DOWNTOWN Dress up!

Various new designers filled a spot in the building on the Raamgracht for Fashion week DOWNTOWN. Walking in the little pop-up-store-ish environment enthusiastic young designers cannot wait to show you their stuff. Some make jewelry, others clothing or bags. While yesterday models UNdressed from the pieces of the present designers, today everybody was invited to dress UP in those same clothes.





Oskar Fitts

Stop looking for Oskar, he’s fictive. Instead of a tall Swedish looking boy we find a petit girl by the name of Renske Versluijs. Together with old classmate Lieke Zonnenberg, she created the creative and conceptual brand Oskar Fitts. ‘Oskar is a character from the book Extremely loud and incredibly close, he’s a philosophizing boy, always thinking about things no-one ever thinks about. Fitts is the last name from Ricky Fitts, a character from American Beauty. The scene where he’s fascinated by the unexpected beauty of a whirling plastic bag is representative for our conception of beauty’. The key ingredient of the designing process for the two HKU-graduates lies in gathering. Everything out of the ordinary life that has a sudden beauty is collected and used as an inspiration for their clothing. ‘We find it important that our clothing is a little misunderstood at first, you have to look closer to understand it. That our clothing is astonishing is what want to achieve’.
www.oskarfitts.com





Daniela Larue

Daniela Larue is an illustrative artist and fashion designer graduated from the Maastricht art academy (ABK). Larue has a conceptual way of designing, using stories and associations as her inspiration. Fliehende Sturme is the name of her newest clothing collection. The pieces are based on the idea of being locked up and the need to escape. Like a princess in a tower who has to tie sheets to escape out of the window, Larue created pieces that associates with that scenario. ‘For me, designing is a game of restrictions, my clothing has to fit in a certain frame. So for Fliehende Sturme, I obliged myself to use materials that would only be available in a high tower chamber such as sheets and pillow cases’. Larue also prefers to work with old and pure materials that she gathers in second hand stores and re-uses in a new and different garment. The blue dress on the wall is made out of old upside down trousers, the bottom has a zipper and can by tied by a belt. ‘I use an old pair of slacks as a jacket and a skirt as a top. I like it when old garments can be used for a new one’. The strength of Larue’s clothing is that at first you don’t see the details of the old garment but you see the new garment she mad out of it. For example; the top Larue is wearing on the photo, was actually a skirt.
www.danielalarue.nl

Written by Karin Aalberts
Photo's by Chelsea Syrett