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March 27 2023
At APPOLINE, we are committed to sustainable and ethical practices. We believe that fashion can be both, elegant, luxurious and environmentally responsible.
When designing and developing our pieces, we take inspiration from strong and powerful women who are making a positive impact on the world. That's why our pieces are designed to seamlessly integrate fashion into a ‘busy woman’s’ daily routine, while allowing her to feel effortlessly chic and confident.
Meet Patricia Mattle, our first inspirational woman featured here and our first “APPOLINE ambassadrice”. Patricia is leading an insurance company in Switzerland as its CEO, is a mother of two young children, and is also politically active. We are impressed by Patricia's dedication and passion. She shared her thoughts about career choices, role models as well as the role of fashion and sustainability.
Thank you Patricia for supporting our cause and for answering our three tricky questions! Over the next weeks and months, you will meet more of our ambassadrices – stay tuned!
What would you recommend to your younger self when starting a career?
Choose an employer with the right culture, if possible a supervisor sharing your values and an industry with purpose. I chose insurance because we help people in difficult situations. This appealed to me and still motivates me every day. At the same time, I was lucky in my first job to find not only a supervisor, but a mentor. This was very important for the further course of my career and is still an important support today. Looking back, I would no longer take everything and everyone so seriously 😊. I was often very impressed and almost intimidated, especially by men with important titles. By today, I learned that they are not all so impressive.
What do fashion and clothing mean to you?
I come from the “Rheintal” in St. Gallen and my parents grew up in the embroidery and fabric businesses. Unfortunately, these businesses mostly no longer exist today. Nevertheless, the connection to beautiful fabrics and materials was very present in our childhood and therefore I like high quality and fine materials. Clothing and fashion are important to me, and I try to buy sustainably and use the clothes for a long time by combining them intelligently. With our children, we regularly buy second hand clothes. Since we have a large family circle, we can get about 90% of the children's clothes from friends and family and reuse them.
Are there any female role models who inspire you - who and why?
Christine Lagarde, now president of the European Central Bank. I find that Ms. Lagarde combines intelligence, power and a clear political stance with a feminine and 'chic' attire. She has never shied away from clearly articulating her opinion and taking a stand in her previous roles and today. She has been a strong advocate for women's empowerment and rights in the power centers of financial and economic policy and industry.
