(Photo: Jake Chessum)

Jodie (left): Everything’s a first step. Ours was to call up Bergdorf Goodman and meet in person. They gave us the standard rejection: They liked our style, they could tell we had good taste, but it was too edgy. But we came back about a week later with a line tailored for them.

Danielle: Mostly what we did is switch out this rock-and-roll twisted silver-coated aluminum for more of a silver-mesh roping.

J: They bought up the whole collection. Then we turned around and made that twisted aluminum a big part of our Bendel collection. That was great, because it proved to us that Bergdorf wasn’t a fluke.

D: There have been moments since that give you a giddy pride: Beyoncé wearing it, DailyCandy’s post crashing our site. We’ve been really lucky—there’s never been a down moment.

J: I’ll see someone on the subway wearing a Dannijo piece and I’ll be quiet, but Danielle will be more like, “I designed that!”

D: Whoa whoa. I would say, like, “Is that Dannijo?” But I wouldn’t say I’m the designer. I would just beam on the inside.

As told to Richard Morgan.

A Dannijo holiday pop-up shop opens at Henri Bendel this Tuesday.

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Related:

• Archive: “Breaking”
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