Zoë Detrez

Zoë Det­rez designs and manu­fac­tures all pro­ducts hers­elf from her stu­dio in Rot­ter­dam. The mate­ri­als she uses are also sourced from local sup­pli­ers. The lea­ther, for ins­tance, comes from Bel­gi­um and Ita­ly.

For the jewel­lery coll­ec­tion, Zoë uses recy­cled sil­ver and fair trade gold. This way, the desi­gner can be sure that the metals do not come from mining. Want to know more about the impact of mining and ethi­cal­ly sourced metals? Read the COSH! gui­de to fair jewel­lery here.

The jewel­lery is made in gold and sil­ver. The brand works exclu­si­ve­ly with metals from Euro­pean sup­pli­ers, who have qua­li­ty cer­ti­fi­ca­tes. Moreo­ver, the sil­ver is lar­ge­ly recy­cled, and the gold has a fair trade cer­ti­fi­ca­te.

The hand­bag coll­ec­tion is made of vege­tal-tan­ned cow lea­ther. This means that no harmful che­mi­cals such as chro­mi­um were used in the tan­ning pro­cess. In addi­ti­on, the lea­ther comes from Euro­pean pro­du­cers that com­ply with the strict envi­ron­men­tal legis­la­ti­on of the Euro­pean Union.

Find out more about the pros and cons of the lea­ther indus­try here.

Pure mate­ri­als are at the heart of Zoë Det­re­z’s designs. Metals such as gold and sil­ver are cir­cu­lar becau­se they always retain their value, and can the­r­e­fo­re be remel­ted repea­ted­ly. This is why Zoë uses recy­cled sil­ver; moreo­ver, she also remelts metals hers­elf when needed.

The hand­bags are also desi­gned accor­ding to cir­cu­lar prin­ci­ples. The bags are made from vege­tal-tan­ned lea­ther, wit­hout any other mate­ri­als such as a lining. This makes the bags not only easier to recy­cle after use, but also easy to repair if needed.

Zoë Det­rez has a short sup­p­ly chain as she makes ever­y­thing hers­elf in Rot­ter­dam! She works with sup­pli­ers from the Net­her­lands, Ita­ly and Bel­gi­um. This way, you can be sure that your purcha­se does not have to tra­vel a long distance!

The bag coll­ec­tion is made of vege­tal-tan­ned cow lea­ther. For this, Zoë works with pro­duc­tion part­ners in Bel­gi­um and Ita­ly. This ensu­res that the pro­du­cers must com­ply with the strict labour and envi­ron­men­tal laws of the Euro­pean Uni­on, but unfort­u­na­te­ly says not­hing about ani­mal wel­fa­re. In the lea­ther indus­try, the­re is unfort­u­na­te­ly litt­le trans­pa­ren­cy, making it impos­si­ble for small brands like Zoë Det­rez to com­ple­te­ly trace the ori­gin of the leather.

Zoë Det­rez is also explo­ring pos­si­bi­li­ties to launch a vegan hand­bag in the future. In order to do this with sus­tainable and high-qua­li­ty mate­ri­als, the desi­gner is rese­ar­ching dif­fe­rent vegan lea­ther alternatives.

Zoë Det­rez designs her coll­ec­tions accor­ding to the slow-fashion phi­lo­so­phy. The brand does not release coll­ec­tions, but choo­ses to launch new designs throug­hout the year. The designs are tim­e­l­ess, sea­son­less and gen­der­less. This way, Zoë Det­rez wants to make her jewel­lery and hand­bags acces­si­ble to everyone.

The artis­a­nal pro­duc­tion pro­cess ensu­res that each pro­duct is uni­que. Zoë always pro­du­ces in small runs or made-to-order. This means that the pro­duct is only made after the order is pla­ced. In this way, the brand ensu­res it does not crea­te overstock.

Both the jewel­lery and hand­bags fol­low Zoë Det­re­z’s reco­g­nisable design style. The designs are mini­ma­list play­ing with clean geo­me­tric shapes. Thanks to the sleek shapes, the mate­ri­als are being high­ligh­ted. In both the bags and jewel­lery, the mate­ri­als are used in their pure, natu­ral uni­que­ness.

Thanks to small-sca­le pro­duc­tion, Zoë Det­rez is trans­pa­rent about her work. All designs are hand­ma­de in the Rot­ter­dam stu­dio. The desi­gner also shares infor­ma­ti­on about the ori­gin of the materials.