meet the team
Meet the ZAZI team! The women working behind the scenes every day to shape the brand, guide its vision, and bring each collection to life. From our creative home, House of ZAZI in Amsterdam (and remotely from different corners of the world), we collaborate closely, blending strategy, storytelling, design, and operations into one shared mission. We are a small, dedicated team, deeply involved in every step of the process.
At the same time, ZAZI would not exist without the extraordinary network of more than 1,500 women artisans and makers we work with worldwide. Their craftsmanship, cultural heritage, and talent are the soul of everything we create.
JEANNE DE KROON
Founder
Starting as a dream seedling of creating a brand that celebrates women's collectives, artisanal craft and our connection to the earth and its cycles, Jeanne de Kroon went to India on a mission to seek direction and inspiration for this dream, leading her to Madhu Vaishnav of Saheli Women. Madhu had just formed her women's social enterprise in the small rural village of Bhikamkor where she gathered women from her community together with their sewing machines to encourage community development through creativity and drive to facilitate women's economic and social rural independence.
After listening and learning with Madhu and the rest of the Saheli Women, Jeanne fell in love with their stories of strength and also fell back in love with fashion again. Inspired by her travels to India and a deep found respect for female co-creation and human stories, ZAZI was formed in Jeanne's small student bedroom starting with just 7 ikat dresses.
Next of being the founder of ZAZI, she also founded Woven Women in 2023. A global online female community that connects you with your strengths, creativity and collective power. Inviting over more than 100 female experts to talk about different topics.
JANNE HOEVELAKEN
Creative director & photography
Janne is the Creative Director & Photographer at ZAZI. With a deep love for fashion from a young age, Janne was drawn to creativity early on. She loved dressing up and wearing clothes made by her mother. From the very beginning, fashion was at the heart of her creative world.
At seventeen, she began her studies at the Amsterdam Fashion Institute, where she specialized in Fashion & Branding. After two years working as a graphic designer, Janne found her dream job at ZAZI.
Today, she is responsible for everything visual within the brand. From marketing and newsletters to Instagram content and website design, as well as conceptualizing, producing, and photographing campaigns. Janne oversees the entire creative picture, bringing ZAZI's visual world to life.
FRANSJE VOSMEER
Operations & Commerce
Fransje works at the intersection of commerce, craft and storytelling as Operations & Commerce Lead at ZAZI. Her journey into ZAZI was not linear. After seven years in corporate, where she built a career selecting top talent, she felt called to something more meaningful. Something that would make her wake up with excitement every day. She quit her job, and applied at ZAZI for an internship. That leap marked the beginning of a new path.
Today, Fransje supports the operational side of ZAZI, helping translate conscious, regenerative values into sustainable commercial growth. She believes business can be a force for good when it grows with care. For people, culture and the earth.
Driven by human connection and long-term impact, she brings structure to creativity and clarity to complexity, ensuring that craft and commerce strengthen one another. For Fransje, the future of work lies in reconnecting - with each other, with the planet, and with the stories we choose to tell. And for those wondering: she now wakes up with excitement. Every day.
MAITHILI CHODANKAR
Craft Connector & Head of Production (South Asia & Africa)
Maithili works closely with the people, processes, and places that shape how a piece comes into being. Her role is to build the bridges between design and making - connecting ideas to materials, and materials to the hands that transform them.
Working across India and beyond, she identifies and collaborates with artisan groups, workshops, and small production units whose skills, techniques, and sensibilities align with ZAZI’s creative direction. Each partnership begins with attention: to context, to capability, to the rhythms of craft.
At ZAZI, Maithili oversees the value chain from its earliest stages. From sourcing and sampling to production and finishing, she coordinates the many moving parts that sit behind a collection. Her work ensures that creative visions are not only realised, but realised with integrity - respecting both design intention and artisanal practice.
Through this connective role, she helps bring ZAZI’s pieces to life, shaping the path from concept to object.
pauli Notburga Krichbaumer
Designer
Pauli is the Designer at ZAZI. Since she was 6 years old she has been hand sewing dresses and bags from old curtains for friends and family and always dreamt of becoming a fashion designer one day. Her heart is very empathic and sensitive, which is why she was always torn between the world of fashion and a more social field of work!
At ZAZI the best of both worlds comes to life and she feels like she found her dream job, working with a great team of women for a beautiful and meaningful mission.
She’s been trained in Tailoring at a lingerie and swimwear brand in southern Germany and finished a University Degree in Fashion and Textile Design from the Amsterdam Fashion Institute in 2024.
After spending half a year in a Leprosy Rehabilitation centre and weaving village in Northern India, where she did voluntary work as a Designer, she returned to Amsterdam and, what for her feels like a miracle, got the offer to work at her dream brand, ZAZI, as a Designer.
As the technical creative behind all ZAZI outfits, she is responsible for bringing the teams vision to paper, drawing new designs and collections and translating them into technical sheets so our artisanal partners understand how to bring our ideas to life. She also helps customers with information about each garment and is taking on styling appointments with our amazing community.
Jimena Muñiz-Garreta
Peru Production Lead
Jimena is based in Peru, where she moved in 2024 to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer. What began as an economic development project soon unfolded into a web of relationships with artisans in the Andes, and the rekindling of her creative spark.
Deeply immersed in the craft industry, Jimena’s connection goes beyond admiration. She has spent years integrating into a village of artisans, building lasting relationships with weavers and gaining firsthand experience in their techniques and traditions.
After being introduced to Jeanne through Woven Women, serendipity led Jimena to join the ZAZI team. As ZAZI began envisioning a Peru collection, Jimena was uniquely positioned to help bring it to life.
Today, she serves as the living thread between ZAZI and its artisanal partners in Peru, keeping the loom in motion through every stage of production, while ensuring that cultural integrity and economic equity remain at the heart of each piece.
As a Latina immigrant, Jimena is driven by the desire to occupy spaces where women like herself have not always been represented and, in doing so, inspire others. Though she never set out to work in fashion, this path has woven her into a tradition that long predates her and will endure far beyond.
The Extended Zazi Family
Alongside our permanent team, there is a wider circle of women who play an essential role in the daily ZAZI operations. Our beloved packing fairies carefully wrap each order with intention and love, making sure your packages are beautifully prepared and sent out on time.
We are also supported by a few amazing interns each half year who bring fresh energy, curiosity, and new perspectives into our space. From assisting with creative projects and communication to helping with logistics and operations, they are involved in so many layers of what we do! Their contribution is meaningful and valued. They grow with us, and we grow because of them.