its surface... and this fascination led to an education in textile studies and a year's stint at a clothing factory after high school. There she learned the mechanics of the craft; pattern-making, cutting, design – all of which would later be so critical to her business success.

Balancing education and experience, Anne enrolled in the textile program at the University of Leeds, arguably the best school of its kind in the world. There she mastered all the aspects of production which landed her a job in the field and rounded out her textile experience. Next she became a buyer, developing private labels in the far east. Once again her love of texture, color and the possibilities of fabric as the dominant feature of fashion design emerged. It was the culmination of all of these factors, the balance of the technical and the creative, that compelled her to start LisBETH Oslo.

That was ten years ago. Eight years of grueling hours, financial risk and personal sacrifice. But as she herself admits, she thrives on the stress and the challenge, and so the years have been good. And the hard work has paid off. Her 2004 lines typify her basic philosophy: combine natural, beautiful fabrics with honest, straight-forward shapes. Sometimes the simple things are the hardest to achieve. This line shows how well Anne-Lisbeth does it.