Standing tall with striking beauty aer recent catwalks for Givenchy and Gaultier, 33-year-old model Marte Mei van Haaster graces the cover of Vogue NL. Yet she shows little interest in fashion’s latest trends. “I guess I do look like a boy,” she says with a shrug. In her Amsterdam kitchen, dressed in a white pincord band-collared shirt and brown newsboy trousers, she offers a glass of Dutch tap water while her ginger cat Jonas, the household’s lone carnivore in an otherwise vegan home, wanders nearby.
Targeting Fashion’s Hidden Pollutant: PFAS
Van Haaster focuses on PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” major emitters from the fashion industry. These man-made substances, used for water- and oil-resistant products, packaging, and clothes, accumulate in the body and link to cancers, immune issues, and fertility problems. Dutch tap water limits stand at 4.4 nanograms per liter. “Everyone has that stuff in their blood now. It’s everywhere,” van Haaster notes aer a year of research.
Innovative Designs from Healed Land
In her traditional dike house overlooking a bird sanctuary in Amsterdam’s Noord district, van Haaster prepares pieces for a May exhibition at St Vincents gallery in Antwerp. A curvy table with an arch base and cherrywood top highlights her collection. She unveils shelves and mirrors from bubble wrap—organic, Flintstone-like forms craed from phytoresin, a bioresin-hemp composite. Angular items use tile grids, such as tabletops on wooden bases.
The open-plan ground floor features handmade kitchen tiles from her ceramics teaching days and light-enhancing ceiling cuts. Van Haaster and ex-husband Max Daalhuizen, a landscape architect met at art school, redesigned the space under their Max/Mei collaboration. They experimented with fiber tapestries and moth colonies for patterns.
Phytoremediation: Hemp Cleans Contaminated Soil
Van Haaster grew hemp on a PFAS-contaminated fire-department site in Ranst, Belgium, 160km away, leveraging its phytoremediation powers. Nesse, a cultural hub in Terneuzen near the chemical-lined Scheldt estuary, supports her “lands I could heal” mission.
Inspired in 2023 by De Ceuvel’s sustainable community near her studio, where contaminated plants extracted heavy metals, she created food-safe Ceuvel Plates. This proves design as land regeneration byproduct.
From City Kid to Model-Designer
Raised in Amsterdam-Oost by an industrial designer father and theater director mother, van Haaster found nature in urban cycling and mud play. Quilting from her grandmother sparked 12-year-old sewing. Scouted at 17 for the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague, she modeled sporadically before a gap year led to a Prada exclusive and Milan Fashion Week.
She balances both worlds: “I don’t want to be the model turned designer. I’m the designer turned model.” Fellow model Rianne van Rompaey calls her “a life force” who turns obstacles into opportunities.
Collaborations and Breakthroughs
Geraldine Jackman, St Vincents co-founder, praises van Haaster’s 2023 Companion Species Cabinet from pest-affected Austrian forest wood, diversified with pine, beech, and oak. For PFAS, hemp with C-Biotech’s enzyme-fungi soil enhancer boosted absorption 30-fold, cutting contamination up to 67%—far beyond 2024 trials’ 2%.
Phytoresin pieces, like the cherrywood table, pass Eurofins safety tests: “A baby can lick it,” she smiles. Her home boasts sage-olive walls, plants, bookshelves, and a Cuyp-like garden.
Van Haaster unites scientists, biotech firms, filmmakers, and labs: “I knock on many doors… some will open generously.” Adriënne van der Werf of Nesse notes her partner-connecting focus on art.
Beyond Fashion: Scaling Up Impact
Modeling sparks fashion talks without preaching. Commissions include Bottega Veneta’s Milan HQ marble table. Her exhibition tackles industrial land misuse optimistically.
“To show that phytoremediation can be done… now let’s scale it up,” she aims. Visions include acres cleaned for street lanterns, benches, and sound barriers from phytoresin, not plastic. “That is literally my dream.”
Marte Mei van Haaster: Mending Lands runs at St Vincents, Kleine Markt 13, Antwerp, from May 7 to June 26.
