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About Winter in HollandAbout Socially Made in AmsterdamThe collections: LIJN Collection 2 The Wovens IRONYConvenient extra information

INDEX

Winter in Holland is a slow-fashion textile brand conceived and established in Amsterdam by Anouk van der Laan.

For us creating fabrics is all about form and function. Focussing on both knitting and weaving allows us to choose the optimal combination between the aesthetics and the purpose of a product. Intrigued by the marriage between man and machine we continuously experiment and search for new and existing techniques. We are eager to find new solutions and come up with unexpected patterns and detailing.

Our ideas travel from our studio to a small workplace a few blocks away. Here we work together with a group of dedicated women. For them Winter in Holland meant a fresh start. All the products that are made within this community of woman are marked with the ‘socially made in Amsterdam’ label. We are proud to say that we are part of Amsterdam and Amsterdam is part of us.

In addition, we collaborate with niche knitters and weavers in Gelderland (The Netherlands) and London (Great Britain) that are passionate about craftsmanship. We teach them our new techniques and they provide us with new insights and feed our inspiration. They produce our items with passion and they focus on details – just like we do.

Winter in Holland is all about craftsmanship, quality and durable aesthetics – if treated with love our products will last a lifetime.

Collaborating with other brands or designers allows us to be part of a bigger whole. We love both working on our own collection and creating something together with others. We warmly invite you to start a conversation about collaborating.

About Winter in Holland

Finest Fabrics

Winter in Holland produces its own textiles. Besides factory productions, we mostly focus on our hand-knitted collections. Since the start of the brand, we have been concentrating on making fabrics on the handknit machine. This machine is very versatile, more versatile than factory machines. The knitter is able to give personal care to every row knitted. Exactly that personal care, we use in our unique designs.

While the brand started by the founder knitting all pieces,she soon found that she needed to up-scale the production process. We were in need of production partners. But unfortunately the machine-hand knit industry is dying. Which is a shame! So we, at Winter in Holland, were not able to outsource our production. That was a problem.

Until we found the ladies mostly living in Amsterdam West. These ladies are from foreign, traditional origin. They moved on early ages to Amsterdam, together with their husbands who had better job-opportunities in The Netherlands. Unlike the western culture, their original culture does not ask of a women to be educated and to work. Resulting in not being able to participate on the job-market. However, these ladies are magnificent crafters.

How great would it be if Winter in Holland would have access to these ladies and we can be each-others’ solution?

Winter in Holland gives space within its company to help these ladies become independent and give them a carreer within the field of textiles: We educate them in becoming professional knitters. They will be payed for their work during production. We will stimulate and help them set up their own business with which they can either design products themselves, or produce for other labels such as Winter in Holland.

About Socially Made in Amsterdam

Thick rich woolen yarns shape the soft touch of the textile, communicating an effortless sophistication and subtle luxury. It shows a perfect balance between utility and delight. Elegant and deliberately picked colors are only for the ones appreciating a refined taste; These products are for the individuals with style equal to their own authenticity.

The line on each product, which quick-wittedly also is the name of the collection, is precisely the reason why this collection is hand-made: The knitter decides where to place the line, leaving her personal mark on every product. Made with great care, these knits are hand manufactured by our ladies under the ‘Socially Made in Amsterdam’ label.

The collection exists of three colors, all named after their animalistic spirits: Camels’ Back, Flamingo’s beak and Peacocks’ eye. They come in 2 sizes of scarfs and in interior products: 2 sizes of cushions and a blanket.

Collection: LIJN

This collection we, for the first time, launch a scarf designed for the (gentle) men among us. As Mr. Porter’s Deputy Editor says: ‘Style - Like the devil - is in the detail.’ A smaller sized scarf falls perfectly around a men’s neck who will need a subtle warmth throughout the winter. A pretty effortless and understated item to keep yourself warm and, not to forget, ‘master style like the devil’.

Taken what we’ve learned over the years from the knitting machine, Winter in Holland developed their ideas, and expanded the complexity of the process. While maintaining simplicity in her designs, the production method asks for much personal attention.The most important addition to Collecion 2, is that we now also dye our wool in-house, resulting in even more unique products.

The design starts by developing a pattern for the knit; creating the yarns as a grid that will repeat itself throughout. We use simple shapes and patterns to reveal the material’s natural beauty.

A GADIENT IS A SILENT CLASH BETWEEN COLORS

The use of a gradient in the collection symbolizes a sense of serenity. We feel that the world around us is becoming more relaxed and that people want to live at aslower pace. Winter in Holland reacts on it with our ‘slow fashion’ approach: The great quality of our textiles and the enduring designs, makes sure the wearer does not have to change its wardrobe every year. The product will live alongside you, while simultaneously maintaining its beauty. The combination of bold colors and a white to black gradient radiate calmness, while remaining fresh.The yarns make the knits intensely soft while maintaining its long lasting beauty: Quality and life span are key to Winter in Holland products. A product should live with its wearer. It will change over time adapting to you; the knitwear grows longer and shapes to your use, achieving more definition.

The names of the products is a result of the inspiration we had while creating the collection. The silent clash between colors says something about time. The slow and soft time-frame the color of the sky changes during a sunrise for example. Included in the collection is ‘Sunrise’, ‘Moonrise’ and ‘Hail’.

Collection: Collection 2

The Wovens is Winter in Holland’s first line produced on an antique electrical loom. The 100% woolen fabric is a sophisticated and versatile textured weave, subtle in its beauty, and offers a great comfort.The yarn used for The Wovens collection is a strong material. A good woolen yarn has the power to recover and return to its natural shape. Therefore, a quality woolen fabric will look good for a long period of time. The material works its natural advantages in a Winter in Holland product as ferociously as it does for sheep in cold winters: The scales of the woolen fiber, impede heat transfer, saving the thermal energy created by their own bodies. Using this ingenious fibre, Winter in Holland designs will naturally assure you of warmth throughout the cold days.

The Wovens’ textile is composed of a waffle weave. This type of weave is originally used in towels to expose as much surface of a cotton yarn as possible, to absorb as much water possible. Winter in Holland uses this technique to maximally expose the woolen fiber to the skin, in order to benefit from its natural characteristic and beauty as much as possible.

After altering and tweaking the technique, experimenting with yarns and colors, we found an interestingly bold graphical texture, typical to an Winter in Holland design. The bulky graphical print dissolves towards the edges of the textile, leaving just a touch of dancing texture behind. The colored shapes disappear as stripes into a misty and buttery yellow, like a printer with an empty cartridge leaving the end of a piece of paper blanco.

The Wovens collection includes scarfs, throws, and two sizes of cushion covers. Winter in Holland has never deviated from its search for excellence, and will move forward committed to this ideal.

Collection: The Wovens

The Dutch live under a mighty, wide open sky; a view that depicts a tiny strip of land that is merely featuring a massive layer of blue sky filled with clouds.

Flat land allows us to see a grand, though, empty horizon. You can see far, but you will not see much.

A low land allows a free passage for wind, supplying the Dutch with gallons of oxygen.

Our rain soaked grounds give us fertile earth which covers Dutch surfaces with green grass and suede-like moss.

Surrounded by flatness, within striking distance of village centers and harbors, we find the dunes. Decorating the tiny shores with its sandy silhouettes and mossy landscapes,. This is what we may call our sunken slopes.

When climbing on a dune, the ratio of the horizon wer are used to, changes. The small strip of land grows thicker and will balance itself out with the sky.

Winter in Holland introduced a summer product: the towel. Do you see the IRONY?These towels would be used as tea towels as well as towels to dry your hands.

The towel is still, despite the ubiquity of the dishwasher, a regularly used item in the kitchen. The increasingly common open plan kitchen offers us the opportunity to incorporate products that are both beautiful and useful. Most importantly a tea towel should dry well! Often this is not the case.

Winter in Holland has developed a towel that is both beautiful and practical. After much research into types of cotton and patterns, the result is a collection of five hand- knitted tea towels.Winter in Holland uses pure (untreated) cotton that enables the fiber to better absorb water, as that is the fiber’s natural characteristic.This fiber is worked into a loose pattern, unconstrained the cotton has the space it needs to, again: absorb water.

Collection: IRONY

Convenient extra information

Contact us if you have any questions:Anouk van der Laan+31 623 426 454contact@anoukvanderlaan.comwww.winterinholland.com

Contact us to get access to our dropbox with high resolution images.But please use the right credits:

LIJN Scarf-shoot: Photograpy by Hannah Lipowsky Styling by Winter in Holland Models: Simone van Rookhuizen and Daniel van Hek Make-up by Minke Boeijen

LIJN interior: Photography by Winter in Holland

Collection 2: Photography by Kiki Reijners Styling by Anouk Oceanne and Winter in Holland Model: Danielle Siobhan Mol Make-up by Fleur Rubingh

The Wovens: Photography by Kiki Reijners Styling by Winter in Holland Model: Luca Hollestelle

IRONY: Photography and styling by Winter in Holland

For more information, check out our blog.Interested in our full collections? Check out the lookbooks per collection here, or visit our shop for the current available pieces.

Our atelier is situated in Amsterdam on the Elektronstraat 12-14 Unit 39.