Howlin’

How­lin’ has been working with a cen­tu­ries-old Irish fami­ly busi­ness for years. Here the knit­wear is made with local Irish yarns. In addi­ti­on, the brand also works with Scot­tish knit­wear manu­fac­tu­r­ers. The­se arti­san pro­du­cers make all the knit­wear in the How­lin’ collection. 

Ano­ther part of the coll­ec­tion is pro­du­ced in Bel­gi­um. The­se are main­ly pro­ducts made of ligh­ter knits, jer­sey, towel fabric and rib velvet.

Each time, the mate­ri­als used by How­lin’ are pro­du­ced in the coun­try whe­re the pro­du­cer is loca­ted. This way, the brand can honest­ly say that the garm­ents are 100% made in the coun­try of origin.

Thanks to the­se local pro­du­cers, How­lin’ can gua­ran­tee that your purcha­se is made in good and safe working con­di­ti­ons. In this way, the brand also helps to keep craft knit­ting tech­ni­ques ali­ve in Scot­land and Ireland.

Most of the How­lin’ coll­ec­tion is made from shee­p’s wool. This is a sus­tainable and natu­ral mate­ri­al. The wool is sourced local­ly and pro­ces­sed into knit­wear. How­lin’ also uses cash­me­re and meri­no wool in some garm­ents. The­se types of wool are much finer and the­r­e­fo­re much sof­ter than regu­lar shee­p’s wool so you don’t get an itchy feeling.

The garm­ents with a ​“Made in Bel­gi­um” label are not made enti­re­ly of wool. Syn­the­tic mate­ri­als such as acrylic and poly­ami­de are also used in the­se designs. For the pants, T‑shirts and jackets, (orga­nic) cot­ton and poly­es­ter are used.

The­se are not all equal­ly dura­ble mate­ri­als. Poly­es­ter, acrylic and poly­ami­de are syn­the­tic mate­ri­als. The­re is a risk of micro­pla­s­tics being released when washing syn­the­tic clot­hing. The­r­e­fo­re, COSH! recom­mends washing your syn­the­tic clot­hing in a Gup­py­Fri­end laun­dry bag to catch the micro­pla­s­tics.

Cot­ton is also not a sus­tainable mate­ri­al. Gro­wing cot­ton requi­res lar­ge amounts of irri­ga­ti­on water and che­mi­cals. A bet­ter alter­na­ti­ve to this is orga­nic cot­ton. No che­mi­cals may be used in the pro­duc­tion of orga­nic cotton.

The coll­ec­tions pro­du­ced in Ire­land and Scot­land are cir­cu­lar. The­se garm­ents are made enti­re­ly of wool. By using only one mate­ri­al, How­lin’ ensu­res that the clo­thes can be easi­ly recy­cled after use. And becau­se shee­p’s wool is a natu­ral mate­ri­al, it is even biodegradable.

Clot­hing pro­du­ced in Bel­gi­um is less cir­cu­lar. The­se clo­thes often con­sist of dif­fe­rent mate­ri­als. Such mate­ri­al blends are much more dif­fi­cult to recy­cle. And by com­bi­ning natu­ral mate­ri­als with syn­the­tic mate­ri­als, the pro­duct is not biode­gra­da­ble. So always pay atten­ti­on to the label of your purcha­se to know what it is made of.

How­lin’ cer­tain­ly has a short sup­p­ly chain. The wool comes from the same regi­on whe­re the gar­ment is made. The Made In Bel­gi­um coll­ec­tion is also made with fabrics from Bel­gi­an manu­fac­tu­r­ers. The jer­sey is even knit­ted by How­lin’ itself.

And becau­se ever­y­thing is made in Wes­tern Euro­pe, the clo­thes don’t have to tra­vel long distances to get to you!

How­lin’ uses a varie­ty of ani­mal mate­ri­als in their clot­hing. Shee­p’s wool in par­ti­cu­lar makes up a lar­ge part of the coll­ec­tion. The brand men­ti­ons that the wool comes from Ire­land and Scot­land, but gives no fur­ther infor­ma­ti­on. Becau­se of this, COSH! can­not make an assess­ment of the ani­mal wel­fa­re and con­di­ti­ons in which the sheep live. 

Some garm­ents also incor­po­ra­te soft cash­me­re. This is a type of wool that comes from the cash­me­re goat. The lar­gest pro­du­cing count­ries of cash­me­re are Chi­na and New Zea­land. But cash­me­re is also pro­du­ced in Ire­land and the United King­dom. Due to the lack of infor­ma­ti­on, we can­not deter­mi­ne the ori­gin of the material.

How­lin’ uses qua­li­ty mate­ri­als and pro­duc­tion tech­ni­ques. In this way, the brand wants to ensu­re that their pro­ducts have a lon­ger life­span. The designs also con­tri­bu­te to this. The clo­thes are made with care and with gre­at atten­ti­on to detail. How­lin’ designs with the goal of crea­ting dura­ble, func­tion­al and ori­gi­nal pro­ducts that do not fol­low sea­so­nal trends. The coll­ec­tion con­sists of a tim­e­l­ess mix of colorful, modern and vin­ta­ge designs. The style is inspi­red by the 1980s and the ​“New Beat” music gen­re, among others.

Thanks to the self-clea­ning pro­per­ties of wool, the­re is no need to wash your swea­ter often. So you can easi­ly air your wool purcha­se as well. If you do pre­fer to wash it, it is bet­ter to do so by hand and at low tem­pe­ra­tures. In this way, you will ensu­re that your gar­ment stays beau­tiful lon­ger.

Yet despi­te the infor­ma­ti­on they pro­vi­de about their pro­duc­tion, How­lin’ is not real­ly trans­pa­rent. Litt­le is known about the exact pro­duc­tion loca­ti­ons, or whe­re the mate­ri­als come from.