The Real Behind The Scenes: The Meredith Collection

 We recently launched our favorite collaboration of this year: The Meredith the Collection, a project inspired by Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum Olympic medalist and without a doubt one of the best riders in the world.

In this article we want to share a little bit about the process and the behind the scenes of this collection. We will be sharing not only our designing process but we are also the story behind our story with Meredith and how The Meredith Collection almost didn’t happen –Yes, we almost had to cancel everything!

First things first, how did this collection came to life? Well everything started because we sent her a couple of pieces, just to have her as part of our #rönnergirls, a team of amazing, stylish and super inspiring equestrians (did I said inspiring?) Having Meredith in our #rönnergirls was on the top of the list!

Why? Well if you guys didn’t know (-see why I suggested reading the first blog first? -) Meredith is the first woman to ever earn a spot in the German team at the European Championships and the first woman to be ranked number one worldwide in show jumping. She’s not only inspiring as an athlete, but also incredibly inspiring as a woman and mother. For us, as a female founded company, a brand by women for women, her story truly resonated.

Then, a couple days later this email came:

“I received the most beautiful package of clothes and accessories and it made my day!  Wow!  What beautiful items!!  I was also blown away by the quality of the of the packaging.  Pure class!!  Everything is just gorgeous […] even the small things, like the gift cards, shows all the thought that is put into every item.  Compliments!

Please tell me how our cooperation can proceed.  I am delighted to represent Rönner in the future.” -Meredith

Aura, our Customer service team member jumped from her seat and shared the amazing news to our founders Carin and Jessica Rönner and our OG #RönnerGirl: Ines, (Whom if you guys didn’t know, also comes from Germany) The idea of creating a capsule collection with her immediately sparked and we didn’t hesitate a minute to suggest it.

It was very clear what she wanted, Clear and simple! to design a clothing line, something easy to wear yet elegant, “that’s my style!” she said, and this is how Rönner made her vision and idea into a whole collection.

A little bit about the design process:

Initially Carin and Jessica received pictures of the things Meredith loves: Art, her horses and favorite pieces from Her equestrian-style wardrobe. After a couple meetings, a few emails and lots of mood boards for inspiration (Carin’s favorite part) We defined the direction of two prints and the pieces this collection would include.

The amazing Design team at Rönner brainstormed both with concepts and illustrations, and came up with two main ideas for the prints, the first one inspired by her horse Shutterfly, a print that shares de name of her Olympic mount which she described as “There’s Nothing Petey Can’t Do” and that’s what fueled our team with inspiration and determination to immortalize and share with the world something so close to Meredith and such a remarkable horse.

Then the Fibonacci print came to life, inspired by classic equestrian motifs and tack like chains and belts with some iconic Rönner florals.

Next step was to design the pieces for both riders and horse enthusiasts. We decided on one dress, two blouses, one quarter zip, one T shirt and one Shirt-dress as the main pieces for this collection, pieces specially designed and though for the comfort in both: off and on the saddle inspired equestrians.

Now, let me tell why this collection almost didn’t happen. more than one time!

While the whole collection was being produced, another brand (-Sorry reader I was told not to share the name of this company-) made us abruptly halt our horses almost literally, concerned with Meredith being the face of Rönner since she represents other companies, thankfully charming Carin explained to the CEO of this company that there shouldn’t be any conflicts since the collection was mainly lifestyle pieces and by no means would compete with them.

Oh, the other time? That story is a scary and adorable one:

Carin flew with little Julia at only 4 months old (her third daughter) and Ines (Who couldn’t wait to chat about their connection with Germany to Meredith) to Wellington for the official photoshoot of the pieces, Meredith was in Florida for the winter season with her family.

Everything was ready for the photoshoot and only a couple of days earlier Meredith called Carin that unfortunately Brianne (her incredibly sweet and talented daughter) had a fall she was waiting to see how bad it was and if she needed surgery! Obviously, Meredith needed to focus on her daughter and give her all the attention she needed. (Carin understood this more than anyone!)

Thankfully everything went well, Brianne’s hand would recover without surgery and the they could move forward with the photoshoot.

Photoshoot day was a huge success, Ines connected with Meredith immediately, they shared jokes, laughs and stories about her life in Germany while Carin took mostly of this behind-the-scenes pictures while carrying little Julia in her arms (-moms gotta be moms and successful business woman at the same time-). Brianne made her appearance a couple hours later after going for a milkshake with her pony, (-yes! Her pony! -) she was having a little walk on it, something that Carin only describes as that being definitely Meredith’s daughter, raised to never give up and to also saddle up again after something brings you down, should we explain again to you guys why we made this collection a reality?

And that’s all I can fit in this blog post, after the photoshoot we shared the official campaign that you guys see but I (- the new writer) wanted to share the real behind the scenes and all the charming, inspiring and interesting stories behind our brand!

Working with Meredith and meeting her in person was a total pleasure! She is even more beautiful inside and in person and it was so wonderful to connect as women, mothers, riders with a common language: the love for horses and the idea of believing in our dreams.

Thank you, Meredith, for this story, and beautiful collaboration. Forever thankful! And also thank you reader for reading, you also inspire us.