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

Copypaste by Catta Donkersloot and Lisa Kortenhorst

Fashion designer Catta Donkersloot and photographer Lisa Kortenhorst worked together on, again, a unique exhibition. They’ve already showed their clothing and photo’s, inspired by several books, in hotel rooms that were all furnished in a specific theme and they made a show where they switched the role between models and guests which made the guests on the catwalk the ones that were being stared at. At this exhibition, that is showed till july 18 at Damrak 70, the twosome emailed each other without saying one word. Kortenhorst would send an photo or image to Donkersloot, who responded with an outfit, from there on Kortenhorst goes along with a photo that is based on the outfit and so on and so on.

This question-answer concept forced them to create new images in a certain amount of time. It began with a photo by Kortenhorst, who is located in Berlin, she took a picture of the Jewish memorial and edited it into an image of abstract black and white shapes. The exhibition is located in an old office building and set in -as it looks like- an old direction room. Through a window you can see the correspondence between the tho artists in a chamber below. Behind the dresses the images of the email-session are showed.

Fascinating how working with so many restrictions, leads to new point of views with interesting results and ultimately to an excellent collaboration. Kortenhorst confirms that that is the reason why they ‘would do anything to get round the ordinary catwalkshow’. The second half of Copypaste will be showed at Berlin Fashion Week in January 2011.

Photos by Chelsea Syrett

Written by Karin Aalberts

Jardin de Modes: Carte blanche, fashion as you create it

Maison Descartes opened it's lovely garden for the DOWNTOWN public. The green and specious garden of the French institute formed the scenery for a giant photoshoot by photographer Michelle-Aimee van Tongerloo. Visitors had the opportunity to dress up and be photographed in this romantic setting. Even the writer and photographer of this blog couldn't escape from a little bit of modelling in the summer heat. Photo's will follow soon!

INDIVIDUALS PREVIEW

Individuals today gave a glimps of what their collection that will be on the catwalk Thursday looks like. The line that carries the name Some dream of running away to the circus is inspired on.. guess what; the circus. Individuals made sure that they didn’t give too much away of the actual collection but one of the designers of this newest collection of Individuals, Lisa Whittle assures us that the show will be more daring than the shows before, ‘It’s is a bigger show and also more risky and experimental, it’s a little less on the safe side’. 

The eight AMFI students that designed the new collection for Individuals; Lisa Whittle, Selina van Grondele, Steffi Dekkers, Marleen Hilbrink, Xiawen Ji, Blathnaid Geoghegan, Catelijn Visser en Doortje van den Heuvel. (Not in right order)

‘The pieces are frivolous and playful. It’s a normal girl during the day going out at night and let loose. Searching for freedom and airiness. That’s why unlike last season the pieces are very loose. The idea came from a trapeze artist falling down, the pieces we made shape beautifully falling down’, explains Whittle.

Photos by Vincent Kos

Written by Karin Aalberts

 

Barbie loves De Bijenkorf

It started out with a petit plastic doll that included long blond hair, big blue eyes, an imperturbable smile, impossible body sizes and a pink dress that hurts your eyes. Although little brothers seemed to like nothing more than to cripple and troture our most precious property and an old barbie was quickly forgotten with the coming of a more fancy modern pregnant barbie with a loose belly (incl. baby barbies offcourse) our love for the plastic icon is eternal.

 

Last year Barbie turned fifty and to celebrate her still charming and youthful appearance several designers showed their view on how a true barbie dress should look like. This year five dutch designers (Bas Kosters, Claes Iversen, Miss Blackbirdy, Spijkers en Spijkers and Addy van den Krommenacker) repeated this ode to Barbie, designing their own Barbie dress. At the Barbie loves de Bijenkorf event those dresses were shown as well as five New York designs (Nicole Miller, Koi Suwannagate, Betsey Johnson, David Dixon and Parvesh & Jai) from last year.

 

Bas Kosters is with his personal collection of 151 barbies probably the biggest Barbie expert of the bunch. He created a short dress with a handmade patern and big shoulderspads made of colourful and decorative facings.

The dramatic long turquoise gown that Addy van den Krommenacker designed for Barbie is not that different from the dresses he usually shows. As he confirms himself Barbie fits perfectly in his feminine and elegant clothing.

A suprising colour input came from Miss Blackbirdy. Instead of screaming bright colours, she choose for a subtle nude. The drawings she made for the dress were layered upon the nude, ‘I drawed my dream dress, a dress that every girl would want to wear. Long, elegant with bows and everything’.

The jumpsuit that Spijkers & Spijkers created, showed a side of Barbie we didn’t quite knew yet. With this androgyne look Barbie is definitely not old fashioned and ready to hit the town 2010 style.

The pink and Short (with a capital S) dress that Claes Iversen designed for Barbie was with it’s 15.000 crystals definitely not an easy job to make but resulted in a delicious doll-like dress. Iversen says he was aiming for a dress that feels like it is made for a doll, ‘I wanted to enlarge the small Barbie, but still keep it very doll-like’. Iversen also adds that the dress actually is quite in line with his last collection, ‘That collection was made for a girly girl, I think this dress is very similar to that clothing’.

For the true Barbie lovers SuperTrash designed Barbie nightgowns wich are now for sale at de Bijenkorf.

Photos by Vincent Kos

Written by Karin Aalberts

SPRMRKT & HTNK'S Dutch Warehouse

Under it’s own roof SPRMRKT threw an event in collaboration with HTNK. The ground floor of SPR Specials at the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal is now home of the pieces of several intriguing designers. For two months the SPR Special clothing has to make room for this pop-up-store concept furnishing the store.

C.CRUDEN

‘I’ve spend one and a half year designing the perfect boyfriend jeans, I was frustrated that women wore those big jeans without any shape, so I wanted to make a boyfriend jeans that accentuates the bottom and shapes it’, thus an excited Sammy Cruden, designer of C.Cruden. Next to the jeans hangs a fabric bag with a plastic holder, ‘My inspiration is everything. I had this idea for a bag and when I was walking my dog I saw this piece of plastic from a bag, the ones you get in a store, I pieced it together and voila’. 

It seems that behind every item of this designer lies a story. Even a size ‘none’ (because: unisex) white shirt turns out to be quite remarkable when Cruden tells that it comes with a special dye-kit. When bored of your white shirt, you put on your face mask and transform your shirt in another colour. Also in little boxes available; a leather lace and a button ring. ‘Both are for multiple use, that’s what’s important in my clothing the ability to wear it in different ways’.

CONNY GROENEWEGEN

The style of Conny Groenewegen is described as androgyne and feminine. An odd combination at first but Groenewegen explains how those two can perfectly go together, ‘I see feminine as being vulnerable and dynamic, a woman has to be able to move in her clothing, it’s not about being comfortable but it’s about giving the body room to move. The other side is androgyne, right-angled and strong. Maybe they are the opposites of each other but that makes it so interesting to put them together and create something that is both’. 

Groenewegens pieces are a play of feminine and vulnerable versus androgyne and powerful, ‘That’s the most important quality of my clothing, a transparent dress with strong shoulders and big cufflinks’.  

 

ELSIEN GRINGHUIS

The in 2008 at Artez graduated Elsien Gringhuis has a thing for geometric shapes. The black satin shirt she’s wearing is from her own hand, ‘Everything I design has to be something I would want to wear’. The constructed clothes of heavy material appear to be rough but often contain a subtle detail.  

Photos by Vincent Kos

Written by Karin Aalberts

Opening DOWNTOWN AIFW

The usually not so charming neighbor of Maison de Bonneterie, the Olieslagerssteeg, had a big upgrade today at the official opening of the Amsterdam International Fashion Week DOWNTOWN. Instead of being used as a shabby shortcut, the Olieslagerssteeg transformed into an actual catwalk. Carrying a whole lot more than the ordinairy tourist sandals.

Eight designers (Non by Kim, Roparosa, Intoxica, Ado Les Scents by Hyun Yeu, Individuals, Marloes Blaas, Dagmar and Daryl van Wouw) showed notable pieces from their collection to an eager and overheated crowd. Remarkable were the shoesocks of durable fashion pioneer Intoxica by Kentroy Yearwood, that also launches the Green Fashion Competition upcoming Friday the 16^th. 

Also the yellow menswear of Ado Les Scents by Hyun Yeu stood out as well as the sharp shapes of Project Catwalk winner Roparosa by Roos van der Kamp. 

Hyun Yeu was already known for his daring colors, but seemed to hit a new high with his almost fluorescent yellow blouse. Asking him about his choise for yellow and Maison de Bonneterie he says, ‘it just feels good’. Looking at his clothing for the warehouse, that is by the way now available at Maison de Bonneterie aswell as the pieces of the other designers, that might be just the right description.

The pieces of Roparosa were more modest than the ones we saw on television when she won the television competition Project Catwalk. Explaining that she says, ‘my first collection was a statement collection. That was part one, these are pieces from part two. This part contains more commercial buyable and comfortable pieces that are perfectly suitable for Maison de Bonneterie’. The big shoulders and geometric shapes are still key ingredient to almost all of her pieces, ‘I want to make well-made and comfortable clothing as well as powerdressing’. Roparosa’s new collection named ‘Come out and play’ is released July 18^th and the name for the collection is one to take literally, ‘I wanted to make outside clothing that screams that thought’.

‘I’m sweating only looking at these clothes’ was a not so strange comment when looking at the pieces Individuals put together for Maison de Bonneterie. Considering the unusual tropical heat that is harassing the entire country, wool and coats don’t seem to be the most appealing treats. Nevertheless the pieces are stunning as usual, ‘The clothing suits Maison de Bonneterie, the students that designed this collection made amenable and wearable pieces’, tells Loek Coerwinkel of Individuals.

 

That’s how it’s done. A truly inspiring and successful (despite the lack of a permit to create a catwalk in an alley, none of the models were chased by the police) opening event. Bon apetit, fashion-eating folks.

Photos by Vincent Kos

Written by Karin Aalberts

SIS by Spijker & Spijkers

Great news! The schedule isn't released yet but we can already inform you that Spijkers & Spijkers will open AIFW at the ANB AMRO Openingsoiree! They will present their new line: SIS by Spijkers & Spijkers!

AIFW recap

Bibi van der Velden – Wearable Pieces of Art

…...

This is me speechless.
Everything about the closing show of Amsterdam International Fashion Week, sponsored by Samsung LadyPhone, was just perfect. Jewellery designer (no: ARTIST) Bibi van der Velden produced an absolutely breathtaking collection. And not only that, the whole concept of the show was amazing: the models, the music but most of all the lighting. As the whole room was slowly filled with smoke, a huge spotlight suddenly lit the room creating this surreal, hologram-like, smoky bundle of light in which the models one by one appeared. The whole setting created a magical, powerful, cinematic image that amazed the audience; I sure heared a lot of ‘oe’ and ‘aah’ in my surroundings!

It is hard to explain the pieces that make this collection, because they can not be pinpointed as ‘necklaces’ or ‘bracelets’. They can better be defined as headpieces, armours and blown up jewellery pieces, or as the designer described them herself: wearable pieces of art.

We saw shoulders decorated by giant ‘shoulders pats’ (did Lady GaGa already see these?) and unbelievable necklaces of glass bubbles. There were silver headpieces resembling the shape of headphones and one model’s head was completely covered by decorative stones, creating a fashionable Damien Hirst-like artwork.

Bibi van der Velden experimented with glass, bronze and stones among other materials to create exclusive, hand-made pieces for this show. Some designs can be described as glamorous, others as futuristic or extravagant: but they were all mind-blowing and innovative for sure!

It was amazing to see how the designer used her experience as a sculptor to create these artpieces. One could also tell that her inspiration comes from travelling around the world: African and Asian influences give an extra twist to the designs. She also seemed to be inspired by knights: traditional armours and headpieces that used to protect the body were now translated into beautiful, futurustic jewellery like an amazing armour-like belt and headpiece resembling the medieval body-protection.

Bibi van der Velden is an absolutely unique designer: the standing ovation she received from the audience after she came out with topmodel Yvke Sturm was so well-deserved!

Like I said: this was pure perfection. A perfect closure to a week filled with the most exciting, innovative and beautiful runway shows. Thanks to all the sponsors, designers, organisation, designers, models, producers, visitors and everybody else this was again a very successful Amsterdam International Fashion Week. Get ready for AIFW Summer 2010!

Merle Deterink and her new Samsung phone

Photos by Aram Goudsmit, except first and last photo by Maria Rudnaya

Written by Lisa Goudsmit

The People & The Party, Part Deux

Photos by Maria Rudnaya