Merchant & Mills – Sea of Trees EU Linen €46,00 pm

Besides the Merchant & Mills Sea of Trees EU Linen, you can find more of their collection here.

More about the linen:

Linen is naturally stain-resistant, does not pile, and is moth repellent. It is easy to wash as it can sustain high temperatures, is has very little if no shrinkage and is very strong.

It is anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, hypoallergenic, and thermoregulating, it will also absorb up to 20% moisture before feeling damp.

As the linen fibres have low elasticity (which causes it to crease) it will wear in any areas that are repeatedly folded in the same place for a long time, however, it does have much better abrasion resistance than say cotton.

Eco Credentials:

Flax is a strong plant best grown in northern Europe. It needs little or no fertilizers and due to the local climate, little extra water. It doesn’t really require many pesticides either as it can grow in poor quality soil. The Advisory Commission Report to the European Parliament stated that flax cultivation has positive effects on eco-system diversity as it allows for an “environmental pause”. One hectare of flax can retain 3.7 tonnes of CO2. Every part of the plant is used, what isn’t used to produce linen can be used to make linseed oil, paper, cattle feed or even soap.

Linen is therefore almost naturally organic. It is completely biodegradable, recyclable and due to its natural absorbency, it requires less dye than cotton. Linen therefore scores high on the ecological chart.

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Carolyn Denham and Roderick Field began Merchant & Mills in 2010 with the intention of bringing style and purpose to the overlooked world of sewing.

Style: The decision was made to put style to work in the presentation and packaging, as a language that would attract the very people that had hitherto overlooked sewing. Equally, they were determined to include the steadfast makers and menders who had continued regardless of current trends

Purpose: in supplying patterns, fabrics, and tools that allowed the creation of a desirable functioning wardrobe. Merchant & Mills offers a viable, wearable alternative to the increasingly indistinguishable options of the high street.

Merchant & Mills continues to grow steadily, evolving and developing as experience and ideas demand. Carolyn and Roderick now travel the world in search of unique and beautiful fabrics, finding aesthetic and practical inspiration along the way. Merchant & Mills products are stocked in the world’s most respected outlets and the company has successfully collaborated with London’s V&A Museum and Alexander McQueen.

New patterns and products emerge, never rushed to market, but slowly developed to be exemplary, desirable, and pragmatic.
Their ethos is to respect the roots of sewing, from trade to home dressmaking, as we enable and inspire more people to find the satisfaction of simply making. To this end, they have published three instructive, illustrated books.

Carolyn Denham has a degree in Fashion Design and has worked in New York, Italy, and London.
Roderick Field is a respected photographer with works in the National Portrait Gallery.