diff --git a/pkgs/stdenv/adapters.nix b/pkgs/stdenv/adapters.nix
index 6a8b07b633ef..7e1ce67539b4 100644
--- a/pkgs/stdenv/adapters.nix
+++ b/pkgs/stdenv/adapters.nix
@@ -99,8 +99,12 @@ rec {
       mkDerivationFromStdenv = withOldMkDerivation old (stdenv: mkDerivationSuper: args:
       if stdenv.hostPlatform.isDarwin
       then throw "Cannot build fully static binaries on Darwin/macOS"
-      else (mkDerivationSuper args).overrideAttrs (args: {
-        NIX_CFLAGS_LINK = toString (args.NIX_CFLAGS_LINK or "") + " -static";
+      else (mkDerivationSuper args).overrideAttrs (args: if args ? env.NIX_CFLAGS_LINK then {
+        env = args.env // {
+          NIX_CFLAGS_LINK = toString args.env.NIX_CFLAGS_LINK + " -static";
+        };
+      } else {
+        NIX_CFLAGS_LINK = toString (args.env.NIX_CFLAGS_LINK or "") + " -static";
       } // lib.optionalAttrs (!(args.dontAddStaticConfigureFlags or false)) {
         configureFlags = (args.configureFlags or []) ++ [
           "--disable-shared" # brrr...