Photo: Thilo Ross
NOT JUST A LABEL
LOCATION: LONDON / LOS ANGELES
EMPLOYS: 10
FOUNDER: STEFAN SIEGEL
INVESTMENT: 2017 - PRESENT
ABOUT NOT JUST A LABEL
NOT JUST A LABLE (NJAL) is the world’s leading designer platform for showcasing and nurturing today’s pioneers in contemporary fashion.
Founded in 2008 with a powerful vision to infuse new life into the fashion system, NJAL has served as a critical platform for over 50,000 designers to date, working to empower emerging voices and facilitate industry exposure at no cost while simultaneously providing an indispensable tool for the industry.
Representing designers from more than 150 countries, NJAL reflects the modern face of fashion by supporting thriving artists who choose to create anywhere and everywhere; emboldening creativity and connectivity by providing a platform where designers can engage with a global audience and showcase their work from any place they call home.
As leaders working to revolutionize the industry, NJAL operates within a newly realized version of the industry—one that exists outside of politics and the tired paradigms that are detrimental to the growth and integrity of its designers as well as the world as a whole. From encouraging designers to utilize sustainable and ethical production practices to organizing collaborations that work to promote emerging talent in a multitude of ways, NJAL is a community that sees no bounds.
NJAL’s DNA is built upon the ideals of collaboration, transparency, shared creation, and the belief that the future of innovation happens in an environment that is limitless—by operating on open source software, NJAL’s website development model provides a space that encapsulates that very spirit.
Boasting ten years as the market leader in discovering and nurturing the world’s most talented designers, NJAL has an unparalleled knowledge of the needs of its community of fashion entrepreneurs.
As a part of NJAL's response to the 2020 COVID crisis, it launched a retail revolution by connecting creators and consumers to provide a unique shopping experience in the luxury space. A marketplace for designs that cannot be found anywhere else, to underline the current trend in fashion: discover and purchase one-of-a-kind pieces.
NJAL now is the world’s shop window for contemporary luxury fashion with collections from over 45,000 emerging designers around the world, available to buy before they're seen anywhere else. Personalised, tailor-made and delivered directly from the studios of our designers – by investing in sustainable and ethical fashion your purchases will give creative entrepreneurs equitable access to retail their designs globally.
ABOUT THE FOUNDER
Stefan Siegel, a native South Tyrolean—the German speaking part of the Triveneto region in Northern Italy—grew up in an area responsible for over 40% of all luxury manufacturing, a setting where ‘Made In Italy’ is embodied through and through. Following his high school career at Venice’s prestigious military college, the Francesco Morosini Naval School, he kick-started a colorful career while studying Economics in Vienna, when he worked for prestigious design houses and advertising agencies in the fashion and media industry.
After a successful modeling career that led him to work on five continents, Siegel went on to earn his MA in International Business Administration in 2004 at the Vienna University of Economics after which he joined the world of finance, working for Ernst & Young and Merrill Lynch, specializing in the Consumer & Retail sector. It was this experience that Stefan used to start NOT JUST A LABEL.
