Joline Jolink

Much of the clot­hing is made in Por­tu­gal and Roma­nia. As the­se count­ries are in Euro­pe, pro­duc­tion is sub­ject to Euro­pean working con­di­ti­ons. This allows Joli­ne Jolink to gua­ran­tee ethi­cal working con­di­ti­ons, alt­hough we do not know how things are at the pro­duc­tion sites whe­re the mate­ri­als are har­ve­s­ted or pro­du­ced and pro­ces­sed into fabric. 

Part of the coll­ec­tion is pro­du­ced out­side Euro­pe. All den­im clot­hing is made by a Tur­ki­sh pro­du­cer in Istan­bul. Both the raw mate­ri­als and the finis­hed clo­thes are pro­du­ced here. Joli­ne Jolink has a long-stan­ding and clo­se coope­ra­ti­on with this pro­du­cer, making the brand con­fi­dent that pro­duc­tion takes place in safe and fair working con­di­ti­ons. The orga­nic cot­ton also has the GOTS cer­ti­fi­ca­te, which checks the working con­di­ti­ons in the factories.

Final­ly, some garm­ents are pro­du­ced in Chi­na. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, litt­le infor­ma­ti­on is known about this so we can­not assess whe­ther the­se clo­thes are ethi­cal­ly made.

Joli­ne Jolink uses a lot of natu­ral mate­ri­als in their coll­ec­tion. The clo­thes are made of orga­nic cot­ton, linen and Ten­cel. The lat­ter mate­ri­al is a soft fabric made of cel­lu­lo­se from euca­lyp­tus wood, sourced from sus­tain­ab­ly mana­ged forests.

The most com­mon­ly used mate­ri­al in the Joli­ne Jolink coll­ec­tion is orga­nic cot­ton. The mate­ri­al is cer­ti­fied by GOTS (Glo­bal Orga­nic Tex­ti­le Stan­dard). This cer­ti­fi­ca­te shows that no che­mi­cals are used in the pro­duc­tion pro­cess. Working con­di­ti­ons are also moni­to­red. Seve­ral Joli­ne Jolink garm­ents con­sist part­ly of recy­cled cot­ton, which was mixed with, for exam­p­le, new orga­nic cot­ton for the qua­li­ty of the garment. 

The brand still uses syn­the­tic mate­ri­als such as elas­t­a­ne or recy­cled poly­es­ter from time to time. The elas­t­a­ne is nee­ded to crea­te stretch so that the clo­thes fit com­for­ta­b­ly. By incre­asing the com­fort of the clo­thes, Joli­ne Jolink wants to ensu­re that a gar­ment is worn more and lon­ger.

Bes­i­des clo­thes, we find a biode­gra­da­ble, vegan and pla­s­tic-free trai­ner at Joli­ne Jolink! The sole is made of natu­ral rub­ber with a foot­bed made of recy­cled cork. The can­vas mate­ri­al on the upper of the trai­ner is also natu­ral, made of orga­nic cot­ton. The details are made of apple lea­ther and the lining fabric is made from resi­du­als from the corn industry.

Part of Joli­ne Jolin­k’s clot­hing is made from dead­stock mate­ri­als. The­se are lef­to­ver fabrics from other brands or manu­fac­tu­r­ers. This way, sur­plu­s­es can still get a life ins­tead of being des­troy­ed and Joli­ne Jolink gets the chan­ce to use more luxu­rious mate­ri­als wit­hout the need for new raw mate­ri­als. By using fabric sur­plu­s­es, Joli­ne Jolink can­not deter­mi­ne which mate­ri­als the fabrics are made of. As a result, syn­the­tic mate­ri­als such as poly­es­ter may still have been used in the collection.

Joli­ne Jolink uses upcy­cled over­stock from her sup­pli­er so they are not was­ted. So no new raw mate­ri­als have been tap­ped for the clo­thes made from the­se fabrics. Recy­cled poly­es­ter is also some­ti­mes used in the garments. 

Alt­hough some garm­ents are biode­gra­da­ble becau­se they con­sist enti­re­ly of natu­ral mate­ri­als, this is not the case for seve­ral garm­ents due to the addi­ti­on of elas­t­a­ne. This mixing of dif­fe­rent mate­ri­als makes the garm­ents more dif­fi­cult to recy­cle. For­t­u­na­te­ly, the per­cen­ta­ges of elas­t­a­ne in the clo­thes are very low.

Joli­ne Jolink did take a big step with her biode­gra­da­ble, vegan and pla­s­tic-free trai­ner, a good exam­p­le of cir­cu­lar design!

In addi­ti­on, Joli­ne Jolink is also moving towards a cir­cu­lar busi­ness model by laun­ching a second-hand plat­form. If your gar­ment is still in usable con­di­ti­on, you can hand it in to the brand on one of coll­ec­tion days. They will sel­ect, check and repair the clo­thes, if neces­sa­ry, to then sell it second-hand. Sin­ce July 2021, you can find a second-hand coll­ec­tion in all Joli­ne Jolink shops under the name ​‘New Love’.

Part of Joli­ne Jolin­k’s clot­hing is pro­du­ced clo­se to home, for ins­tance in Por­tu­gal and Roma­nia. The Dutch brand also has col­la­bo­ra­ti­ons with local Dutch tex­ti­le pro­du­cers such as Ensche­de Textielstad.

But some pro­duc­tion also takes place in non-Euro­pean count­ries, such as Tur­key and Chi­na. Becau­se the ori­gin of the mate­ri­als is not known, COSH! Can­not ful­ly assess whe­ther the brand has a short chain.

The majo­ri­ty of Joli­ne Jolin­k’s clo­thes do not use ani­mals. For exam­p­le, the lea­ther used in garm­ents is vegan, made from poly­es­ter and the trai­ners are made from orga­nic cot­ton and apple lea­ther with a foot­bed made from plant resi­dues. The labels on the jeans are also made of vegan apple lea­ther.

The brand also uses wool in their coll­ec­tion. Some of this wool comes from recy­cled dead­stock, so no ani­mals are direct­ly invol­ved. Joli­ne Jolink also has a col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with a sheep far­mer in Lim­burg. The brand thus desi­gned a win­ter coat made from Dutch wool. The Kem­pi­sche Hei­descha­pen gra­ze the­re as a func­tion of natu­re manage­ment, with their wool pre­vious­ly being a was­te product.

In addi­ti­on, the brand some­ti­mes uses other shee­p’s wool. To ensu­re the­se mate­ri­als are sus­tainable and ani­mal-fri­end­ly, Joli­ne Jolink uses only mule­sing-free and orga­nic wool.

With this brand, you will find clo­thes that are always appro­pria­te, that you can com­bi­ne casual­ly or for busi­ness and that you can wear in any sea­son or year. Black, white, pas­tel shades, green, red, pink and oran­ge are among the colours in the bran­d’s palet­te, allo­wing you to build a varied ward­ro­be. In terms of prints, you will see stripes and checks. Joli­ne Jolink main­ly has loo­se-fit­ting clo­thes, but also more fit­ted cuts so you can find what you like on your body. This way, you can wear this bran­d’s pie­ces for years and com­bi­ne them with the rest of your wardrobe.

Recent­ly, Joli­ne Jolink impo­sed a pro­duc­tion limit on them­sel­ves. The brand wants to pro­du­ce a maxi­mum of 20 000 garm­ents a year to pre­vent over­pro­duc­tion and over­con­sump­ti­on. In this way, Joli­ne wants to focus on impro­ving the designs and shows the way to a more sus­tainable and cir­cu­lar way of doing busi­ness.

Here, the growth of the second-hand plat­form ​‘New Love’ is also an important one. It shows that peo­p­le want to co-invest in the qua­li­ty and lon­ge­vi­ty of their Joli­ne Jolink purchases.

Joli­ne Jolink cares about ethi­cal working con­di­ti­ons and the­r­e­fo­re pro­du­ces much of its coll­ec­tion in Euro­pe. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, we don’t know much infor­ma­ti­on about the fac­to­ries; the brand only com­mu­ni­ca­tes the pro­duc­tion count­ries. On top of that, the ori­gin of the mate­ri­als is often not traceable eit­her. As a result, the brand does not score well in terms of transparency.