A good example of the result is Hannoh’s new 100% cotton dresses. The hand-woven cotton dresses flow with a gentle, country ease, while the designs — one with what looks like falling polka dots tipsy from a Rick Owens dinner party and the other with straight-line etches fit for Ann Demeulemeester — add hints of the metropolis.
     The opposite is true for Hannoh’s wool jackets. Although they too are made from hand-woven fabrics, this time from distant Scottish islands, the patterns are plain while the cuts betray the work of an expert city tailor. (Wessel attended the prestigous Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture in Paris and has worked for Balenciaga.)
     Another balancing act that Hannoh has mastered is one that often leaves others in the “slow fashion” movement in the dark: the one between eco-friendliness and affordability. Except for one collection, Hannoh has used only natural fabrics, like linens, cottons, and silks, and it has paid its workers better than average.
     ”A piece must be affordable for a maximum number of people, but it can’t be cheap. You can’t do sustainable things and have them come out cheap. If it’s cheap, then it has to be made in China, it has to be optimized, it has been rationalized. But slow fashion is not rationalized. There are many complicated techniques used with specialists involved,” explains Wessel in his shop on a sunny spring day in Paris. Here’s to Hannoh being around for decades longer.