A new project in the Netherlands employs skilful refugees to mend much-loved clothes - and the idea is spreading fast
on a quiet day at the tail end of summer, and there’s not much happening in the suburban streets of west Amsterdam. Inside, however, this bright workshop generates its own buzz. The radio is on, people are popping in and out of the open kitchen for coffee and snacks, chatting over the noise from sewing machines or gathered around the cutting table puzzling over burst seams, holes and knotty technical problems.
This project has been operating for the past year, stitching together a quiet revolution with new recruits, an expanding roster of brands and a move in June to these larger premises. It is the product of a collaboration between 38-year-old CEO Thami Schweichler , the city of Amsterdam and Patagonia. Amsterdam is extremely green; not the Vondelpark, or the lovely tree-lined streets, but its philosophy, which goes far beyond bikes and boats.
Along with high migrant unemployment rates, Schweichler had become aware of the dearth of homegrown tailoring expertise. Silk and wool weaving, lacemaking and “Dutch wax” batik fabrics all formed a significant part of the Netherlands’ industrial and commercial history, but textiles have been in decline since the mid-20th century, and most of the associated skills have been lost. “A lot of newcomers come to the Netherlands with skills in textiles; they wouldn’t find satisfaction somewhere else.
“For us, the more the merrier,” Willem Swager, Patagonia’s European director of operations, explains when I visit the company’s waterfront office – it has made Amsterdam its European HQ. “We were very explicit we wanted to bring other brands along. That’s where the ‘United’ came from. A lot of discussions I have with brands are, ‘Where do I start?’ If you can just give them a playbook it makes it much easier.
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