Farming Fashion – Former finalist Joline Jolink’s fashion revolution

If you don’t have chicken, you might never have heard about Welsum, a village in the Dutch countryside, home to the Welsum breed, a beautifully resilient animal producing very elegant and delicious brownish eggs. But if you’re reading here, you probably know Joline Jolink, a fashion designer from the very first generation of the ITS Family: she was an ITS Contest finalist in 2002. Joline, in Welsum, is working on a quiet revolution in sustainable fashion.

After years of navigating the fast-paced world of fashion, she chose a radically different path—one grounded in nature, localism, and regenerative practices. Jolink’s journey began with a disillusionment. After graduating from fashion school and attempting to establish herself within the traditional fashion system, she felt a disconnect. Designing collections that would be presented during fashion shows, desperately trying to get your foot in with the big brands…it just didn’t resonate with who she wanted to be. This discomfort led her to launch the Netherlands’ first online fashion store in 2008, offering sustainable garments made from natural materials. Her direct connection with customers brought her a new sense of purpose.

“The biggest challenge is to fundamentally change the minds of people: there will be less products, they will be higher priced, but when you know their story you feel so much more connected with them.”

But Joline’s take on sustainability wasn’t going to stop there. In 2023, she and her partner Peter moved to a 1.1-hectare permaculture farm in Welsum, which they transformed into the Joline Jolink Fashion Farm. This is where she evolved her philosophy, going from sustainability to regeneration – a deeper commitment to creating fashion that not only minimizes harm, but actively supports ecosystems.

“We consider ecological and social profit equally important as financial profit. We fund the regenerative collections of the future”

At the farm, Jolink grows her own flax to produce linen, using traditional techniques to transform the plant fibers into fabric. Volunteers join her in weeding, harvesting, and even processing the flax into yarn, learning about the painstaking process of natural textile production. The farm also produces wool, working together with a local mill (The Knitwit Stable) that sources wool from Dutch farmers. It also uses plant-based dyes cultivated on-site, such as woad for a deep indigo hue.

“Every day mother nature gives me signs. And it’s amazing how our move moves so many people.”

This hands-on, locally rooted approach is about more than just the fabric. It’s about storytelling. Joline treasures the intimacy of knowing where each material comes from. Most importantly, she wanted to be able to share that knowledge with her customers, to be much more in touch with the people who are actually wearing her designs.

Yet, for Joline, true sustainability also means setting limits. She has implemented a production cap, ensuring that her brand does not fall into the trap of overproduction. Endless growth is not an attractive goal here,  in this Welsum reign,   “Endless growth is not an attractive goal for me,” she said. “Keeping the balance is challenging enough.”

“Everybody is in search of happiness and love. Well it’s not in buying a new dress, not even a sustainable one.”

Perhaps what we love the most about Joline’s fashion farm is that it is not just a place of production—it is a place of learning. She envisions it as a hub where knowledge is shared, whether through workshops on spinning flax into yarn or through educational activities for visitors. Her goal is clear: pushing the regenerative model as far as it goes, creating garments designed to eventually break down and return their nutrients to the soil. The approach is not driven by dogma or a desire for perfection. It is guided by humility and a willingness to learn. With very little farming experience, in the beginning it was much more a question of observing what happens in the field and trying to learn by doing.

“In the next five years our fashion farm will grow into a place to connect with other regenerative pioneers, but also industry professionals or students, to share knowledge and inspiration. We will show the process from fiber to fashion.”

Ultimately, her goal is to create a ripple effect, encouraging local farmers to grow regenerative crops, inspiring customers to think differently about their clothing, and offering an alternative to the environmentally destructive practices of the global fashion industry. A different approach to growing which mimics nature: just like a tree, one can deepen the root network rather than reach for the sky.

This is the type of progress we are after, and these are the designers we are proud of.