Education
Brandt graduated from Margretheskolen (1961–1964), Københavns Tilskærerakademi (1964), and completed an apprenticeship in tailoring.
Brandt graduated from Margretheskolen (1961–1964), Københavns Tilskærerakademi (1964), and completed an apprenticeship in tailoring.
She started her international career in 1965 as an apprentice in Paris with the grand master of the time French fashion designer Pierre Balmain. The marriage would be the catalyst for one of the most successful Scandinavian designer couples. In the eyes of her contemporaries this was a line of unprecedentedly short and close-fitting designs, but the collection immediately grabbed the interest of an otherwise neglected age group between teenagers and "genteel" ladies.
B-age became the essence of fashion for the first generation of young women in Scandinavia.
Soon Margit and Erik were producing everything from ladies fashion to lingerie, furs, sportswear, watches, personal care products, household articles and accessories. The trendsetting designs found their way to the showrooms of Harrods, Bendels, Takashimaya, Saks and Bloomingdales, a wide network of own label stores sprung up across the world from London, Paris and Barcelona to Tokyo, San Francisco and New New York
Erik had a nose for branding and self-promotion, one year the staff at the fashion fair were replaced by a red telephone with a direct line to head office. Buyers could simply call in their orders if they wanted to buy anything.
In the early 1980s Margit and Erik Brandt announced they moved to New York permanently.
In 2005 again based in Denmark they have commenced designing and producing fashion clothes again. In the book Fashion Genius of the World (1979) written by Serena Sinclair, Margit Brandt comes second after the British cult designer Mary Quantitative Margit Brandt died at home with her family due to her chronic obstructive lung disease.
1988: Margit designs the entry uniform of the Danish Olympic team