Wetlands Matters – by Marc Wijkmans
SUSTAINABLE INNOVATIONS
In the Netherlands, where land and water are always at odds with each other, design often has to work with ecology. Marc Wijkmans Studio “Wetlands” takes this conversation into textiles, treating fabrics not as neutral surfaces but as active participants that can help landscapes grow.
Wijkman’s idea came from a simple but important observation: animals carry seeds across ecosystems in their fur. He made a fabric that purposely catches and spreads seeds by imitating this natural process. The material is made of wool, sodium alginate, and linseed oil, and it doesn’t have the smooth, perfect look of regular fabrics. Instead, its value comes from its flaws, how it can get stuck, carry things, and help the process of re-wilding continue. This approach goes against what people think about outdoor clothing.
“Seeds stick to fur. Building on this, I came up with the idea to give the material a fur-like surface.”
Marc Wijkmans
Making the material
As most of us know, performance fabrics today are largely synthetic-engineered to be strong and water-resistant, yet infamous for shedding microplastics. Wetlands Matters challenges this conventional notion of “functionality.” Here, performance is redefined: not about keeping people dry, but about serving the ecological needs of a site.
Tested in the Hemelrijkse Waard nature reserve, the textile demonstrates that protection can be mutual – between wearer and landscape. From this emerges a clear lesson for the fashion and textile industries: materials must be rethought entirely. What if fabrics were designed to collaborate with their surroundings rather than resist them? What if impermanence and biodegradability were not flaws, but essential virtues for a sustainable future?
All in all, Wetlands Matters doesn’t say that it has a solution that is ready to sell. It works as a provocation instead: a reminder that the future of textiles may be less about how long they last and how well they work in the narrow sense and more about how they can help landscapes grow quietly and steadily.
H2 | SI
Repairing the material
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