Love, every step of the way

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The Mie Grand colours for the spring/summer
season. Photo: Siv Katralen.
Photo: Anthony Huus.
Photo: Close to my heart.
Love, every step of the way
“The brand name, Close to my heart, really explains how I feel about Nepal,” says
head designer Siv Katralen about her feelings towards the country where her knits
are produced.
By Andrea Bærland
Katralen’s love affair with Nepal and the
Nepalese people started in 2011, when
she came down from a trekking expedition in the Himalayas and met the sympathetic people. After over 20 years in
the fashion industry selling knitwear, she
then decided to design and sell products
handmade in Nepal. Close to my heart
was born with its first product, the Mie
Grand scarf in 100 per cent cashmere.
Now, the Mie Grand scarf comes in 16 to
18 different colours every season and is
by far the most-produced item at Close
to my heart. “The colouring process is
time consuming, only ten to 15 scarves
are dyed per batch in a process that takes
an hour and a half. There is a lot of love
in a Mie Grand scarf,” Katralen explains.
It started with the scarf, then ponchos
followed, until the brand expanded into
a full Autumn 2014 collection. Close to
my heart carries a broad range of wool
32 | Issue 87 | April 2016
and cashmere knits in all the colours of
the rainbow. The products have proven to
be an enormous success in Norway so
far, with 85 selected retailers from north
to south.
International growth
While domestic success is highly appreciated, Katralen and her team have international ambitions and recently attended
the Copenhagen International Fashion
Fair to reach out to buyers outside Norwegian borders. “There was plenty of
interest in our clothes in Copenhagen,
and hopefully we’ll start supplying retailers in Denmark and Sweden in the
near future,” she says about her ambitions for the future on the business side
of things. “Close to my heart is blessed
with a fantastic team of dedicated employees. We do everything ourselves,
and with this team we’re sure we’ll
make it!”
Scan Magazine | Big Nordic Design Special | Norwegian Fashion Design
ly, and they manage to keep up with the
school work,” Katralen says.
Having experienced firsthand the difference its charitable work really makes,
Close to my heart plans to donate further
to the ‘Pads for school’ so that the project can expand and reach an increasing
amount of girls. In addition to private
donations and fundraisers, ten per cent
from Close to my heart’s online shop
sales are donated to projects focused on
ensuring the right to education for all, a
cause the team behind the brand is particularly passionate about.
Close to my heart is not afraid to show you who made your clothes. Photo: Elisa Røtterud.
But Close to my heart is about so much
more than just making a profit, and
Katralen’s love for Nepal extends far
beyond high-quality cashmere clothing.
Since the brand’s launch in 2011, Katralen
has visited Nepal three to four times each
year. Following the 2015 earthquake,
Close to my heart bought 400 blankets,
pillows and mattresses, which Katralen
helped distribute in one of the hardest
hit areas, while staying in local housing.
“Additionally, Brynje of Norway donated
60 kilogrammes of wool clothes, and our
fantastic local suppliers contributed with
100 handmade cashmere baby blankets,”
Katralen adds.
Giving back
One important item on the agenda during Katralen’s trips is visiting the factories where Close to my heart garments
are produced. “We have a very close-knit
relationship with the factories we work
with. All employees are adults and paid,
by Nepalese standards, a proper living
wage. The nature of many of our garments requires that they are stitched by
hand, so we have incredibly skilled workers who really know their craft, and are
paid thereafter,” Katralen explains.
Additionally, the entire team behind Close
to my heart holds Nepal and its people
close to their hearts, as the brand name
suggests, and the company has taken a
number of initiatives to give back to the
communities that produce its garments.
Katralen also notes that the brand’s
charity work has attracted some of Norway’s best-known fashion professionals,
such as high-profile photographer Anthony Huus and Line Langmo, stylist to
the stars.
Pads for school
“So many of the things we take for granted back home and consider basics,
such as clean water and education, are
not provided to the people of Nepal,”
Katralen says. The most recent project
the brand engaged with was the ‘Pads for
school’ project, aiming to keep girls and
young women in education. “You and me,
and even the inhabitants of Kathmandu,
can just pop over to the shop to buy tampons and sanitary pads when the need
arises,” she says. In the rural communities, however, these sanitary products
are not readily available, so menstruating girls either have to resort to rags, or
stay home from school. “One week every
month – it quickly adds up and they fall
behind,” Katralen says firmly.
The people involved in the ‘Pads for
school’ project sew reusable sanitary pads and distribute them in local
schools. “So far we have made pads for
nearly 3,000 girls, and I have experienced
distributing them. It is an indescribable
feeling to provide the girls with a product
that they can use – and that they actually
do use. The absence of the girls that have
received sanitary pads has fallen sharp-
In essence, Close to my heart delivers
love to everyone involved. While customers get clothes they can wear and love for
years to come, the garments also bring
development projects to the communities
producing them, projects that hopefully
will do them good well into the future.
For more information about the brand
and its charitable work, please visit:
closetomyheart.no
Photo: Elisa Røtterud.
Close to my heart’s passion project is the right to
education for all. Photo: Chris Beall.
Issue 87 | April 2016 | 33