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 ]

Absolute Zeitgeist—the open-source curatorial magazine exploring the themes and forces shaping our time—invited Joachim to guest curate and edit their second issue, published by our friends at LMNOP. The theme: Bored.

Exploring what it means to be bored in an age that relentlessly monetizes our attention, together with LMNOP and Martijn Ros, Joachim developed six distinct lenses to examine boredom from multiple perspectives. For which then Wisse Ankersmit, Jorn Bartelema, Mark Hinch and Christoph were invited to reflect on each of these lenses through original contributions.

The magazine is available for purchase [here]. Joachim’s introduction and Christoph’s essay are included below. [ Continue reading ]

Over the past few weeks, we’ve had the privilege of working on a special tribute to Theodor Schokker—an Amsterdam-born artist whose life and work span nearly a century of Dutch history. Now 92, Schokker is one of the last living artists of his generation, shaped by a lifetime of hands-on craftsmanship and unwavering artistic vision.

Together with Keith White, San Ming, Thomas Moody, and the Schokker family, we curated a small yet meaningful exhibition that offers a rare overview of his sculptural practice. Alongside it, we created a publication and a companion website to shed light on his remarkable story and body of work—much of which has quietly endured outside the spotlight. The exhibition is still open (by appointment only) to see in Amsterdam.

After the click, you’ll find an intimate interview Christoph had with Theodor, offering insight into the making of a singular artist—and the man behind the metal and stone. [ Continue reading ]

The other day I walked past a shop window in Utrecht that read, “Buy here and make the world better.” I won’t repeat what I felt like throwing through that window, but let’s just say a passing glance wouldn’t have done my frustration justice. And that frustration wasn’t just about the tone-deaf message, as if consumption ever makes the world better, but because that same frustration has been showing up more and more often lately. After reading Reint Jan Renes’ opinion piece in de Volkskrant from June 26 (dutch only) “We need a mental Ozempic for our urge to buy,” it became painfully clear. This isn’t simple. It’s not a matter of an injection, a pill, or a clever sentence on a shop window. Reality is more messy. The urge to consume runs deep, and the system that creates it runs even deeper. What we call “good” in this context is often just a less harmful version of the same problem, packaged as moral progress. As if buying “consciously” suddenly exempts you from the damage. But even second-hand platforms like Vinted operate on the same logic as fast fashion: rotation. Quick purchase, quick resale, dopamine rush, environmental impact ignored. [ Continue reading ]