What It Takes to Build a Brand Today

An interview with Rowen Rose

There are designers who launch brands because they see an opportunity.

And there are designers who launch because they already built something internally, long before the company existed.

When I spoke with Emma Rowen Rose, founder of ROWEN ROSE, what stood out wasn’t hype or overnight growth. It was structure. Discipline. A strong sense of authorship.

ROWEN ROSE didn’t begin as a business strategy. It began as identity. As Emma later explains, that identity was not something discovered but something consciously constructed over time.

This is our conversation.

Esteban: Emma Rowen Rose, is that your real name? Emma: Not officially yet. I’m in the process of changing it. My real name is Emma Raphaëlle Rotenberg. I started using Emma Rowen when I was around 13.

The “Rose” comes from the Ouroboros, the snake biting its own tail. I was obsessed with it as a kid. I took the Rose from it so I could keep my double R initials.

Beyond the mythological fascination, the Ouroboros symbolized something self-created and self-sustaining, auto-destruction and rebirth, an idea that resonated deeply with me even before I understood it consciously.

I also wanted something that wasn’t tied to one country. I’m multicultural, so creating a name felt natural.

Esteban: So this wasn’t about branding at the time? Emma: No. I never planned to create a brand. My goal was to become creative director of Chanel, which honestly, still is, even if Rowen Rose feels necessary for me today and I guess will always be. It’s my purest form of creating. 

Esteban: You’ve described yourself as a controlled creative. Did that always feel natural?

Emma: Yes. I’ve always been creative but very structured. When I was younger, one of my biggest inspirations was Karl Lagerfeld, not only for the clothes, but for how he worked. He was disciplined. Serious. Extremely productive.

For a while, I thought being controlled meant I wasn’t creative enough. But seeing someone like him made me understand that rigor and creativity can coexist. That structure wasn’t a limitation, but a tool for continuity.

Esteban: So structure doesn’t limit you?

Emma: No. It helps me. I need frameworks. I like working within walls. It actually increases my creativity. Limits create endlessness even if it may sound contradictory.

Why Fashion?

Esteban: Why fashion instead of another art form?

Emma: Because fashion has structure. There are seasons. Deadlines. Budgets. It lives between art and business. That balance attracted me.

I love all forms of art, and I would have wanted to master them all, or at least practice them all. Fashion became this exquisite medium that gave me access to all the arts at once. Through Rowen Rose, I can create in every form, drawing, writing, shaping the collections, producing them, photographing, scoring, filming. There is an ideal of totality in artistic direction that I deeply love. It’s incredibly rich. I would suffocate choosing only one.

I also love the contradiction. Fashion is literally superficial, it sits on the surface of the body and yet it can hold deep storytelling and concepts.

That tension fascinates me.

Esteban: How did ROWEN ROSE begin?

Emma: It wasn’t meant to be a brand. Before that, I freelanced, did internships, worked in retail, PR, showrooms, wholesale. I wanted to understand every side of the industry.

This immersion helped me understand not just how fashion looks, but how it functions. At 21, I created an eight-look collection as a portfolio project. I designed it, sewed it, shot it, and posted it on my personal Instagram.

The reaction surprised me. Buyers and stylists reached out. I even received interest from Lady Gaga. I sold to Galeries Lafayette and H. Lorenzo.

With those first orders, I produced a slightly bigger collection. Then bigger again. Only after several seasons did I officially structure the company.

Esteban: So the business followed the creativity Emma: Yes. It grew step by step. The structure came after the language was already forming. It was very pure organic and honest.

Esteban: What’s the biggest misconception about starting a brand?

Emma: That it’s mostly creative.

If you create your own brand, 95% of your time is business. Numbers. Cash flow. Production. Responsibility. Creatives sometimes don’t like the word “entrepreneur.” But if you own a brand, that’s what you are.

I photograph everything at ROWEN ROSE, campaigns, lookbooks, e-commerce, but I don’t call myself a photographer. It’s just one of many roles.

Success is not one ingredient. It’s many. And often, success is less about inspiration than about sustained responsibility.

Esteban: When did the brand identity become clear? Emma: Around season three or four, I realized I had an obsession with elegance.

As a child, my parents weren’t very expressive with compliments. But when they noticed me, they would say, “You’re elegant.”

I think I internalized that. But traditional elegance, quiet and discreet, didn’t feel complete. I grew up loving Prada and strong statements.

So ROWEN ROSE became elegance with daring. Structured but bold. Not just elegance as restraint, but elegance with presence.

It became my absolute identity and now my mission in fashion: enforcing a new strong form of elegance. 

Esteban: Do you design instinctively? Emma: I can’t design without a concept.

I need research. References. A character. A world. Everything has to align: clothes, casting, location, music, photography. That’s what I love about being a creative director. It’s about orchestrating an entire universe. Esteban: What has been the most challenging part? Emma: Managing the business as a creative. And external factors.

I launched the brand, and a year and a half later COVID happened.

There are always trends that feel tempting to follow. For example, the rise of minimal “quiet luxury” with brands like The Row performing very well.

But if you chase trends without translating them into your own language, you lose yourself.

Esteban: So what keeps everything together?

Emma: Truth. Staying consistent in your identity while adapting to reality.

You won’t always be the most talked about. But consistency matters more than temporary buzz. Consistency is what allows evolution without dilution.

Ending Comment

Interviewing Emma reminded me of something important about building a fashion brand today.

ROWEN ROSE did not begin with a growth plan. It began with identity.

But what allowed it to grow wasn’t emotion alone. It was preparation. Years of internships and industry exposure before launching. Understanding retail, PR, wholesale, production. Knowing the system before entering it.

It was also accepting that creativity is only a fraction of ownership. Once a brand exists, business becomes the dominant language, numbers, logistics, responsibility.

And perhaps most importantly, it was consistency.

Not as rigidity, but as continuity.

The industry shifts. Trends rise and fall. Minimalism becomes maximalism. Loud becomes quiet. But brands that last are the ones that translate change through their own language instead of abandoning it.

For designers building today, the lesson is clear:

Identity gives direction. Structure gives stability. Business knowledge gives survival. Consistency builds recognition.

Not by chasing noise, but by refining who it already was.