Princess Maja von Hohenzollern is an international designer for furniture, bathroom fittings & accessories, home decoration, pet-, children- and lifestyle products. Princess Maja is today the most well-known member of the Royal Family Hohenzollern, which represented the former emperor in Germany.
For 16 years she has been designing innovative collections under her licensed brand, which are on the market in over 60 countries. She has just been awarded the “Powerhouse Global Award for Designer of the year 2020” and for many years the princess has been a vegan pioneer and committed animal rights activist, thus breaking many common clichés of royal families.
This Princess certainly does not wear fur, is the face of many PETA campaigns, only dines vegan and her favourite dog breed is the “rescued stray”, a of which she has nine adopted pets.
What are your current projects?
I am currently launching my vegan “Royal Bath Collection” through Bravat with bathroom fittings & accessories and bathtubs. It is the first PETA approved vegan certified collection in this segment on the market! It will be launched in 40 countries.
So that everyone can smartly organize their little empire at home, I have just launched my vegan “Royal Household Collection” at Coronet, with practical products for home and travel.
From high-design hangers, to doormats, garment bags or dishwashing brushes of bamboo, the products are sustainable and also PETA approved vegan certified. They are available from December at Kika/Leiner.
What is unique about your collections?
In my products I combine modern design with ethics and a good price-performance ratio. Authenticity is most important to me, as a vegan lifestyle brand. People know that I design all products myself, that I bring in innovative product ideas and that I have been a vegan myself for many years. My collections always have a story, emotions, my own design signature and a clear unique selling point. These are important success factors for sales.
Which distribution channels are used to offer your products in retail stores and has the buying behaviour changed since Corona?
Depending on the product group, my collections are sold hybrid via stationary retail and online. My bathroom fittings via megabad, my bathroom furniture in large furniture stores such as XXXLutz, Höffner, Porta and others. My Home Decoration collection is available via porcelain trade, OTTO, concept stores, Amazon etc.
Since Corona, the online trade is noticeably increasing, many dealers in the furniture sector will have to adjust to this conceptually in the future. Due to the cocooning effect, customers have increasingly invested in furniture and furnishings, from which our industry benefits.
How do you explain to retailers and customers why bathroom fittings & accessories are not vegan per se?
In fact, many people believe these products are automatically vegan, but this is not the case. In our external communication we therefore clarify that in production processes often oils, components, greases, adhesives, acids etc. are used that contain animal ingredients. These are obtained in an inhumane way from glands, genitals, bones or the skin of animals. Many people are not aware of this and that is why I design my collections to be cruelty- free and vegan.
