The philosophy of Rianne de Witte is to create beauty combined within a spirit of protection. Related to this, she designed in 1996 the logo for her brand. The logo of the house is a turtle with a garment shown on its shield. Escudo is the Spanish and Portuguese name for shield of turtle, and all over the world this animal symbolises fertilility, protection and long life. For this reason the original company name of the fashionhouse is called ‘el Escudo’.
In her ideas about the clothes; Rianne de Witte likes to play with the human inner and outer world. The contrasts she achieves in the designs, by the choice of materials combined with the way they are shaped, often create a surreal atmosphere mixed with a typical way of humour.
For example , in the collection ‘Fairy skins’, the concept is based on protection in relation to Religions and skin colours.
This theme expresses her vision on the contrasts between ‘origin and skin colour’ of various cultures. The shapes are inspired by the christening baptism dress. This traditional garment has its origin in Christian culture and represents initiation, birth and security. It is a garment, which people wear once in a lifetime. “In combination with the context of “skin colour” it creates both a classic and a surrealist image of protection."
Rianne de Witte also designed an original collection of accessories.
This collection of accessories is a subtle reaction to the current social climate, while retaining a ‘clearly playful character'. The designs ‘An arm to hold you’ and ‘Peace deux pièce’ became important trade marks for the ‘Rianne de Witte’ collections. In 2006, Rianne de Witte was nominated for these designs by the Dutch design awards. www.nederlandsedesignprijzen.nl
Ethical issues addressed:
Impassioned by the world of fashion and nature, Rianne de Witte is a designer that wants to work in a honest and conscious way, relating to people and the environment. The style of Rianne de Witte can be mentioned as ‘Clean-Chique’.
Over the last 12 years, Rianne de Witte developed her own style of working with high standard sustainable fabrics which respect the environment. For Rianne de Witte, this is a way of life, and not a marketing selling point. But, as we notice that people nowadays want to know how and where there clothes are coming from, we like to inform you about these matters and explain some practical issues about making ‘Clean-Chique’ fashion.
Working in a ‘fair trade’ way is not easy, and therefore we work out things, step by step. Rianne de Witte is not telling you that every detail of every garment will be perfectly ecological or organic, but the target is to find the best way we can and always keep looking for better solutions. Some people think that only clothes of 100% organic sources are ok!
In the concept of wearing sustainable garments, you have to know that organic is not always better than other sources!
Rianne de Witte stands for sustainable garments. Using sustainable fabrics is not saying that we use only ‘organic’ materials. For good reasons it is better for the environment to use synthetic materials than organic, whereas for some type of garments you can use silk or linen yarn.
It is important to know that some materials are not available as ‘organic’ at all, and this is not without reason. In the fashion industry, stitch-yarns and other accessories for making a garment are not yet available in 100% organic materials .Besides that, if they were so at the moment, they would not be strong enough. Therefore , Rianne de Witte uses synthetic accessories to finish a garment , always using the highest quality and the best suppliers.
Certifications/standards:
The clothes of Rianne de Witte are fairtrade produced. Fairtrade produced clothes means that the clothes produced in a balanced climate, without abuse from labour, woman or children. Rianne de Witte is also linked to MADE-BY, the umbrella-label for substainable produced fashion. Made-by help us to find good suppliers and producers that work with certification like S8000. The clothes of Rianne de Witte are made in The Netherlands, Poland, China, and Peru. Rianne de witte is not yet connected to the tracking system of MADE-BY, but in the future you can track the history of each ‘Rianne de Witte’ item. With this service, you can see in details were your garment is coming from, were it is made.
You can recognise all the MADE-BY brands, by the blue button with made-by logo which is connected to the clothes.
