Fashion

Anna’s Biography

May 13, 2015 / 8 Comments

1969 Anna was born in Kettwig, Germany.

1976 The Scholz family moved to Hamburg, Germany.

1982 Anna attended her first sewing class and continued making her own clothes.

1988 After graduating from high school, Anna worked as a plus size model throughout Europe while spending the summer studying English and Art at Stanford University, California.

1989 Anna did a 6-month work placement as a graphic designer at Scholz & Friends, Hamburg.

1993 Anna launched the Morgana shop in collaboration with two jewellery designers, Melanie Dostal and Sylvia Edin. Located in Portobello Green, London, the shop was stocked with all three women’s original designs. The venture was initially supported by the Princes Youth Business Trust.

1990-1994 Anna moved to London to study fashion design at Central St. Martin’s College of Art and Design in 1990, graduating in 1994.

1996 Plus size shop Lane Bryant (then part of The Limited Group) bought Anna’s first collection (the living room in her flat served as her showroom) to sell in their 10 best stores as a premium label. A huge fashion show followed in New York’s Puck Building. Shirley MacLaine hosted the show, Chaka Khan sang at the finale and Anna was the guest judge of the nationwide competition for “The Real Lane Bryant Woman.” Next, the annascholz label was launched and Anna moved to her first design studio (and enjoyed more space in her flat!) in Ladbroke Grove, London. She began exhibiting her collections all over the world, including London Fashion Week, Pure London, Moda UK, CPD Germany , Pret a Porter Paris , Moda Milano, Workshop New York, WWIN Las Vegas and atelier designers New York.

2000 Anna launched her AS diffusion womenswear and lingerie collections for Designers for Debenhams Department Store, London.

2006 Anna teams up with leading catalogue and online fashion retailer Simply Be for an exclusive mail order collection. The ‘Anna Scholz for Simply Be‘ diffusion line has grown to include womenswear, swimwear, nightwear, lingerie, shoes and home furnishings.

2008 Anna appears with Mary Portas on the Mary Queen of Shops BBC program and gets a phenomenal response after the show airs. The company also moved into the Chandelier Building in NW10.

2009 Frida is adopted and becomes the new “office dog.” Anna launches her amazing new website and online shop: www.annascholz.com

2010 Anna opens her flagship store in Berlin in collaboration with Respectmen (now unfortunately closed). annascholz becomes available at www.saksfifthavenue.com.

2011 Anna launches her blog.annascholz.com and teams up with Jessica Svoboda to create ‘annascholz by Svoboda’, a line of figure-enhancing denim. annascholz participates in the ‘Curves in Couture’ fashion show by Models of Diversity.

2012 annascholz becomes available at www.bloomingdales.com and joins New Jersey Full Figured Fashion Week

2013 anna scholz participates in British Plus Size Fashion Week. Anna appears on The NDR Talkshow in Germany.

2014 Anna participated in the ‘Curvy is Sexy’ catwalk show, and launched the ‘annascholz’ for Sheego collection.

2015  Anna wins the prestigious ‘ Designer of the Year ‘ award at the British Plus Size Fashion Awards

2016 The Anna Scholz collection is now available #exclusivelyatannascholz with 10 mini collections per year.

The annascholz for Sheego collection launches in the U.K. in the Curvissa catalogue and online.

Anna is one of 4 judges of the reality TV series ‘The Fashion hero’ to be aired in 2017

The Anna Scholz collection is now available #exclusivelyatannascholz with 10 mini collections per year.

The Anna Scholz for Sheego collection launches in the U.K. in the Curvissa catalogue and online

2017 Anna is one of 4 judges of the reality TV series ‘The Fashion hero’ promoting diversity in the fashion industry.

2018 A new collaboration is created with Ulla Popken in Germany, the ‘annascholz for Ulla Popken’ collection is launching in October online and in selected Ulla Popken retail stores.