Interview with Aniela Hoitink, Founder of NEFFA & MycoTEX

Don’t miss the boat, and keep on innovating

Tell us a bit about yourself Aniela

My background is in fashion design, then I worked in fashion for circa 10 years. I worked for several companies including Tommy Hilfiger for a period, and I founded my company NEFFA 12 years ago, to focus on fashion innovation.

I hadn’t seen much change in my time in textiles or in textile manufacturing, I wanted to change the industry.

I work a lot in collaboration with research institutes and universities. Growth in textiles was something I was interested in, but learning about how I could actually grow my own material really inspired me, and we have been working on this for a while now through the company in collaboration with others.

Tell us about your business NEFFA?

We really focus on fashion innovation. That could be about solar energy in garments, or making garments visible at night. We (Dutch) are a nation of cyclists, so that’s a really interesting focus, so we are always thinking about how garments can be improved to make our lives better.

There are so many things you can do with innovation and fashion but we focused on incorporating technology into textiles, then we asked how we can incorporate interesting dyes and coatings etc? NEFFA is about exploring and taking influences from technology and the world around us.

caption: Aniela Hoitink working in the lab

credits: Aniela Hoitink | NEFFA

There is some brilliant thinking going on here, but how do you make interesting ideas into a business?

We are the intermediates between research and fashion companies. We have looked at things like flat lightning and how to incorporate things like that into clothing. The problem is getting brands to commit to something like that. You have to make clothing that consumers like, without that it is very difficult, if not impossible. We get a lot of interest in the way that we produce, but getting a commitment from the fashion brands is difficult. We need to change the industry and we need brands to support innovation at an early stage. To collaborate takes investment so many ideas don’t get to market but you do need to collaborate across different parts of the industry  and that’s when you get innovation going.

caption: MycoTEX creating three-dimensional shapes credits: Aniela Hoitink | NEFFA[/caption]

Inspiration cannot be the only thing that moves a project forward then?

Throughout my whole career personalisation has been key. We have done a lot of projects that showcase what is possible, but it takes so much more than that. As I said you need collaboration and the buy-in from producers at an early stage to innovate. You also need perseverance and investment. The skills that I have I picked up, I learnt myself to a large degree or by doing workshops. I have always done my own research, and we have been working in our own lab for the last few years. All of these things are important to our projects moving on.

caption: MycoTEX bag credits: Aniela Hoitink | NEFFA[/caption]

Your focus is MycoTEX then at the moment?

Yes for the last 3 years we have been focusing on it. This will continue, but in the future, it would be great to implement some of the other ideas and projects we have into MycoTEX. We are going to launch in January 2021. We have been working really hard so that when we launch we can be as sure as we can that it is going to work.

Can you recommend any books or podcasts to our readers?

I have been reading Loonshots by Safi Bahcall, which was the last book I read. It is about innovation, it has some really interesting lessons and examples of how companies have been successful and how sometimes things go wrong. I’m trying to set up a business that will last for a long time, but we have to be flexible to ensure that we don’t miss the boat and keep on innovating.

You can learn more about MycoTEX  and NEFFA here https://neffa.nl/mycotex/

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