Five moments that shaped my career with Marimekko creative director Rebekka Bay
Inside Retail is kicking off a new video series exploring the key moments that shaped people’s retail careers, from the ‘Aha!’ moments when they first became interested in working in retail, to the big risks that paid off, and the best pieces of advice that resonated with them.
Today’s episode features Marimekko creative director Rebekka Bay. After starting her career in fashion trend forecasting, Bay was tapped to be the first women’s design director of Cos, the fashion brand developed by H&M Group. She later served as VP creative director of Gap, head of product and design at Everlane, and global creative director at Uniqlo, before joining Marimekko in 2020.
“I think my career has been a little bit like jumping from high cliffs,” Bay told Inside Retail. “Often you think of one pivot moment where you took a big risk, but I’ve taken a lot of risks because I don’t find it so scary to jump into the unknown.”
Watch the full video below, or keep reading for an overview of the five moments that shaped her career.
Moment 1: The Aha! moment
“I’m one of those who never really decided what to do. It sort of happened to me,” Bay said about the moment she first knew she wanted to work in fashion.
“I remember as a kid, always looking for things that were not yet in fashion and then came into fashion. I vividly remember looking for a camel sweater like a year or two years before anyone else wanted camel sweaters.”
Despite her seemingly innate ability to predict trends, Bay was adamant that she didn’t want to study design.
“I felt there was so much great design out there at the time. This was during the Antwerp Six [and] Japanese designers starting to show in Paris. I really felt that I had so little to offer in terms of designing clothes,” she said.
Nevertheless, she ended up attending the Danish Design School, which set her on a path to work with some of the best-known fashion brands in the world.
Moment 2: The big risk
The first big risk that Bay took in her career was moving to London after she graduated from design school. She didn’t have a job or even accommodation, but she was certain she needed to pursue opportunities in a bigger market.
“That was the first big leap of faith, and I’ve continued this way of working,” Bay said. “I never had a clear career path. It’s more that I’ve been quite happy to jump at opportunities.”
For instance, when H&M contacted her to be part of the founding team at Cos, she had never designed a fashion collection before.
“I had to literally figure it out as I was designing. I figured out how to build the team, what I wanted to do, what my opinion was in collections,” Bay said.
Moment 3: The lesson learned
While Bay doesn’t believe in failure — she sees failure more as a learning opportunity — one thing she would do differently today is drive a slower pace of change at Gap.
“I was very eager to speedily change everything — change the teams, change the ways of working, change the product,” she said.
“I think in hindsight now, I would have taken more time to do that. I would have taken more time to get to know the brand, get to know the market. I had a very, I think, European view of a very American brand.”
Recently, she has applied this learning to her role at Marimekko, where she has been clearer on her priorities, and instead of trying to change everything all at once, she has led a more deliberate and better-paced change.
Moment 4: The role models
Bay credits three people with having the biggest impact on her career. One of them is her father, a professional photographer, who inspired her to pursue a creative life. Another is Tim Greenhalgh, the creative director of global design agency Fitch for more than 20 years, who believed in her abilities at an early stage.
The third is Miuccia Prada, the head designer of Prada, whom Bay has admired from afar.
“As many in the creative fields and especially in fashion, I think we struggle with this thought around, is what we do useful?” Bay said.
“I think Miuccia Prada is a great example of someone who was a political science major, a member of the Communist Party, and now she has been leading Prada for decades. I think she gave me — from afar — permission to be both someone who is concerned with how we live our lives and how we — through design — can also bring value to people’s lives.”
Moment 5: The best piece of advice
When it comes to the best piece of career advice she has received, Bay said it’s simply to “trust your instinct”.
“The great ideas, the season-changing or time-changing ideas are those that come out of great instinct,” she said.
“As long as you make sure to constantly feed that instinct…you cannot be lazy and sit back and think that it will all come to you. I think you constantly need to seek information and inspiration. But it is honestly the best advice anyone has ever given me. And it is the one trait that has been throughout my leadership always.”
- Further reading: Marimekko creative director talks collabs, stores and more
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