A backpack on their shoulders and a head full of ideas: Luca Hasler and Ricardo Ferreira only need a little luck for their big breakthrough. The two Swiss are currently storming the hearts of local fashion fans with the menswear from their label Luca Ferreira.
Photos: Kevin Tuazon
FACES: The name Luca Ferreira comes from your own name. What kind of guy is Luca Ferreira?
Luca Hasler & Ricardo Ferreira: Our brand name consists of Luca Hasler’s first name and Ricardo Ferreira’s surname. We are very similar in character, but very different in style. Some like it more minimalist, others like to be flashy – this is also reflected in our collection.
F: What do you want consumers to know about Luca Ferreira?
RF: We place a very high value on quality and details in our collections. Luca Ferreira’s creations are always in tune with the times without being mainstream. It is important to us that our customers can wear our items with pleasure and without any concerns.
Creativity in a double pack
F: What are the pros and cons of starting a fashion label as a couple?
LH: The advantages are obvious: brainstorming and joint discussions bring more ideas together. The inspirations are not only more numerous, but also more extensive. Together we look into the most diverse areas of all topics. We also complement each other with our skills and ideas and have the opportunity to divide up our work. Of course, there are also differences of opinion from time to time, but we always discuss them together and find a solution together in order to make a decision that works for both of us.
F: How should we imagine your collaboration?
LH: Very chaotic, with many days and sleepless nights in which we laugh and cry. If it wasn’t so chaotic, most of the creations wouldn’t be made.
F: What do you admire most about each other?
LH: Ricardo is particularly strong in communication, which I really admire. He also has a calmness and composure that I don’t have.
RF: Luca is very reliable and a good confidant who cultivates his own style and never loses his sense of humor.
All beginnings are difficult
F: What do you wish you had known before you started your label?
RF: That entering the market is so extremely difficult. In our experience, the Swiss have a particularly strong need for security, which is why people here are not so open to new things and prefer to rely on the familiar.
F: What hurdle in the fashion industry is higher than you thought it would be, and what do you find easier than you imagined?
LH: It is extremely difficult to establish the right contacts with stores and showrooms in the first place in order to be able to present our collections there. Compared to the rest of Europe, Switzerland has a very strong textile past – so it is all the more incomprehensible to us that very few companies and private individuals are interested in Swiss fashion start-ups and that the willingness to collaborate or invest is correspondingly low. I would have expected cooperation with production facilities to be a bigger hurdle for us. Fortunately, sourcing and production turned out to be easier than initially thought.
F: What do you do best as a team, and what tasks does everyone have to do on their own?
RF: As we are still at the very beginning, we carry out all the work steps together and discuss them together.
The fashion industry – and Luca Ferreira right in the middle of it
F: What did you imagine working in the fashion industry used to be like, and what is it actually like?
RF: Thanks to our experience in the fashion industry, we know what is important. However, running our own fashion company is new for us – we are entering a completely new world.
F: Where would you like to see more support?
LH: Support is perhaps the wrong term. We would like to see more openness and better access to the Swiss fashion industry. It would be exciting to have an association of fashion designers in Switzerland in order to utilize synergies and exchange ideas.
F: What advantage do you have as an independent label compared to big houses like Gucci or Prada?
LH: The freedom of not being run by a corporation, which means we can do whatever we feel like doing. This applies to the design of the collection, our decision-making or our external image.
F: Which designer is your hero or heroine? your heroine and why?
LH: Hero is a big word. However, I look at Mike Amiri’s work with admiration. The way he creates and then presents the Amiri collections never ceases to inspire me.
Fashion is work
F: Which of your garments has the most work put into it and why?
RF: Knitting is enormously time-consuming. It’s not just about finding the right material and the right type of knitting, but also adapting it perfectly to the desired design. Leather also presents us with new challenges time and again. The visual effects of our leather jacket from the last winter 2022 collection are created by hand. Each jacket is individually crafted, and only a few manufacturers have mastered this traditional craft.
F: What problem do you urgently need a solution for right now?
LH: To enter the Swiss market and get the chance to present our collections in several stores.
F: Can you imagine opening your own fashion boutique? Where would you do this and why there in particular?
RF: Having our own boutique is one of our future goals. We would like to open it in Zurich, as the city has a very international clientele and is always up to date when it comes to fashion.
Reality and imagination
F: What do you look for when you buy fashion for yourselves?
LH & RF: On the style, the quality, the fit and the overall look.
F: How much do these wonderful fashion documentaries by designers such as Karl Lagerfeld have in common with your everyday work?
LH & RF: We recognize certain work steps that are presented in such documentation and can also identify with the work to a certain extent. However, we don’t draw designs, but develop our patterns based on the ideas in our heads, from which a first sample is created.
F: Where do you produce your clothes, and do you know all the hands they pass through?
LH: Our producers are located in Italy and Portugal. There, we know all the people involved in the work processes – and I’m talking about everyone from the fabric supplier to the producer.
F: Which contact from your network helps you the most and with what?
RF: Depending on the phase we were in, it was always different people. Especially at the beginning of the foundation of our label, we were able to fall back on the contacts that resulted from our studies at the Swiss Textile College.
F: What is at the top of your career wish list? And what in private?
LH & RF: Professionally, the desire to be able to make a living from our label is at the top of the list. We want to live our dream of being able to show the fashion industry our vision and our creations every day. That is our passion. In our private lives, it is important for us to work on ourselves every day – whether mentally or physically. We always want to get ourselves to the best possible level and constantly stay on the ball.
Luca Hasler & Ricardo Ferreira
Two become one: Luca Hasler and Ricardo Ferreira learned their trade at the Swiss Textile College and while studying together decided to climb the fashion Olympus together. Her baby: Luca Ferreira, fashion for men who dare.
You can see the latest from Luca and Ricardo and their label Luca Ferreira on Instagram and on their website.
Gina Grünwald is also a young designer. You can read all about her and her label in our interview here.
