History

OTAKAR was established in 1994 by Ann Van Hootegem, designer and founder of the company. OTAKAR is the name of the company as well of the collections.

In 1995 Ann received the entrepreneurial price of the 'King Baudouin Foundation', a royal public benefit foundation.

Ann has always been fascinated by fashion in general and in fabrics, colours and forms especially. For receiving her university degree in Psychology , she wrote her graduation dissertation on Belgian Fashion. It was this passion that inspired her to veer from her educational background and develop her own clothing label. To prepare for this venture she attended 1 year of business school at the Vlerick School for Management.

She started creating fashion full of love for children.
The first 5 seasons Otakar was a fashion label only for girls. In 1997 a boys collections was added.
With the turn of the century and the birth of her son Emile, her first BABY collection was launched.
The children's collections succeeded beautifully and this stimulated the desire to develop a WOMEN collection, continuing the same OTAKAR-spirit. Otakar Woman is introduced in a few shops for the first time in 2007.
The headquarters of Otakar are located in a small village know for its artistic spirit, Sint-Martens-latem, were all offices, the design workshop and an authentic showroom are accommodated.

Up till 2008, distribution was arranged only by exclusive multi-brand-stores mainly in Belgium. However from end of January 2009, her first Company Store opens , also in Sint-Martens-Latem. In this OTAKAR- concept store, the baby, junior & woman collection will be presented in combination with a limited edition collection for home and a floor for outlet. This store will definitely confirm the image of the brand.