Meet the Maker: Guave
‘Our names are Romée Mulder and Myrthe Groot and together we form Guave. We are fashion designers, social entrepreneurs and idealists. We make clothes that reflect our backgrounds; we are both from Twente in the east of the Netherlands and have an Indonesian father.’
How did Guave come to life?
‘We met in art school (HKU) where we studies fashion design. But after a year we came to the conclusion that it was not what we wanted. Romée went to Reinwardt Academy and Myrthe studied art history. We never grew apart, always stayed in touch and shared not only our love for textiles but also our stories about the Indonesian sides of our families from Java. There are many stories in our families that no one knows the full scope of. Some of them are beautiful, other stories are a little dark. No one really ever talked about the colonial history, which was exactly what we became more and more interested in. So we started researching together. A lot can be found in archives, but in the end it is more about how it all comes together for you and how you react to it. How it makes you you.’
More of this entry is available in Dutch