How Spontaneity Drives Innovation

Sustainable luxury fashion brand French Lime was started by founder and creator Denise Saad. Originally from Mexico, she now lives in Vancouver, Canada and creates avant-garde apparel to empower other women. Trained in digital art and inspired by her travels around the world, she uses her own digital creations as the essence of the prints featured on French Lime’s unique tops and leggings.

1. Tell us about yourself. When did you first know you were interested in the fashion industry?

There has always been a love for design in me. I remember being obsessed with my daycare teacher‘s boots when I was 3 years old, but it changed into something more tangible when I started really paying attention to normalized societal ideas about what is appropriate to wear and I wanted to challenge them.

2. How do you / your team generate new ideas?

There are multiple layers for creating, but the first is to remove any constraints I might have and experience the world as if I was seeing it for the first time, that way I can lead with curiosity and see where it can take me.

For example, the concept for my new collection was created once the pandemic started. We had to slow down and that led me to notice things that on a busy day to day we would have taken for granted. As I was looking outside the window I noticed a beautiful pink cloud floating in the sky, and it awoke the inner me who gets excited about the simple things in life, like the science behind the clouds. It led me to imagine my utopia, how would the world be if what I knew to be true didn’t matter, and what I desired did. In this case, ignoring logic allowed me to remove my constraints and let myself dream.

3. Do you have any specific rituals for resetting creativity?

Going outdoors, traveling if possible. I have learned that creativity doesn’t come by thinking harder, but rather by taking a step back even if it’s for a moment and paying attention to the things we might love but take for granted.

First I listen and pay attention to my surroundings and try to learn with an open heart. That allows me to create freely, after that I look at my concepts and I edit them down. I analyze them to see if they are cohesive with French Lime and if they are I think about the brand's persona and how to best represent the ideas while complimenting the body.

4. How do you identify trends? What resources does you use to spot trends and consumer insights within your industry?

When it comes to trends, we intentionally pay attention to what’s happening in the world of arts, music, society and culture, putting athleisure to the side as we don’t want to follow a trend, but to launch it. We prioritize adding our own perspective in terms of fashion.

5. What is the biggest challenge you face when innovating within your field?

Athleisure has come a long way in the last couple years, I believe it has even much more potential that we have yet to explore as a society. We are somewhat used to athleisure being plain and predictable in comparison with the rest of the fashion industry. Design is all about innovation and pushing creative boundaries and our challenge is breaking preconceived notions about athleisure to show the art within itself.

Before the pandemic, there was a strong demand for more conservative outfits in terms of color and prints, and by challenging the convention, we have gotten consumers to identify with our brand and styles and used them as a way to express themselves.

6. Has there ever been an instance where another industry has influenced your work?

All the time. Architecture, music and philosophy have a strong influence in the design process. It is a direct reflection of society. It allows me to shift perspectives and understand cultures from another lens.

You can see architectural aspects in most of the French Lime outfits as it lets us understand different societies better. You can also see tributes to musicians especially Taylor Swift as a way to thank her for her music and her fight for equality. Bill Watterson has also had a strong influence in how I perceive the world and creativity so getting to celebrate them with designs is an added bonus.

7. What makes an innovative work culture? How do you create a culture of innovation?

Spontaneity and curiosity are at the core of an innovative work culture. We have to continuously question what we know to be true. We have a belief that the best thing to do is to perfect what we are already doing well, but to create a culture of innovation, we have to challenge ourselves to break the mold and explore it from an outsider’s point of view.

8. Looking to the future, how will your brand continue to be a leader in innovation?

There is more than one way to innovate. We are continually working on updating our eco-friendly practices as well as our inclusive values, and all our processes to have the best quality products on the market at any given moment. More than anything, we believe it’s always important to genuinely listen and learn as it also applies to design and fashion without forgetting our brand identity.