In the early hours of February 5th, my dear friend Joachim Baan passed away in The Netherlands. We had known each other for years and shared common passions for beauty, art and life. He was the one who turned me into an illustrator by giving me my first commission (a Paris city guide). You can guess how important this guy was in my life. [ Continue reading ]

It is with the deepest of sadness that I have to announce that Another has returned from “we” to “I.” Early this morning, my dear friend, mentor and creative soulmate Joachim passed away. [ Continue reading ]

This might not come as a surprise for those who follow us, but as the tail end of another year has arrived, it is safe to say that twelve months have passed in which we didn’t ‘optimise for distribution’s purposes’. We didn’t scale, streamline, or tried to make things operate more frictionless. Or at least not intentionally. As a result, few people actually asked us to make things faster, they mostly want us to make things better. But everything around us seemingly sped up any way. Causing the same effect, as would’ve been the case if the question would have actually been posed to us. This year, culture might have flattened some more. And like every year since Web 2.0 was coined, even more content was produced and shared (of course we are also part of the problem). Still, ‘the algorithm’ kept promising more efficiency. As it pushed more sameness, chronic boredom repackaged as engagement and the ever-growing fear of missing out (of things we wouldn’t have appreciated to begin with). A stagnant state disguised as ‘growth’. [ Continue reading ]

Like every year, here are two playlists of our favorite music of 2025. Not what Spotify told us we listened to most, but what actually mattered to us, over the course of a year. What demanded our attention instead of sliding into the background. And when we put Joachim’s list next to Christoph’s, we realised they’re both doing exactly what Dijon described: being a sore thumb within the thing. So here they are: As always two sides, but a big 114 tracks divided between us. Christoph’s A Side and Joachim’s B Side. Different vibe, same frequency. (Mostly) different artists, all with the same refusal to disappear into the background. [ Continue reading ]

Almost a year after we first met its founder John, we are proud to share our collaboration with Amsterdam-based garment brand de dam foundation, for which we also invited our friend, and earlier collaborator, Lennard Kok. In the project, we examined the Dutch invention of the polder and translated it into garments, drawings and film. The most visible results are a trench coat and a cap. Both quiet. Both exact. Both built to stand in the wind without complaint.

John’s work is rooted in Dutch cultural heritage. It informs his references and his designs, which carry that influence into the third millennium and into a slowly evolving wardrobe. Understated, made to the highest standards, often produced in his country of birth South Korea, always shaped by a recognisable oversized unisex aesthetic. We wanted to add a perspective on "our own" The Netherlands that differed from his, both critical and curious, forcing ourselves to rediscover something in a country we thought we knew. It did not take long. We found what we were looking for in the artificial hydrological entity that were invented in The Netherlands: the polder. Land pulled from the water and kept alive by machines and patience. A space where survival and design share the same ground. [ Continue reading ]

As Joachim has shared a studio with friend, illustrator and artist Lennard Kok in Utrecht for a few years, we’ve been able to observe his working process up close. Lennard is a person of quiet concentration, making small decisions that accumulate into his signature style, along with his recurring experiments whenever he’s not occupied with larger assignments. We’ve known him for years, even before sharing a studio, and our first collaboration, “Fallen Bird,” dates back to 2017, when we turned one of his drawings into a porcelain sculpture. Since then, he has moved at his own pace. Never stepping into the limelight, just steady, careful steps that have carried his work into the world. [ Continue reading ]

My studio is full of stuff. Books stacked on books, old Another Shop inventory we couldn't part with, samples from collaborations that never quite happened (or those I wanted to keep), things we found and had to have (you know, that thing some people call hoarding - haha). Somehow… It's never becoming less…

And yet, I hate buying new things now. Not hate in the absolute sense, I love stuff, I love making new stuff, and I love putting our creativity to work to get more stuff out there…. I just hate the act of buying. That small lie each purchase tells: that this will complete something. The dopamine flicker that fades before the box is even empty. It started years ago, when I learned that quality is a hollow phrase, even for many luxury brands. But it went further. It’s really the realisation that we, as a society, have enough things and that it is a problem.

But then… there are so many nice things made, by lovely brands and friends… We love to see there are still many interesting things being made and sold. Things of real quality and intention. This list is something like that. Or at least those things Christoph and myself are getting excited about. It's our way of loving things without needing to own them (ok, maybe some things we actually do need...). You can have a look. You may appreciate it. You may even understand why someone made this particular belt or coat or book. You can even buy it, if you actually need it. With need being subjective: replacing something broken, completing a collection, it being a thing that you think about for six months and it still means something. This isn't the need: the algorithm showed me, I pay for it with minimum clicks and never look at it again. [ Continue reading ]