The story of how an old Basque fishermen’s coat, inherited from her grandma, transforms a young architect’s life and inspires her journey into sustainable fashion design.
Amarenak, meaning “mother’s” in Basque, is a sustainable fashion brand revitalising traditional Basque clothing and cultural elements. By producing exclusive and unique designs, often in limited editions, the brand creates garments for both men and women, offering them a chance to become part of a new heritage.
The Basque Country, a unique and tiny region straddling Spain and France, boasts an ancient culture and the oldest, most mysterious language in Europe—Basque. San Sebastian, renowned worldwide for its gastronomy, stunning beaches, natural beauty, and Belle Époque architecture, is the birthplace of Amarenak’s founder, Oihane Pardo.
Her passion for exploring different places and cultures has taken her to several countries: “I always liked to dress differently, to have my own style. Wearing traditional clothes from other places, combined in a new way, was my way of achieving it. As a teenager, my mother gave me her Kaiku jacket, which had belonged to my grandmother. This jacket, worn by Basque fishermen and sailors in the past, soon became my favourite coat. I loved its wool fabric—warm, light, rain-resistant, versatile, and its sober yet unique, timeless, and unisex design.”
In fact, the name “Amarenak” is a tribute to her mother and grandmother in particular, but also to all our ancestors and what they left us, so that we can continue to use and improve it. In Basque culture, the mother is also Mother Earth, the mother of all, a goddess.
“Wearing my Kaiku jacket, people would ask me about it, making me realise how special garments with a soul can connect people and transmit stories. Living abroad in Shanghai, I began to appreciate our culture more and understood how fashion could help preserve and share it, ensuring it isn’t forgotten.”
Years later, when Oihane’s Kaiku jacket became too worn, she struggled to find a replacement of equal elegance and quality. This moment sparked her decision to quit her job, return home, and launch a project to contemporise the Kaiku jacket, maintaining its essence and quality while introducing new colours, fabrics, and patterns.
Since 2016, Amarenak has been known in the Basque Country for contemporising traditional Basque clothing, creating a new Basque style with universal appeal. The brand draws inspiration not only from Basque aesthetics but also from its values, philosophy, and craftsmanship. Like in the old days, Amarenak uses local, natural fibres and produces garments locally.
Most pieces are made from wool, cotton, linen, recycled polyester, and organic cotton, with fabric suppliers being small family businesses from Spain and France, and the rest from Europe. Production occurs in various workshops within 200 km of San Sebastian, including two social insertion workshops, where they sew simpler garments or collections involving the recycling of fabrics.
One iconic piece is the “Kaikoutil” jacket. The garment is a fusion of the traditional Kaiku jacket made in linen and cotton using a traditional, striped, Basque textile that was originally used to protect oxen. The fabric comes from the French side of the Basque Country and woven by a five-generation textile factory, Tissage Moutet.
Collaboration, a cornerstone of Basque culture embodied by the word “auzolan” (communal voluntary work), is central to Amarenak. The brand collaborates with local artisans, artists, and designers. For instance, the ELKANO collection, commemorating the 500th anniversary of the first circumnavigation of the world led by Basque sailor J.S. Elkano (from neighbouring Getaria), includes co-designed pieces and patterns with nine different creators and local businesses from across Spain.
These collaborators include Boinas Elosegui (a Basque beret factory over 150 years old), Capas Seseña (a family modernising the traditional Spanish cape, clients of the Spanish Royal Family), Gorka Gonzalez (a young and talented hat maker from San Sebastian), Zapatari (a shoe artisan in Navarre), Lëlë Prints (a print artist who created prints with flowers from the naval expedition), and Espartin (a small family business that hand sews traditional Basque espadrilles), among others.
This collection was presented in 2022 during the commemorative celebrations at the Cristobal Balenciaga Museum in Getaria. Yes, the famed haute couture designer was also Basque.
Historically, most Basque people lived in farmhouses and aimed to save existing resources. Following this ethos, Amarenak incorporates eco-design principles in some collections. For example, the KARDENA collection uses zero-waste patterns printed directly onto fabric, combined with antique embroideries that decorated Basque bed linen in the 16th century.
Amarenak’s claim, “stories to wear,” reflects their creative process, which begins with research and engagement with local anthropologists, museums, and archives. They unearth interesting and unknown aspects of Basque textile history and translate these stories into everyday fashion.
The BURUKOAK collection, for example, showcases the unique and eccentric headdresses worn by Basque women in the Middle Ages. Initially mandated by the Catholic Church (women couldn’t show their hair in public), these headdresses were later banned by the Inquisition, which claimed that any woman wearing them was a witch and should not spend so much time dressing up. Amarenak’s team gathered over 200 original illustrations of Basque women from that era. After a participative process and a crowdfunding campaign, they redrew the public’s favourites and printed them onto t-shirts to share these women’s true stories.
Amarenak also designs merchandise and uniforms for Basque institutions such as the Basque National Orchestra, private companies, and Michelin-starred restaurants and hotels. In 2018, while sourcing fabrics for a client, they discovered the inspiration for their latest collection: BER-GARA. Named after a village an hour from San Sebastian, Bergara was, 150 years ago, the hub of 90% of Spain’s workwear production. Although the industry has mostly vanished, Amarenak has revived this heritage by creating a limited collection of workwear in worker blue cotton, using old workwear pieces and leftover fabrics from other collections, also inspired by how workwear was constantly fixed using other pieces of cloth. BER-GARA is also a play on words meaning ‘we are again’ in Basque.
If you ever visit San Sebastian and wish to delve deeper into Basque culture and textile heritage, try on and buy unique garments at Amarenak’s store, located in one of the city’s most beautiful spots, in front of Zurriola beach (C/Jose Miguel Barandiarán 24). You can also explore their social media, where you will find loads of curiosities and information about those and more stories, and their online store to see and purchase their designs and become part of this remarkable story.