For the fourth video of Freiraum’s format ‘Video Insides’, Archivist co-founder Eugenie Haitsma meets with the journalist and activist, Eliza Edwards, who is specialised in environmental and ethical design. Archivist is the Berlin- and Amsterdam-based brand that takes hotel bed sheets and turns them into beautifully crafted, high-quality shirts. The upcycling label sets an example against overproduction and unnecessary waste by saving fabrics from being discarded. We met with the co-founder of Archivist and talked with her about how Covid-19 increased our awareness for sustainable causes, the production process and climate-responsibilities for young fashion brands.

Founded by Eugenie Haitsma and Johannes Offerhaus, Archivist is a brand whose approach is based on the principle of upcycling. What started as a curious question about the ultimate destination of luxury hotel bed sheets, turned into a sustainable fashion brand. Archivist started with 200 kilos of fine Egyptian cotton from London’s Mayfair hotels and now creates timeless unisex shirts from varying European hotels. The shirts are produced in a family-owned manufacturing facility in Bucharest. Archivist is not only sustainable and eco-friendly, it actively tackles the issues of overproduction and our throwaway-consumption by using what is already there.

Archivist’s collections are made from former bed sheets used within the hotel-industry. While the quality of the material is high and the condition is still great, after a while of usage, those sheets are discarded. Archivist takes on this problem by upcycling the luxury material to white shirts that fit every occasion.

The materials are sourced from European luxury hotels and produced within a family enterprise in Bucharest, Rumania. This approach guarantees short delivery routes, thus, fewer CO2-emissions, a fairly paid production processed, and European environment-standards.

While the no-waste sustainability icon is usually used to describe the process of developing patterns that are optimised in order to use all or most of the available material, Archivist’s less-waste icon is different: The shirt brand saves material from becoming waste by giving it a second life.