Our View on Sustainability
Sustainability is the main policy of Studio Myr, built on 8 pillars that are equally important to me:
validating the art of fashion
designing and producing from intuition and at a natural pace
respect and admiration for the age-old craft
indebtedness to nature and its resources
producing ethically
zero waste policy
using only high quality, certified yarns
no sale
no seasonal collections
From the very beginning I have shaped Studio Myr from my intuition and personal conviction. When I first started my business in 2013, sustainability was not yet a buzzword. Knitting was an old woman's business, and certainly not fashionable.
I fell in love with this magical, age-old craft that allows me, as a designer, to build an entire garment from a single thread.
A bit of my personal background
As a child I grew up with the image of my mother knitting in the evening or on a calm afternoon. I could watch her hands and the repetitive tapping of the needles in fascination.
My mother had a great taste for fashion, and I got my love for it from her.
When she was a young women, in the fifties and sixties, fashion was a very intimate affair. The way she bought her clothes, putted together her wardrobe, saved for it and then how frugal she was with it, left me with a strong sense of value. For her, clothing was a feast for the senses; wonderful to touch, weigh and weigh before a purchase, choose only the best quality, and then cherish it for years to come. Years later she could still tell animatedly and with great love about a certain dress or coat; where she bought it, when she wore it, what details it had, how long she got it.
I wanted to make fashion in that tradition, working with the best materials, for women and men, who have a feeling and appreciation for quality and uniqueness.
In touch with nature
I have always felt a deep connection with nature. My respect and amazement continue to grow, and with it my caution.
I know that the raw materials I use to make my designs actually belong to the animals and plants, to keep them warm and to feed them, and ultimately enables them to survive.
I feel a great connection and admiration for the many generations before me who have developed ways and techniques, like knitting, to make use of these natural resources. Most of them have not changed over thousands of years. Their concept is so basic and ingenious that improvement is simply not possible and not necessary.
The only thing that modern man has been able to add is mechanization of these processes. This has increased its scale, but it also made its soul disappear.
Being part of an age old traditional craft
It is precisely this artisanal way of producing, on a human scale, that appeals to me.
For thousands of years people made clothing on a small scale, without harming animals or the natural environment. They put their hart and soul into it and production was only made according to need, and clothing was certainly not a disposable product.
I have no solution for mass production and mass consumption. All I can do as a knitwear designer is to produce as conscientiously as possible.
Ethical Production of Studio Myr Designs
I started my creative career as a knitwear designer by knitting my designs by hand. When the number of orders started to exceed my production capacity, I learned myself how to knit on a consumer knitting machine. Within a year the demand increased further, so I started looking for a local partner. I found it in Knit-it, one of the last knitting factories in the Netherlands.
https://www.knit-it.nl
One of my hand knitted designs
Working on my knitting machine
Owner Rudi Rots at his knitting factory in The Netherlands
It feels very natural to me to produce locally. I do not want to be involved in any way with commercial exploitation of people, animals or nature. I am very happy to notice that this appeals to more and more customers.
Zero waste and fully fashioned
All of my designs are produced fully fashioned. This means that each piece is knitted in exactly the right shape and size. This means that each piece is knitted in exactly the right shape and size. As a result, the only waste is the threads that have to be cut.
This process is more labour-intensive and therefore more expensive than cutting and sealing clothing parts from large knitted fabrics, which produces a lot of unusable waste.
At Knit-it, the knitted fabrics with errors are pulled out and the yarns are reused. Smaller amounts are used in our studio to assemble the garments and make new designs.
Small production runs and stock
The collaboration with Knit-it enables Studio Myr to produce in small quantities. This allows us to keep a small stock, enough to meet the immediate demand of our customers.
OUR Yarn Suppliers
Manifattura IGEA, my supplier of the extrafine Merino wool and velvet yarn, has the energy that feeds their spinning machines produced by solar-panels.
When sourcing raw materials they select certified suppliers and make sure that they have been constantly tested by accredited laboratories.
The animal-origin fibers are RWS certified wool, RMS mohair and RAS alpaca.
The chemical substance content is verified according to REACH and GB18401 standards, while suppliers are committed to respecting all animal welfare obligations.
Their synthetic fibers, season on season are increasingly made from GRS (Global Recycle Standard) recycled materials.
Our cellulosic fibers are exclusively FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified viscose.
https://www.igeayarn.it/sostenibilita.php
IAFIL, our supplier of (Pima) cotton obtained the ISO 14001 certification, working sustainable from the raw material throughout the whole production process. You can find detailed information about their policy on their website https://iafil.it/web/article/stamps
From our suppliers we only purchase certified yarn.
Only Certified yarns
To produce my designs I only use certified yarn. That means they are checked on absence of animal cruelty and use of pesticides, ethical production and human welfare.
I think it is a great achievement that today all this can be communicated transparently.
RWS
RWS is a voluntary global standard that addresses the welfare of sheep and of the land they graze on. The RWS provides verification of the practices that are happening at farm level, giving brands a clear solution that will allow them to make claims about their wool sourcing with confidence. The standard was developed by an international working group through an open and transparent process. Control Union was involved in the standard development from the very beginning as a member of the technical group. CU carried out RWS audits all over the world.
https://certifications.controlunion.com/en/certification-programs/certification-programs/rws-responsible-wool-standard
GOTS
The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) is the worldwide leading textile processing standard for organic fibers, backed up by independent certification of the entire textile supply chain. The aim of the standard is to define requirements to ensure organic status of textiles; from the harvesting of raw materials, environmentally and socially responsible manufacturing, through labelling that provides a credible assurance to the end consumer.
https://global-standard.org
PIMA COTTON
The SUPIMA® trademark is the consumers’ guarantee that the branded textile product they are buying contains the finest U.S.-Grown Pima Cotton. By licensing the entire supply chain SUPIMA® provides added guarantee to customers that SUPIMA® trademarked goods are made with 100% U.S. Pima cotton of the highest quality
https://supima.com
MASTERS OF LINEN
MASTERS OF LINEN® answers Consumer and Corporate Social Responsibility expectations:
Made by European companies, from field to yarn to fabric
Sustainable production, respecting the environment
– from European Flax® fibre: no irrigation*, no GMO, no waste, field retting, mechanical scutching
– to yarn, fabric and finishing according to highest regulations
– Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in progress
Social ethics, European know-how and jobs
Proximity, local, agricultural+textile land identity
High level of service
Excellence and innovation
http://news.europeanflax.com/en/celc/27-club-masters-of-linen/
No Sale
STUDIO MYR produces no seasonal collections, but each collection is being maintained and extended every new season. Due to this policy, the timelessness of the designs and the high quality of the yarns, you can enjoy my creations for many years.
Sustainable Fashion Gift Card & Project Cécé
I am proud that my way of working for many years corresponds to the current standards of sustainability, as used by a number of leading Dutch platforms. The Sustainable Fashion Gift Card (SFGC) and Project Cécé have included Studio Myr in their database. This means that you can redeem your purchases at Studio Myr with a gift voucher SFGC.
More information about sustainability standard you can find on their websites
https://sustainablefashiongiftcard.nl
https://www.projectcece.nl/duurzame-kleding/duurzame-materialen