The Story of Hey Rosie

Some things you only understand after you've lived them.

After years in the industry — the collections, the compromises, the "good enough" — there comes a moment where you stop and think: I want to make something that actually looks and feels like what I believe in. That's where Hey Rosie began.

Not in a boardroom. Not with a business plan. But in a friendship — and a shared, quietly radical idea that clothing could be done better.

We are Riina and Meeri — lifelong friends, industry professionals, and the two people behind every Hey Rosie piece.

Our combined experience spans design studios, product development teams, and marketing — and years of close collaboration with mills and manufacturers across Nordic and Central European markets. We know how exceptional clothing is made — from the first sketch to the finished garment — and we built Hey Rosie around that knowledge, on our own terms.

Riina is the creative heart — the burst of color, energy and ideas. Everything you see visually from Hey Rosie, from campaign imagery to styling to the mood we create, comes from her. Meeri is the technical and analytical backbone — if an idea can be transformed into a durable, beautifully engineered garment, Meeri will find the way. She genuinely loves a good Excel session, an afternoon in front of the knitting machine, and challenging the notion that great fit is only for some bodies. Together, we balance creativity with precision, and that balance shapes every single piece we make.

We started with a frustration — and turned it into a mission.

We were tired of clothes that only fit one version of you. Bodies change, life happens — we get bigger, we get smaller — and Hey Rosie should never feel uncomfortable. Every silhouette, every yarn, every fabric choice is made so that you never have to choose between feeling good and looking great. Our relaxed, flexible fits cover a wide range of shapes and sizes, rigorously tested across many real bodies before anything reaches you.

We make things that last — and that's a deliberate choice.

In a world built on fast fashion and forgotten garments, we want to be the pieces you reach for again and again. The ones you pack first. The ones you lend to a friend and want back. Quality you can bet on, season after season.

We started in knitwear — and we're growing beyond it.

Knitwear is where Hey Rosie was born, and it remains the heart of what we do. But we are expanding. Our next chapter is cut & sew clothing, approached with the same obsession for quality, fit, and responsibility. We are deeply passionate about making cut & sew as waste-free as possible — working with fabrics, patterns, and production methods that leave as little behind as possible. And just as with our knits, we refuse to make pieces that only fit a narrow, conventional size bucket. We design for real people, in all their variety — clothing that fits most bodies beautifully, not just the ones the industry typically designs for.

Our clothing is made in Europe — by people who love what they do.

The majority of our garments are crafted in central Italy, in family-owned ateliers that blend centuries of craft tradition with contemporary design. We also work with trusted manufacturing partners in Spain, Poland, and Türkiye — a country with a long and respected textile tradition — and produce select pieces in our own studio in Germany and with near by partners here in surrounding. These aren't just suppliers — they are partners, artisans who care about every detail as much as we do. Every partner follows our Supplier Code of Conduct — fair labour, animal welfare, environmental responsibility. No exceptions.

We use 3D design and AI technology — because making less waste starts before the first sample.

We might test our initial ideas with AI illustrations. We narrow down from many ideas to the ones worth of exploring more. Our design process uses 3D tools to refine fit, color, and proportions digitally before we ever touch a material. This significantly reduces unnecessary physical samples, saving our limited resources and giving us the creative freedom to test ideas properly. We sample in-house especially our jersey and woven products, which is the favourite part of the creative process for both of us. We produce in small, considered batches — only what people truly love and are proud to send to the world — to avoid overproduction and waste.

We use AI to generate some of our photo content. We want to be true and not polish our pictures too much, but in order to show our styles on people with diverse looks and sizes, we might add some of it with AI. We want to give a better idea for anyone exploring our ecom that how might the garment look on your look or size. There's always a mix of real photos in the product pages, we promise not to overuse AI. 

We sell directly to you — and through carefully chosen partners who share our love for the product.

We started as a direct-to-consumer brand, and we learned something important along the way: our clothing needs to be touched. Felt. Tried on. The softness, the drape, the colors — they're simply better experienced in person. So we evolved. Today Hey Rosie is proudly multichannel — available directly through our store and through a selection of trusted retail partners who share our values and our passion for the product. Every channel is chosen with care, because where Hey Rosie lives matters as much as what Hey Rosie makes.

We have our own studio — and it changed everything.

Having a creative space to test, prototype and experiment keeps us agile, close to the making, and genuinely excited about what comes next. It's where ideas get weird before they get good. And it means our manufacturing partners and resellers get a brand that's truly alive, not just a catalogue.

And yes — we both love Finnish lappapuuro.

A small, comforting detail that says everything about who we are behind the brand: grounded, joyful, and always connected to home.

Hey Rosie is, in many ways, a dream made wearable.

Every product carries a piece of that original feeling — the one that said this is what I want to make, and this is how I want to make it. We hope you feel that when you wear it.

And selfishly — we get to wear it ourselves. That alone keeps the bar high.

Welcome. We're so glad you're here. ♥

— Riina & Meeri