A coffee with Marthe

Hi Marthe, welcome to the Lepelclub journal. We’re so happy to have you here with us! First thing’s first, can you tell us a little more about yourself?

Hi! I am Marthe founder of MARIE MARIE - a bag brand based in Amsterdam. We make crochet bags, together with a community of women, coming from every corner of the country. I founded the brand 3 years ago and both we and our community have been growing ever since. 

Where did you grow up and where do you live now? 

I grew up in De Zaanstreek (maybe you know the Zaanse Schans!) very close to Amsterdam, and I moved to the city when I was 20. I now live in a cosy apartment at the Weesperzijde together with my boyfriend and 2 very cute cats. 

What was the inspiration behind starting Marie Marie? 

Two things: my grandmothers crochet club, where I saw a sense of togetherness and connection that I sometimes miss in my own generation, and the fact that fashion is a very polluting industry. Those two things combined made Marie: using fashion as a force for something good. Today we have a crochet club of more then 200 women, whom we bring together in several WhatsApp and Facebook groups and the connection we have trough crochet. By crocheting for MARIE MARIE, we want to add purpose to their hobby - and share this passion with others. What truly inspires me about that is that trough this, I’ve met so many people that I would not have met otherwise. And I think that is a solution for many problems: stepping out of your own bubble and find something that connects you to other people. Because when you have that connection, the differences don’t matter that much. 

We love how sustainable your practices are! What was the biggest challenge in creating the crocheting community you currently have? 

Haha, many. But the main thing I have to say is scaling our business to keep up with the demand. Crocheting is something that always needs to be done by hand. We are growing quite fast, and to our community crocheting is a hobby, and we want to keep it that way. It is difficult to keep track of your supply chain when so many people and steps are involved. But luckily we are busy with onboarding a production partner that shares the same values as we do, and are building our own social production facility from where we can send out crochet packages, keep yarn in stock and assemble our bags. 

Congratulations on winning the BOLD future award! Can you share what this means for you and your brand?

Thank you so much! To me it felt like a recognition and motivation to continue to do what I am doing. When you are stuck in the day-to-day business, you sometimes forget to look at your achievements and celebrate your successes, so this award was a huge celebration for me. For MARIE MARIE I think it brought us exposure we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. 

When you’re not working, how do you spend your time? 

Did you know I had to think about that for a while? Haha, MARIE is my life. But I love strolling around the city with no plan, we live close to the Utrechtse straat, do some (window) shopping, get fresh groceries, a spontaneous Saturday afternoon ‘borrel’  with friends in a nice brown café and then go home for a home cooked meal (by my boyfriend, he is a great cook, me not so much). I also love Rocycle - it helps me relax my mind after a busy day. 

 And our favorite question here at the club, how do you take your coffee? 

At the office I like black Americano with no sugar, but when I order coffee at a coffee shop I love my coffee with oat milk.