My story

I've spent most of my life paying close attention to culture. Not as a trend to track, but as something alive: the way a samba school in Rio tells the story of a community, the way Surinamese designer Meredith Joeroeja carries generations of craft into her collections, the way actress and poet Saja Kilani uses her art to celebrate the beauty of the Middle East. I find people and the things they make endlessly fascinating, and I've built a career out of understanding what makes a brand's story worth telling and how to tell it in a way that actually lands.

It started in Rotterdam, one of the most diverse cities in the Netherlands. A port city shaped by people from Suriname, Indonesia, the Antilles and beyond, where the Zomercarnaval fills the streets every summer. Growing up there, you learn early that culture is plural and alive.

I've spent 16+ years working in social media, PR and influencer strategy with brands like H&M, Zalando, Booking.com and Rimmel. My love for fashion started earlier though, with an PR internship at Viktor & Rolf and work with brands like Prada, Iris van Herpen en Margiela at the Arnhem Mode Biennale in 2011, two experiences that shaped how I think about creativity, craft and the fashion industry. I later deepened my fashion knowledge studying at the Amsterdam Fashion Institute and my creative direction practice through a course at Condé Nast College of Fashion & Design I've led campaigns that needed to work across 70 markets, worked alongside Baz Luhrmann on the Erdem x H&M collaboration, and built social strategies for brands at very different stages of their story. What has always driven me more than the campaigns themselves is the cultural intelligence behind them: knowing what's shifting, who's driving it, and what it means for a brand trying to say something real.

After Rotterdam I lived in Amsterdam and Sweden, and now I'm based in Berlin. In between I've travelled as much as I possibly can, with a particular pull towards Latin America. There's something about that part of the world, its vibrancy, its joy, and the deep pride in craft and making, that has shaped how I think about creativity and culture more than almost anything else.

I started my Substack, Mari's Mosaïque, as a space to write about the things that genuinely move me: fashion rooted in heritage, artists who use their work as a form of resistance, brands that carry the story of the people who make them. Every year I also publish my Cultural Signals report, tracking the movements shaping culture and what they mean for brands. Both have sharpened something I've always believed: that the most interesting brands, like the most interesting people, have a story that makes them beautifully unique. Helping find and tell that story is what I love most about my work.

Outside of work I'm a dancer, a concert-goer, a collector of bold earrings and an enthusiastic explorer of local markets. I find beauty in imperfection and I believe joy is a legitimate creative strategy.

If you're working on something that has real soul to it, I'd love to hear from you. marieke@mariekeneleman.com