Fjällräven’s Samlaren collection: How to look good and save the planet

Over the last year, we’ve all had the chance to take stock and decide what’s important.

For some, that’s meant learning a new language. Others have taken solace in wood carving, breadmaking or baking fancy cakes to put on Instagram.

At Umbrella, we’ve learned an indisputable truth about ourselves: we love coats. Proper, made-for-the-arctic-yet-still-look-fab-in-cafes jackets. Usually made by obscure family-owned businesses with factories located in the Nordic forest.

Which brings us to Fjällräven.

If you’ve any interest in outerwear, hard-as-nails rucksacks or trousers with perhaps too many pockets, you’ll be aware of the brand. Since 1960, it’s been making the hardiest of hardy outerwear and hiking equipment, which, over the last couple of decades has found favour with everyone from northern casuals (the Greenland jacket) to Spanish schoolkids (Kånken rucksack).

So far, so good. However, all this clothing consumption – and generally, we’re all for consumption – has to be tempered when the planet’s resources are worryingly finite.

Which is why Fjällräven is launching the Samlaren collection, a range of clothes and bags made entirely from cut-off and leftover bits of material.

It says: “Samlaren is a new concept rooted in Fjällräven’s commitment to quality and tradition of not letting resources go to waste. The idea behind Samlaren is to create an initiative for sustainability and innovation with the mission to explore circularity and create inspiration for a better and more sustainable future.”

“Samlaren is a new concept rooted in Fjällräven’s commitment to quality and tradition of not letting resources go to waste”

There’s a bit of history here: when brand founder Åke Nordin made the first Greenland jacket (Hello, Manchester!), he used a roll of fabric leftover from Fjällräven’s weather-busting Thermo tent. In fact, few clothing brands are as closely associated with the environment as Fjällräven – its name means ‘arctic fox’ in Swedish.

While all this is admirable, we wouldn’t be writing about it if the gear wasn’t wasn’t any good.

Happily, it’s sensational. The Samlaren collection, made from surplus G-1000 fabric, boasts classic Greenland jackets in colour-block patchwork, a Kånken backpack with a pleasing amount of pockets, a natty cap and some riffs on the Fjällräven work-a-day tote bag.