We founded ReDress together by initially staging homes for sale and received our first few contracts very soon after we opened in 2011.
One of the first homes we staged, sold very quickly and the new owners asked us to help them with their Interiors.
We very quickly moved into providing an all encompassing interior design service and construction management service with specialised focus on assisting second home owners who live abroad and need someone they could trust in South Africa to manage their projects and look after their assets.
Who We Are
A quick summary of who we are:
Together we speak English, French and German and therefore have has many French, German, Swiss and British clients who live abroad and have invested in businesses (restaurants, wine farms and guest houses), holiday homes or apartments in South Africa that they have asked us to renovate for them.
Helene Marie Ceillier
072 753 9739 / hm@redress.co.za
Born in France, studied at the University of Foreign Languages & business Studies Masters, 4 years Japan & 7 years France – Interior purchasing & retail, 4 years – Hospitality Industry in Knysna, as well as Property Refurbishment and Project Management Experience.
Claire von Ribbeck
076 758 1099 / claire@redress.co.za
Born in SA, studied at the University of Liverpool, UK – Bachelor of Arts 2:1, Regent Academy diploma in Interior Design, 6 years London based hotels & lodges travel sales experience. 2 years at London based Interior Design firm; Eilieen Johnston Interiors and 1 year styling for photo-shoots in London, Portugal, France, Austria & Switzerland.
Social Responsibility
In our industry we focus daily in surrounding ourselves with luxury items, an excess of material goods, furniture, equipment and things to make our lives more comfortable. However living in South Africa we are constantly reminded of those less fortunate than us. As our job requires us to strive for perfection and beautiful design every single day, we have also chosen not to forget those with much bigger daily problems.
We believe it starts with education and so, “Sparking Minds” was born to give these tiny little people a better chance in life. Helene-Marie (joint CEO of ReDress) and her son Raphael initiated the project out of their own pockets to re-build an existing creche in Knysna that due to lack of funds was literally crumbling to the ground.
Now, the creche has a board of 4 directors (Claire von Ribbeck (Joint CEO of ReDress, Helene-Marie, Raphael and Emma [the owner of the creche]…) and has been officially registered as a non-profit organisation called “Sparking Minds.”
Sparking Minds strives to help young children to live a joyous and colourful life while preparing them to enter their school career with a bright mind and a big smile on their faces.
The organisation is growing from strength to strength and aims to continue to develop new projects for providing safe and clean environments for young children through renovating and building crèches and dispensing crucial teaching skills to educators and facilitators, with a constant monitoring of the establishments and providing necessary equipment and other necessities required for the healthy development of the babies and younger children.
If our initiative interests you, please browse the Sparking Minds website and contact us for more information. As always, the biggest problem is funding and if you feel this is the charity for you, please do get in touch and help us to build better lives from the word “GO”!
In November 2019 Helene together with the help of various sponsors and donations (and personal hard graft) completed the extension of the creche so that the children now have a proper playground the images of which can be enjoyed below.
