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Inside AWAN: Fashion Designed for Everyday Wellbeing
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Time to read 5 min
Inside AWAN: A Softer Approach to Fashion and Wellbeing
What we wear has a quiet but meaningful influence on how we move through the day. Clothes can offer confidence, ease, and a sense of self, but they can also pinch, restrict, and create yet another demand on our attention. For AWAN founder Anette Miwa Dimmen, fashion should help us feel more comfortable in our lives, not less.
Short for As We Are Now, AWAN is a Scandinavian fashion and wellbeing brand creating refined, modular clothing for rest, work, travel, and everything in between. Its softly draped dresses and coordinated separates are designed to feel elegant without becoming restrictive, allowing the wearer to move between different parts of the day without repeatedly changing clothes.
At the heart of the brand is a deceptively simple idea: we should be able to dress for the bodies and lives we have today.
This means moving away from clothes that ask us to become smaller, harder, or somehow different before we deserve to feel well dressed. Instead, AWAN offers what Anette calls “sensual comfort”: tactile fabrics, feminine silhouettes, and thoughtful proportions that allow women to breathe, move, and feel at ease.
We spoke to Anette about building a wardrobe around wellbeing, the value of emotional durability, and why the future of fashion may feel considerably softer.
Why should women have to choose between feeling good and looking good?
Fashion That Meets Us As We Are
“As We Are Now” is more than a brand name. It is a reminder to be present and to accept the current version of our bodies and our lives.
Women move through a remarkable number of physical and emotional transitions, including hormonal changes, pregnancy, motherhood, menopause, illness, and stressful periods. Yet much of fashion still treats the body as something that should conform to a garment.
AWAN takes the opposite view, focusing on core principles that accommodate real bodies:
Freedom and Adaptability: Pieces designed to help women feel like themselves even as life changes.
Redefining Professionalism: Moving away from rigid tailoring and hard lines to show that authority does not have to look severe.
Integrated Wellbeing: Treating comfort as a quality worth carrying into meetings, dinners, and creative work—not just evenings at home.
A flowing dress, relaxed pair of trousers, or softly wrapped cardigan can still communicate confidence. There is no reason why being taken seriously should require us to spend the day in clothes that prevent us from breathing deeply or moving naturally.
One fabric. One fiber. No compromise.
Why Comfort and Style Should Not Be Opposites
Anette’s route to founding AWAN began with both creativity and frustration. After years working across branding and fashion, she noticed a massive disconnect between the clothes being produced and the way modern women actually lived. Stylish pieces were frequently uncomfortable, while comfortable clothes felt visually uninspiring.
The underlying question was clear: Why should women have to choose between feeling good and looking good?
When an outfit digs into the waist or requires constant adjustment, its emotional benefit disappears. Anette wanted to explore whether fashion could provide elegance, sensuality, and presence without demanding physical discomfort in return.
The result is a versatile wardrobe that reduces the effort involved in getting dressed. A dress might begin the morning at home, continue through work, and feel equally appropriate at dinner. This creates what Anette describes as emotional simplicity. There is already enough friction in modern life; clothing should not add to it.
For AWAN, simplicity is not an absence of thought. It is the result of careful thought
The Emotional Value of a Simpler Wardrobe
For AWAN, simplicity is not an absence of thought. It is the result of careful thought. A wardrobe can become a surprisingly noisy space, filled with uncomfortable fabrics and pieces bought for imagined versions of our lives.
AWAN is designed around those repeat-wear pieces we reliably reach for:
Modular Separates: Pieces that work across different settings, seasons, and styling moods.
Deep Integration: Garments meant to become deeply integrated into everyday life rather than acting as disconnected trends.
Emotional Durability: The relationship a person develops with a finished piece over time.
A responsibly produced dress that is rarely worn still has limitations. A garment that is loved, cared for, and worn repeatedly becomes part of someone’s life—associated with journeys, dinners, working days, and personal milestones.
AWAN Clothing
| Product | Description |
| The Wrap Dress | An adaptable TENCEL™ Lyocell jersey dress with adjustable waist ties and a fluid skirt. Ideal for work, travel, and evenings. |
| The Wrap Cardigan | Designed to be worn as either a blouse or cardigan, pairing versatility with a polished finish. |
| The Flow Pants | Flowing trousers with a wide, soft waistband, created for unrestricted movement and an elegant day-to-night silhouette. |
| The Cropped Flow Pants | A shorter interpretation of the Flow Pants that can be worn with AWAN tops or layered beneath dresses. |
The Psychology of Softness: Why What We Wear Changes How We Think
Have you ever noticed how a stiff collar or a tight waistband can subtly drain your energy by mid-afternoon? This isn’t just a matter of physical discomfort; it is a well-documented psychological phenomenon. Psychologists refer to this as "enclothed cognition"—the idea that the clothes we wear directly influence our psychological processes, our mood, and our overall performance.
AWAN’s entire ethos is a masterclass in applying this principle. When we wear clothes that are physically restrictive, our brain constantly processes that low-level physical stress. It acts as a persistent background noise, distracting us from being fully present in our work, our conversations, or our creative endeavors.
By intentionally choosing "sensual comfort," we silence that noise and free up our cognitive load. When your clothes breathe with you, your mind is liberated to focus on the things that actually matter. In this sense, AWAN isn't just selling dresses; they are offering a tool for mental clarity.
FAQ
What does AWAN stand for?
AWAN stands for As We Are Now. The name reflects the brand’s belief that clothing should accommodate our present bodies, lifestyles, and changing needs rather than asking us to conform to an unrealistic ideal.
What type of clothing does AWAN make?
AWAN creates elevated dresses, coordinated separates, resortwear, and soft activewear. Its modular pieces are designed to move between rest, work, travel, and social occasions while maintaining a balance of comfort and elegance.
What fabrics does AWAN use?
AWAN’s current collection is produced using soft TENCEL™ fabrics from Portugal. These wood-derived fabrics were chosen for their breathability, drape, and comfortable feel against the skin.
What is emotional durability in fashion?
Emotional durability describes the lasting relationship we develop with clothes we genuinely enjoy wearing. A versatile, comfortable garment may be worn and cared for more frequently, helping it remain a valued part of the wardrobe rather than becoming a short-lived purchase.
Myza Editorial Team
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