The ey Linda Story

How it all began

ey Linda was born on 25 May 2002, when I was 25, had dropped out of a teaching degree in French and sport and had meanwhile completed a florist apprenticeship at Indigo. That's how I came to Linden, learned to love it and quite spontaneously fulfilled my dream of opening my own clothing shop, the first in Linden-Mitte. Linden has blossomed since then. Pretty little shops sprang up here and there, in all the streets around Lindener Markt, and many people still enjoy them today. Together with the small cafés and lovable Linden folk, it really is simply beautiful and always worth a trip!

Where does the name "ey Linda" come from?

I'm often asked how I came up with this name "ey Linda"... my name isn't Linda, after all, it's Sarah. ey Linda actually appeared to me in a dream. After much back-and-forth philosophising, I found ey Linda the loveliest of all, because it refers to the charming Linden and the "ey" stands for the casual, colloquial yet friendly Linden street talk. The name was set and, with a few helping hands, we renovated busily. Out of the run-down driving school that had existed here for 35 years emerged a small, light, harmonious, colourful fashion paradise. The top priority: customers should feel really, truly comfortable. Valeska's enchanting wall art, the antique furniture from Sam Nok and a few other delightful ideas came together into a harmonious whole.

The first collection from Paris

All that was missing were the stunning dresses. So, accompanied by a few friends, I drove to Paris - all my life I'd been drawn to France every year - and bought my first collection in the most varied shops of the French wholesale trade. The label Rendez-Vous-Paris, a basic-shirt classic, still sells well today! Linda, as I then named the lovely, red-haired, nostalgic mannequin, I dressed in light-green spring pieces, draped delicate wings on her back and so she was posed as a dragonfly hovering in the shop window.

Growth and Scandinavian labels

The Paris collection went down brilliantly, so I drove to Paris almost every two weeks (it happened: there at night, shopping during the day, back at night) to fetch new supplies. This continued for several months until I finally came across the wonderful Scandinavian labels. Noa Noa inspired me first, later Lysgaard, Cream and Pilgrim. After a while I discovered Blutsgeschwister and was over the moon, I found the label so stunning. My absolute favourite label. In the meantime ey Linda expanded, a second ey Linda was created on Lister Meile and some time later the Noa Noa shop. I founded a partnership with my then partner, which was dissolved again at the end of 2008. Noa Noa was then in Beyhan's hands and ey Linda List was closed. Back to the roots, back in Linden, I already felt much better. Not far from ey Linda, the sweet offshoot ey Linda Outlet was created, where you could discover all sorts of bargains from past seasons.

Back to the roots

In 2015 ey Linda got a big sister: the ey Linda Schwesterherz, which you were able to enjoy for 9 years. Due to the Corona closures, ey Linda, like so many other retail shops, unfortunately ran into a crisis and so I moved back into the small original shop. And that's a good thing. I love it small, personal and manageable. My favourite shop. ey Linda got a new, calmer, beautiful dress, namely deep emerald-green walls, and the natural maritime pine was dipped in dark burgundy. Do come by... it really is lovely here :)!

The ey Linda team

The ey Linda team has also become smaller since the Corona crisis. Small but wonderfully fine:

Inga works on Wednesdays and often Saturdays in the shop and has been in fashion retail for half an eternity. So she knows all the fabrics and styles inside out. Do make use of her talent for advice if you like!

Sonja welcomes and advises you splendidly on Monday and Tuesday afternoons; she also processes and packs your online shop orders and takes care of putting the photos online!

I'm very fond of my small team and I have the feeling that the two of them quite like working at ey Linda.

The online shop

And the online shop? www.eylinda.de has existed almost as long as ey Linda. It too was once stocked very modestly with a few favourite pieces from Paris arranged on mannequins, until I discovered how much nicer it is to photograph the fine pieces on my dear friends and colleagues. Today I mostly stand in front of the camera myself to photograph all the outfits I've put together, which you can then shop online. This came about through Corona and is simply practical and cost-effective, since I use my living room as a photo studio and can work very flexibly and spontaneously, even into the night if need be. By the way, both the old and the current new online shop were programmed by my daughter's dad. Claudio Bianco. Maybe you'll need a good software developer one day :)!

What else is worth knowing about ey Linda?

I'm now very active on Instagram. There you'll see lots of little videos about new goods, outfit ideas, promotions and much more! So do follow me on Insta: _ey_linda

Almost all the labels I buy for ey Linda produce fairly and sustainably. The fabrics mostly consist of organic cotton, sustainably produced viscose from Lenzing™ ECOVERO™, recycled PET, hemp or linen.

Now you know a lot about ey Linda, and if you're ever in South America, Portugal or Spain wearing your favourite ey Linda pieces, someone might call out "eh linda" to you, which roughly means "Hey, pretty one". I only found that out, though, a few years after this name appeared to me in a dream.