A family affair: Holzweiler has become the first family of Norwegian fashion

To call Holzweiler a family brand almost feels like an understatement . Founded by siblings Susanne and Andreas Holzweiler nearly a decade ago, the label has steadily evolved to become one of Norway’s greatest fashion success stories while very much keeping things in the family – today, five Holzweilers are on the payroll. “Every time the business grows, we add a new family member,” Susanne says.

The most notable hire is perhaps Maria Skappel Holzweiler, Andreas’ wife, who in her role as design director has developed the brand’s effortless, streetwise aesthetic. “Basics with a twist,” as she puts it. The Holzweilers have invited me over for lunch at Susanne’s classic Norwegian home, a short drive from downtown Oslo. As is often the case with large family gatherings, things are off to a hectic start. Maria’s new puppy, Indy, has eaten a bee and now sits very quietly in her owner’s lap. Maria is on the phone with a veterinarian, asking if there’s anything she can do for her pup as she gently strokes its head.

The appearance of Maria’s mother-in-law, Andreas and Susanne’s mother, Gro Holzweiler, seems to lift the dog’s spirits. She is dressed head-to-toe in the family brand, including her socks. A large oatmeal-hued scarf bearing the family name is wrapped around her shoulders. Even her necklace and earrings are Holzweiler – dangling silver clothes hangers, the brand’s emblem. “My mum thinks the dog has the soul of our old cocker spaniel,” Andreas explains.

I ask for his thoughts on dog reincarnation. “Well, the dog always runs right to her,” he says, with a shrug. And sure enough, Indy is back in action, tail wagging. The first Holzweiler business was a fashion agency, formed by Andreas and Susanne in 2006. “It happened organically, like most things we do,” says Susanne. “Andreas called and said, ‘Would you want to start an agency with me?’ I didn’t even know what an agency was.” We’re sitting in her open-plan kitchen, an instantly inviting space characterised by its bamboo cabinets and unusual wooden floor, constructed from small, triangular wood-cutting leftovers.

The same floor can be found in Platz, the recently-opened Holzweiler restaurant, attached to the flagship store in downtown Oslo. The agency represented mostly Danish brands like Saks Potts and Anne Vest, which were all the rage in Norway, placing them in high-end retailers. At the time, there wasn’t much of a Norwegian fashion scene at all, so the Holzweilers set out to create one, by launching their namesake brand in 2012. The only problem was neither Susanne nor Andreas knew how to actually design a collection. They started small, with scarves, an item for which print and material over shadows pattern.

“We knew that the most important thing was getting really nice fabric,” Susanne says. As fate would have it, someone close to the siblings was “very good at this textile thing:” their mother, Gro. Having been in the furniture business for years, Gro was a whizz at sourcing materials. Her children asked if she’d be up for a quick jaunt to India to find some fabric. She was on a plane two weeks later.

Despite having “no knowledge” of the country, Gro found a suitable supplier. Holzweiler still sources fabric from them to this day, and Gro still acts as a production manager working with special projects, including scarves. To add an unexpected twist, the scarves were sold by the yard – the genesis of the brand’s waste not, want not mentality. With the scarf business taking off, it was time for Holzweiler to hire its very first full-time employee, a warehouse manager. There was only one applicant, self-nominated: Andreas and Susanne’s father, Peter Holzweiler.

“Our father said, ‘If you’re looking for someone to take care of the warehouse and pack all the goods, I will be the first to apply. You would never have to worry,’” recalls Susanne. “He didn’t get much salary because we didn’t have that much money at the time.” A convivial fellow with an impressive stature, Peter moved to Oslo from Cologne as a young man, and “taught himself Norwegian just by practicing,” then met Gro and started a family. They would eventually divorce, but these days Peter and Gro, in addition to being colleagues, remain atypically close. “Of course, the first years after our divorce, we needed some time,” says Gro. “But now we are such good friends. We have seven grand-children together.”

School is out and the Holzweiler grandchildren have arrived, all smiles and long, flaxen hair. Andreas has four children – three with Maria and one from a previous relationship – and Susanne has three – two from a previous relationship and a one-year-old with her current boyfriend, Tobias Tjørsted, who just so happens to be Holzweiler’s International Sales Manager.

Susanne and Tobias have been together for three years, though the better part of the first year was spent sneaking around. They wanted to make sure it was the real deal before revealing their relationship to the Holzweiler staff, not to mention Susanne’s children, who already knew Tobias as a colleague of their mother’s. They found the least elegant way to go public, at the company’s annual summer party on the pier outside the Holzweiler showroom.

“We just made out on the dance floor,” Tobias says. By then, many had guessed that Tobias and Susanne were a couple, and were openly rooting for them...Excluding one person: “Andreas got a little mad the first time he found out,” Tobias admits. These days, Tobias is very much part of the family. By all accounts, when it comes to the dynamic between the Holzweiler siblings, Andreas is a dreamer, while Susanne operates with a gentle practicality.

“Andreas has always been pushing us further, more than I have,” admits Susanne. “His visions always happen.” When Andreas had the vision to introduce a full Holzweiler ready-to-wear collection – both men’s and women’s – a year and a half after the scarves hit the market, there was no stopping him. That’s where his wife, Maria, came in.

Andreas and Maria met on a photoshoot in Lofoten, spectacular islands in the north of Norway, 14 years ago, when she was working as a designer at a Scandinavian fast fashion brand . “We fell in love very quickly,” says Maria. We’re sitting on Susanne’s back porch, overlooking a large yard. It is an unusually warm fall day in Oslo, and the sun beams through the crooked apple trees. As we chat, Maria keeps one eye on Indy, who’s bounding about on the grass. “She’s still a puppy, so she runs away sometimes,” she says.

After some mild cajoling, Maria came on as Holzweiler’s Design Director. “We put together a collection of things we really missed in our wardrobes,” she says, noting that from inception there was an emphasis on “quality and craftsmanship.” Several seasons later, these fairly straightforward values are at the core of the Holzweiler offering. Chunky knits, relaxed trousers, simple rubber boots, a great overcoat; there is a no-nonsense practicality to the garments, which makes them endlessly wearable. It is the subtle attention to fit – oversized, but thoughtfully so – and obsession with material, from recycled wool to organic cotton, that sets Holzweiler apart. The first word that comes to mind is cozy.

Lunch is served. Gro has set the table, complete with a centrepiece of artfully arranged wildflowers. There are meatballs and couscous and various salads and she makes sure that each of her children and grandchildren receive a full plate. The adults drink white wine. Susanne tells me about a Swedish folktale centred around a grandmother with eight grandchildren, noting that Gro is nearly there with seven.

I ask Susanne and Maria if either of them are planning to add another Holzweiler to the clan. After an extended silence, Gro chimes in: “With Indy, it’s eight!” Grandpa Peter is quietly observing the table – his jovial family of thirteen. I ask how it feels to see everyone together like this. “First I thought it was only the kids who get older, but now I know it’s me, too,” he says.

The Holzweiler grand-children are confident and charming, eager to show off their cartwheels and double-jointed thumbs. “We can all do it,” boasts Sophia, Andreas and Maria’s 11 year old daughter, proudly demonstrating how she can pop her thumb out from her hand in an unnatural way. When I chat with the youngest members of the clan about spending time as a family, the word that comes up most frequently is
'fun'.

The children are eager to join the family business. In fact, the eldest already has. Andreas’ son Hugo spent the summer working in the flagship Oslo store. It wasn’t an especially glamorous experience, with long hours in the stockroom, folding and organising garments. “You’ve got to start somewhere,” Hugo quips. “He’s not going to be getting anything for free,” adds Andreas.

It’s late in the day and Susanne has taken off her sneakers to jump on the trampoline with her kids. I notice a tiny hanger tattooed on her ankle – the Holzweiler logo. I ask if anyone else has the tattoo and Grandma and Grandpa Holzweiler quickly raise their sleeves to show off theirs. “Andreas has the original,” Susanne says. He removes his jacket to show his own hanger, on the inside of his forearm, the tattoo that inspired the logo during a long meeting – or was it a family dinner? – a couple of years ago. “It was perfect,” says Susanne.“Because we all love hanging together.”