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Our cover model Nina Jung

Nina Jung from Juni Design is our current cover model in sisterMAG No. 62! In this introduction you can get to know her and her work better.

Our cover model Nina Jung

Please introduce yourself briefly to our readers: Where are you from and what do you do?

I am Nina, I’m 43 years old and the mother of a 12-year-old daughter. I love the country life and managed to move away just 10 kilometres from my hometown. I love that I can chat with the baker woman when I’m in the bakery, that I know the cashier at the supermarket and all my neighbours. But there is great wanderlust too! Travelling is my real motivation to get to know the world with all its facets and inhabitants. And when I travel it’s not the all-inclusive hotel in Mallorca that appeals to me but the small adventure you create yourself.

When and with what aim did you found Juni Design? How many employees does the company have?

I founded Juni Design with the aim of feeling happiness and joy at work and to look forward to the day when I get up in the morning! I quit my old job out of conviction – I could not even sew then at all. A sewing course my daughter attended got me into sewing in the first place. My sewn things went down so well that I had a customer base within a few months that ordered their desired products. During a holiday I had the idea of selling beautiful and sustainable fashion fabric. That’s how everything took off! Within one year I had learned to sew and opened a fabric shop. At the beginning, the shop was open three days a week. Now, the online business has taken over and we open the shop only once a month. Eight women work at Juni Design, and we don’t want to become a huge company. We pack our packages with much love and lots of silk paper, create our patterns ourselves and started our own fabric design collections. Our ideas never stop – curse and blessing at the same time!

How was the last year for you and the company Juni Design?

The last year was great for us – in many ways! We had a lot to do because many people finally had the time to sew at home and were not on holiday. We had the great luck that we were able to keep our jobs and to go to work every day. We had each other in the shop and didn’t stay home all the time! We were very happy and thankful for that. And everybody stayed healthy, what more could we want.

The selection is very diverse. What do interested people find at Juni Design?

We mainly have fabrics bought with care that come from Europe. Most of them are sustainably produced. We try to be at the pulse of fashion and to offer a coherent combination of patterns and fabric. And we also have our own fabric design collections.

Is it possible to visit you in Hollenstedt or are you only an online business?

We were a pure online business in the last one and a half years. Now that the world slowly opens again we will try to get back to opening three times a month.

What did you do before Juni Design? What were your previous jobs?

You could say I’ve done a 180-degree turn in terms of my job. Before I started Juni Design, I was a policewoman for 17 years. In this profession, I had to deal with so many terrible and sad things and I had to accept that I couldn’t change the world as I have imagined it. After years of frustration, I gave up my status as civil servant and quit – and even after almost five years, I’m still happy about that decision!

Which fabrics and patterns from the Juni Design selection do you like most?

After 17 years in a uniform, I love it even more now to discover what the fashion world has to offer. My favourite pattern is the top No. 8 from our selection. It has three different sleeve cuffs and can be sewn from many types of fabric. It is very versatile. Generally, I like it fashionably simple, jeans and t-shirt, but now I also like colours, puffy sleeves and even dresses! What I like most about sewing is that I can make everything the way I imagine it.

There is an exclusive fabric with the June Art print available in the shop. Can you tell us a little bit about the origin of the design?

June Art is already our 3rd fabric with exclusive design. We didn’t create this design ourselves but bought it. We found it on a mood board. We wanted a large-scale design that matches our plain fabrics and works for both blouses and dresses. During our Internet research we found June Art and had it produced. We are still taken with it!

In the Juni Design Shop, you can also find various patterns which of course we are especially excited about! Can you give us a little preview what will find its way into the shop in the near future?

It’s hard to sew without a pattern! That’s why we really have a lot of patterns from all over the world in the shop. We try to buy in such a way that we can offer everything as an inspiration and that patterns and fabrics match well. Our own fabric productions are well received which is why it will be our next step to release more fabrics: printed Tencel, cotton sateen and a nylon fabric for jackets. Matching flip-flops with the same print will be available too. We already started planning the patterns for fall and winter.

What do you wish for the future? Which projects are ahead of you?

I wish that we can all continue to have a great time at work and make many exciting things together! We like to travel together, go out for a meal or celebrate every occasion. We are also moving at the end of the year and will have enough space for a kitchen and a studio where we can sew together. I am very much looking forward to it!