2_1_ScanMag_69_Oct_2014_Text:Scan Magazine 1
6/10/14
11:58
Page 17
Scan Magazine | Design Profile | Joha
Practical perspectives Joha’s commitment to excellence is reflected in their relationship with customers. They often make improvements in the next season’s collection based on customer suggestions, which they receive regularly via social media. To increase practicality, for example, most Joha products – including wool – are now machine washable and dryable. “To do this, we’ve had to cut down on some organic materials for now, but these are sacrifices worth making in order to help out families.” The couple has an energetic four-year-old son themselves, and they therefore appreciate that clothes must be easy to use and practical to avoid ending up at the dreaded bottom of the inevitable washing pile. “Joha’s aim,” Kristine explains, “is to make the clothes so comfortable you don’t even notice you’re wearing them.” Children themselves provide the best feedback on their new clothes. The very first to try on Joha products are the kids who model the clothes at photo shoots. While children’s honesty can sometimes be brutal, one of the highlights at Joha is when the young models have new clothes put on and immediately start playing around and getting them dirty. This shows, Kristine points out, that the item does exactly what Joha intends it to.
The Johansens are working to bring the 120-year-old adult undergarment company back to its organic roots.
Hammerthor underwear back to its purely organic origins. “There’s always something we can improve,” Kristine laughs. “The day we’re fully satisfied with the business is the day we should stop.” The Johansens certainly practise what they preach: the couple also recently took over Katvig, a children’s clothing company whose slogan ‘For the love of earth’ reflects its exclusive dealings with organic and recycled materials.
Japan. Their fabulous website, which is fun, engaging and worth a visit in itself, shows the locations of Joha retailers across the globe, and if you live far from such a shop, Joha urges you to give them a call: their multilingual staff will happily guide you to an online shop to order from or find alternative solutions to fit your needs.
The soft touch The high quality of Joha’s Merino products ensures that the wool is fine and gentle rather than crass and itchy, and what is more, wool naturally works with the body to regulate temperature. The comfort of Joha’s woollen products is evidenced by the popularity of their sensitive skin range; in fact, Joha has even become a highly popular brand for premature babies.
Joha’s clothes and underwear are sold in shops across Europe and as far away as
For more information, please visit: www.joha.dk
If you are still not convinced that wool can be that comfortable, Joha has the answer: grown-ups can now experience their fine woollen clothing themselves, as the Johansens recently acquired the historical company Hammerthor, founded in 1893, which has produced comfortable and practical adult undergarments in strictly natural materials ever since. One of the Johansens’ current projects is bringing
Issue 69 | October 2014 | 17