Sustainable with consideration for people

Responsible entrepreneurship

At De Ploeg, we have been working on ideas about living and working for over a hundred years. All this time, we have been designing, developing and producing curtain and upholstery fabrics. With attention to the interior and the world around us. With the emphasis on craftsmanship and natural materials.

De Ploeg strives to be a responsible manufacturer, customer, employer, seller and neighbour. Everything we do is designed to grow our business and our customers’ businesses and contribute to a more sustainable world. De Ploeg works on sustainable processes and products. In addition to its ISO 14001 certification, De Ploeg has, for example, the circular curtain fabric SEA. Made from washed-up plastic. SEA gives new life to plastic litter that passionate volunteers from Project U-turn have carefully collected on ocean beaches.

Made to last

In 2012, the designers of plough fabrics started to recycle waste materials into new textile products. One week’s cutting waste was collected and analysed. Cutting waste consists of the pieces of fabric left over during the cutting of orders. Think, for example, of the last piece of fabric at the end of a roll, or a strip with a small weaving flaw.

The fabrics were collected and analysed. Designers then drew inspiration from the beautiful furniture and curtain fabrics: from woven fabrics to print designs, from trevira to wool and felt. During Dutch Design Week 2012 in Eindhoven, we exhibited a one-off collection made from this cutting loss with De Ploeg.

Koda Amsterdam

The idea for Koda Amsterdam came from an encounter during this Dutch Design Week. Diana van Dongen had worked for De Bijenkorf and Gamma, among others, but wanted to start her own business. ‘I knew it had to contain the ingredients of sustainability, textiles and Dutch design, so when I came across this project by De Ploeg during Dutch Design Week, all the pieces of the puzzle fell together’. With the motivation to structurally save cutting waste from the landfill, Diana wrote a plan for a collaboration.

In 2013, Koda Amsterdam was presented at Dutch Design Week. Since then, Diana has been travelling to Aarle-Rixtel every few weeks to collect the fabrics, which she then sorts by colour and type in her studio. The furniture fabrics are perfect for the soft and strong bags, cushions, plaids and pouches. The curtain fabrics are used as lining. The hundreds of different furniture and curtain fabrics make each item unique.

Each product has a label with a unique number, the name of the designer, the origin of the fabric and the workshop that made it. Each one is a unique, stylish and timeless accessory made from leftover materials. In addition to cutting waste from furniture and curtain fabrics, leftover materials from tent fabric and window coverings are now used for Koda products.

Passion and exclusivity

Koda Amsterdam collaborates with Dutch designers. Their inspiration differs, but they share a passion: the love of beautiful fabrics. Koda products are made with care in Dutch ateliers by people distanced from the labour market. The result of passion and craftsmanship: beautiful and unique pouches and bags, cushions and plaids.

De ploeg and Koda Amsterdam

Fitting in with De Ploeg’s aim to do better together, the collaboration with Koda Amsterdam is intensive. Together, many Koda products have since been born and are sold in leading design and museum shops in the Netherlands and even across the country’s borders. The reuse of cutting waste is now a fully-fledged sustainable part of De Ploeg’s life cycle. An aspect to which De Ploeg attaches great importance. We are proud that after just under a decade, a beautiful brand has emerged that turns waste into beauty.

Photography: Hannah Lipowsky