Diana van Dongen
Founder
Koda Amsterdam crafts unique, long-lasting accessories repurposing surplus fabrics from top Dutch brands. Fusing simplicity and sophistication, Koda brightens your daily life with timeless designs that seamlessly blend into your world.
About the Maker
The idea for Koda Amsterdam arose in 2012 during a meeting at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. The Dutch furniture and curtain fabric brand De Ploeg showed a one-off collection made from their cutting waste: the pieces of fabric that remain during the cutting of orders. Diana had worked for De Bijenkorf and Gamma, among others, but wanted to start her own company. “I knew that the ingredients sustainability, textiles and Dutch design had to play a role, so when I came across this project by De Ploeg during Dutch Design Week, all the pieces of the puzzle came together.” With the motivation to structurally save the cutting waste from the landfill, Diana sketched a plan for a collaboration.
Production Process & Sustainability
Every few weeks Diana travels to Aarle-Rixtel to collect the fabrics, which she then sorts in her studio by color and type. The furniture fabrics are perfect for soft and strong bags, laptop sleeves and cases. The curtain fabrics are used as lining. The designs come from various Dutch designers, including Chris van Veghel (Pouch and Briquette) and Nikki Giling (Rafel and Plissé bag). The hundreds of different furniture and curtain fabrics make every item unique. Each product has a label with a unique number, the name of the designer, the origin of the fabric and the studio that made it. After the collaboration with De Ploeg, Diana has now also launched products from Luxaflex pleated curtain fabrics and the cutting loss from Karsten Tenten from Zwaag.
Most of the production takes place at Pantar, the Amsterdam work-training company in the North of Amsterdam that offers work for people distanced from the labor market. Every Wednesday Diana is here to discuss the production of her accessories. Technically complex products are made in the studio of Els Roseboom in Zaandam.
Go for it!
Koda Amsterdam can be purchased at: Friday Next, Spiegel, &K and Stedelijk Museum (museum shop) in Amsterdam, Textiel Museum Tilburg and Museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar.
