Zero-waste small runs, sewn between Berlin and Georgia
It starts in 2008 in a small shop in Berlin, where Mina, fresh out of her studies and with no start-up capital, sews her first one-off pieces. ManduTrap has not changed course since: very short runs, often sewn to order, and patterns designed so that nothing is left on the cutting table.
The brand does not dress up its story. In 2023, Mina had to close her own workshop in Germany, energy costs having made it impossible to carry on. Today the garments are sewn in an inclusive workshop in Berlin that employs people with disabilities, and in a women-led tailoring workshop in Georgia. Some of the fabrics travel further still: hand-woven ikat whose threads are dyed before weaving, block print from Rajasthan stamped motif by motif, recycled cotton quilted with Kantha stitch for a jacket made entirely in India.
The materials have stayed the same from the beginning: organic cotton, Tencel with its fluid drape, Modal. In the wardrobe, wrap dresses and wrap blouses that tie at the front, back or side, kimono jackets with wide sleeves and deep pockets, culottes, jumpers in waffle cotton. One wrap skirt adjusts from 56 to 92 cm at the waist, with no fixed size. The jewellery, in recycled 925 silver, carries Georgian Minanqari cloisonné enamel. The small irregularities of stamp or weave are claimed as proof of the hand, not as a flaw.
A founder who tells you what happened: the German workshop closed in 2023, the sewing entrusted to an inclusive Berlin workshop and to Georgian seamstresses. Patterns in which Tencel fills exactly the spaces the block print leaves open. And stamp irregularities embraced as a signature, not a defect.
