Hul le Kes

Production locations

• Design, head offi­ce, pro­duc­ti­on & shop: Arn­hem, the Netherlands
• Jer­sey knitwe­ar manu­fac­tu­rer: Portugal

All items from the Hul le Kes desig­ner col­lec­ti­on are made in the com­pany’s own Hul le Kes Manu­fac­tu­ring Stu­dio. In this stu­dio, per­ma­nent employe­es work toget­her with stu­dents and people dis­tan­ced from the labo­ur mar­ket to make unique and upcy­cled gar­ments. The stu­dio, for­mer­ly under the name Stu­dio Ryn, was foun­ded by Sja­ak Hul­le­kes and Sebas­ti­aan Kra­mer in coope­ra­ti­on with edu­ca­ti­on ins­ti­tu­te Rijn IJssel.

The brand also has its own Reco­very Stu­dio, a repa­ir ate­li­er for people and texti­les. Here, dis­car­ded gar­ments are hand-dyed and repa­ired. The reco­very stu­dio exis­ts not only to give texti­les a second life, but also to pro­vi­de a safe envi­ron­ment that hel­ps people reco­ver from the high deman­ds and expec­ta­ti­ons impo­sed by soci­ety. Everyo­ne rece­ives per­so­nal guidan­ce the­re, with the medi­ta­ti­ve aspect and focus of craf­ts hel­ping to unwind. The stu­dio does not work with dead­li­nes, but hel­ps people deve­lop and reco­ver at the­ir own pace.

Final­ly, Hul le Kes is col­la­bo­ra­ting with a Por­tu­gu­ese pro­du­cer to pro­du­ce some gar­ments. This is beca­use jer­sey texti­les are often no lon­ger possi­ble to upcy­cle into somet­hing new. The­re­fo­re, the jer­sey desig­ns are made by a spe­ci­ali­sed knitwe­ar manu­fac­tu­rer in Por­tu­gal that Hul le Kes has direct con­tact with.

Working Conditions & living wages

The Hul le kes stu­di­os focus on wor­king con­di­ti­ons, whe­re the work is adap­ted to the per­son per­for­ming it. Both stu­di­os are based in Arn­hem, and are recog­ni­sed as a Soci­al Enter­pri­se in The Net­her­lan­ds. This means that the stu­di­os offer soci­al employment for people with a dis­tan­ce to the labo­ur market.

Visit the shop in Arn­hem your­self to take a look behind the scenes!

Materials

More than 95% of the mate­ri­als used in Hul le Kes col­lec­ti­ons were ori­gi­nal­ly made for anot­her pur­po­se. The brand col­lec­ts its own old texti­les, such as antique table­clot­hs from Fran­ce, table linens and dis­car­ded clot­hing. Mate­ri­als in the col­lec­ti­on are mos­tly natu­ral, such as cot­ton, linen, wool and hemp.

The brand also uses dead­stock fabrics or pro­duc­ti­on rem­nants in it’s desig­ns, sour­ced from pro­du­cers in the Net­her­lan­ds and Ger­many. Hul le Kes, for exam­ple, part­ne­red up with Yume­ko, a bed linen com­pany. Hul le Kes uses Yume­ko’s pro­duc­ti­on rem­nants and sur­plu­ses as raw mate­ri­als for the­ir unique collections.

Packaging

For all pac­ka­ging, Hul le Kes avo­ids plas­tic as much as possi­ble and wor­ks with exis­ting mate­ri­als as much as possi­ble. For exam­ple, the clot­hes han­gers in the shop are always second-hand, the hang tags in the clot­hes are sour­ced from flea mar­kets and the pac­ka­ging boxes for ship­ments are made from car­d­bo­ard cut­ting waste.

Water usage & chemicals

Texti­les are dyed at the Hul le Kes Reco­very Stu­dio using natu­ral dyes and pro­ce­ssed into new clot­hes by the Manu­fac­tu­ring Stu­dio. At the Reco­very Stu­dio, gar­ments are also hand-repa­ired to give a new life. The brand also col­la­bo­ra­tes with vari­ous orga­ni­sa­ti­ons such as ReSha­re to dye, res­to­re and pro­cess col­lec­ted clot­hes into new designs. 

Circular product design

Cir­cu­la­rity is embed­ded in the very heart of Hul le Kes! Mate­ri­als are given a new life than­ks to dye­ing, res­to­ring and pro­ce­ssing exis­ting texti­les and dead­stock fabrics. Hul le Kes’ unique dye­ing tec­h­niqu­es are per­fect for cove­ring up sta­ins in clot­hes or cur­ta­ins. More­over, the dyes are all-natu­ral, often made with plant and food resi­du­es from cate­ring and other organisations.

Circular business models

Hul le Kes also wor­ks with cir­cu­lar busi­ness models, such as reco­very ser­vi­ces and a take-back ser­vi­ce. The Reco­very Stu­dio offers 3 types of repa­ir services:

• Regu­lar repa­ir ser­vi­ces: ide­al for repa­iring small crac­ks and holes
• Boro and Jogak­bo Ser­vi­ces: suita­ble for lar­ger surfaces
• Men­ding Ser­vi­ces: good for cove­ring sta­ins, crac­ks, wear and tear and more

Do you have a Hul le Kes item you no lon­ger wear? You can return the gar­ment, with its unique pass­port, to give it a new life. More­over, you can also dona­te other texti­les your­self, find out more on the Hul le Kes website.

Distance & complexity of the supply chain

• Pro­duc­ti­on ate­li­ers: Arn­hem, the Netherlands
• Pro­duc­ti­on of jer­sey items: Portugal

The col­lec­ti­ons are desig­ned and made in Arn­hem, whe­re Hul le Kes’ shop and headqu­ar­ters are also loca­ted. Mate­ri­als are sour­ced local­ly, at neig­h­bo­uring flea mar­kets, or thro­ugh col­la­bo­ra­ti­ons with orga­ni­sa­ti­ons and texti­le pro­du­cers in the Net­her­lan­ds and Germany.

Trans­portation

Most of the col­lec­ti­on hard­ly needs any tran­s­port, as the local­ly sour­ced mate­ri­als are pro­ce­ssed in Arn­hem and then sold local­ly in the shop afterwards. 

Only the jer­sey pro­duc­ts tra­vel a slig­h­tly lon­ger dis­tan­ce, as they are pro­du­ced in Por­tu­gal after which they are tran­s­por­ted to the Netherlands.

• Recy­cled wool blankets
• GOTS-cer­ti­fi­ed orga­nic silk

The Hul le Kes col­lec­ti­on is not enti­rely vegan, alt­ho­ugh seve­ral desig­ns are. Dye­ing the texti­les natu­ral­ly, the brand always favo­urs natu­ral mate­ri­als, inclu­ding wool and some­ti­mes silk.

The wool comes from antique wool­len blan­kets, which the brand tur­ns into fashi­ona­ble jac­kets. The texti­les thus get a second life, avo­iding the need for new wool. 

Some desig­ns are made of silk. GOTS-cer­ti­fi­ed, orga­nic silk is used for these. 

Product design

Hul le Kes fol­lows the seasons in the­ir own way. In fact, the natu­ral and plant-based dyes the brand uses are seaso­nal, which hel­ps deter­mi­ne the colo­urs in the col­lec­ti­on. In spring-sum­mer, the brand may dye with flowers and give che­er­ful, fresh colo­urs to the texti­les. In autumn, the­se are more likely to be autum­nal sha­des, than­ks to dyes made from ches­t­nuts and walnuts.

Inte­res­ted in doing this your­self? Hul le Kes orga­ni­ses its own wor­k­shops to learn natu­ral dyeing!

Slow fashion processes

Hul le Kes always wor­ks with one per­ma­nent and seaso­nless col­lec­ti­on. In this, a new design is occa­si­onal­ly added. Still, you are sure to find a unique gar­ment the­re every time, as the brand wor­ks with upcy­cled mate­ri­als that are ava­ila­ble in small quan­ti­ti­es. The mate­ri­al deter­mi­nes what kind of gar­ment or pro­duct is made with it. 

Some jac­kets can be orde­red as made-to-order. This means that the jac­ket is pro­du­ced only after you order it. So you can cho­ose which colo­ur style you want it in, and you can even have your own wool blan­ket made into a unique jacket!

Transparency on product

Each Hul le Kes gar­ment has its own unique code. Using this code, the brand can keep track of all infor­ma­ti­on abo­ut each garment.

In addi­ti­on, each gar­ment (with reta­il pri­ce of +€200) has its own pass­port. This lit­tle book is deli­ve­red along with the gar­ment. You will find all the infor­ma­ti­on abo­ut who made the gar­ment, when it was fini­shed, when you boug­ht it and the mate­ri­als. 
You are also enco­ura­ged to add to this pass­port your­self with all the infor­ma­ti­on abo­ut the life of your gar­ment. Every occa­si­on on which you wear it, every sta­in or repa­ir is an anec­do­te in the story of your clot­hing. This way, you incre­ase your con­nec­ti­on with your clot­hing and it will enjoy a lon­ger life.

Still want to pass on or resell your Hul le Kes item? Then the new owner can read all abo­ut it in the passport!

Transparency on processes

Hul le Kes gets a mons­ter sco­re for tran­s­pa­ren­cy than­ks to the weal­th of infor­ma­ti­on ava­ila­ble on the­ir web­si­te. You can read all abo­ut the two pro­duc­ti­on wor­k­shops and the mate­ri­als in the collections.