Where does the heart of Dutch fashion beat? Is it only in the capital Amsterdam or can you really find fashion in many other places? FashionUnited takes a look away from Amsterdam and looks at other cities that contribute to the Dutch fashion industry. In no particular order: six fashion cities.
Enschede
There are several cities in the Netherlands with historical connections to the fashion and textile industry. Enschede is one of them.
The Twente region, which also includes Enschede, has a rich history of textile production. Farmers in this area wove flax and cotton yarns into bombasin (a fabric originally made of silk or silk and wool, but now also made of cotton and wool or just wool) during the winter. The weaving took place at the farmers’ homes, after which traders collected the material for resale. However, in the second half of the 19th century, the textile industry became industrialized and moved from farms to factories. These factories were generally empty in the 1960s when the Dutch textile industry faced competition from low-wage countries and stricter environmental regulations.
Several initiatives aim to bring Enschede back to its former textile glory. For example, Enschede Textile City, an industrial weaving mill that produces fabrics from natural and local yarns. In 2021, the Circular Textile Lab was also opened in Enschede, which is supported by the Texplus Foundation and the Saxion training institute, among others.
Maastricht
Maastricht has been named the shopping capital of the Netherlands several times by the Central Statistical Office (CBS). Research by FashionUnited found that among the 25 largest municipalities in the Netherlands, Maastricht still has the most shops per 1,000 inhabitants: 6.9 shops per 1,000 inhabitants, CBS said on request.
Maastricht is also popular with brands to open a first Dutch store or to expand further in the Netherlands. After all, Maastricht is close to both the Belgian and German borders. For example, Turkish diamond dealer Makdis Diamond & Jewelery settled in Maastricht in 2022, and Belgian dealer Veritas plans to open a branch in the city in September. In addition, Kiki Niesten’s shop – which sells luxury brands such as Dries van Noten, Celine, Prada and Valentino – is well known in fashion circles.
In addition to numerous fashion shops, Maastricht also has another connection to fashion, namely the annual FashionClash festival. Every autumn, the festival showcases talent from the fields of fashion and performing arts for three days. This includes exhibitions, performances, lectures, workshops and film screenings.
Tilburg
Originally Tilburg was also a textile city, but it focused on wool. The nickname of the Tilburgers, “Kruikenzeikers”, even goes back to the city’s origins as a textile town, and during the carnival the city goes by the name “Kruikenstad”. Human urine was added to fulling woolen cloth, a process used to process wool. It wasn’t until the 20th century that chemicals, soda ash and ammonia began to be used in this process.
Tilburg’s rich history can be seen at the city’s Textile Museum. Here not only various temporary exhibitions are presented, but also a look into an old blanket factory is offered. A textile factory as it existed between 1900 and 1940 was reconstructed. As an extension of the textile museum, there is also the textile laboratory — a workshop for professional producers in which textiles are manufactured.
Utrecht
Utrecht not only has a large indoor shopping center, Hoog Catharijne, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, but also a historic center with many shops of large and small brands.
Online retailer Sophie Stone decided to open its first store here, Tess V recently expanded from Nijmegen to Utrecht and Jack Wolfskin opened its first Dutch store in the Domstad. Fashion brand Object also opened its first monobrand store in the Netherlands, choosing the aforementioned Hoog Catharijne shopping center.
Also not to be missed is the long-established denim shop De Rode Winkel, which dates back to 1837 and takes its name from the red facade of the time. Today it is run by the sixth generation of the Broekman family.
Waalwijk
Waalwijk is located in the De Langstraat region. For centuries, this area was home to farms, tanneries and shoemaking workshops. De Langstraat was therefore a center for the manufacture of leather goods and shoes for a long time. The industrial revolution in the 19th century brought about major changes and in the 1960s and 1970s the leather and shoe industry largely disappeared due to strict environmental regulations in the Netherlands and competition from low-wage countries.
However, the history of shoemaking and leather tanning is still proudly presented in the Langstraat, particularly in Waalwijk. In Waalwijk, for example, there is the Schoenenkwartier (Shoe Quarter), a museum dedicated to the craft of shoemaking.
Arnhem
A city with its own fashion district cannot be missing from this list. The “Modekwartier” includes about sixty small shops and studios from the field of fashion and design. The fashion district was created as part of the district development of Klarendal, the district of Arnhem where this fashion center is located. The aim was to improve the quality of life in the district. Volkshuisvesting Arnhem bought dozens of properties, renovated them and rented them out to fashion and design entrepreneurs.
Arnhem is also the city that hosts a real fashion month once a year with the Fashion + Design Festival and once every two years the fashion biennial State of Fashion. The whole month of June is dedicated to fashion and design in Arnhem. Also contributing to this month is the fact that the ArtEZ University of the Arts is holding its final exams and related exhibitions this month.
ArtEZ is the school where some of the most famous designers in the Netherlands come from. Among others, Iris van Herpen, Rolf Snoering and Viktor Horst (from Viktor&Rolf) and Alexander van Slobbe studied here.
This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.nl. Translated and edited by Simone Preuss.