Αυθεντες.

Follow the progress of my graduation collection here.

Dizzy @ IFFR.

The movie of my collection 'Dizzy' was chosen to be screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam last sunday! 15 movies were shown at - a sold out - Pathe Rotterdam, which were all part of the Fashion Film Competition. I did not win first price, but it was just awesome to watch my collection coming by with a bucket of popcorn on my lap!



Concept:
Lots of people behave or dress differently in different situations. Always changing like a chameleon just leaves you dizzy.
For this collection I demolished and recycled an entire leather couch and added some dyed silk and cotton. In total, the collection contains approximately 32 meter zipper.

A film by Jerom Fischer
Model: Lisa Den Oudendammer
Clothes & Styling: Natalie de Koning
Music: Loops - Naughty Castle

Dizzy.

Lots of people behave or dress differently in different situations. Always changing like a chameleon just leaves you dizzy.

For this collection I demolished and recycled an entire leather couch and added some dyed silk and cotton. In total, the collection contains approximately 32 meter zipper.

A film by Jerom Fischer
Model: Lisa Den Oudendammer
Clothes & Styling: Natalie de Koning
Music: Loops - Naughty Castle

Fashion for Dizzy People.

Lots of people behave or dress differently in different situations. Always changing like a chameleon just leaves you dizzy.

For this outfit I demolished and recycled an entire leather couch and added some dyed cotton. The garment is completely composed out of triangles and zippers (twelve meter zipper in total).

Photographer: Mary Molina.

Contribution to AVRO Selfmade Fashion Contest, vote here.

Transformation.

Last Wednesday I visited the Graduation show of the senior fashion design students of the Utrecht School of Arts (HKU). A few talents caught my eye and Nynke Eggen was one of them. She made a collection named Transformation.



Her collection is based on the iconic women's suit, which represents the spirit of the past fifty years: years in which our society was predominantly around male properties. Now our society is changing; it is heading for a more feminine society and Nynke tries to express this transformation in her collection by transforming the traditional women suit.



During the show, it seemed as if there was a transformation as model after model entered the catwalk. The first model seemed to wear the traditional women's suit as we know it. But the silhouette changed with each and every model. They all had references to the suit though. And the soft colored suits were combined with tough and high leather boots.



Nynke has not launched her website yet, so far we just have to do it with her pictures. But hopefully we'll hear more from her in the next couple of years!



Photography: Maurice Snabilie
Make-up: Eveline Klumpers
Models: Maiken @ Fresh Model Management & Eldrid @ Favourite Models

Written for BLEND.

Devout/Divine - Fashion vs. Religion.

Religion and its visual externalization are high on the European agenda list of topics. Burqa's are already forbidden in Belgium and soon France will also follow this example. But are burqa's and other religious garments part of rituals or are they just pure aesthetic elements?

From the 26th of June until the 9th of January 2010, the Hasselt Fashion Museum becomes the place where visitors can explore this link between fashion and religion by visiting the exhibition Devout/Divine - Fashion vs. Religion. This exhibition will not show a traditional overview of historical religious garments and textile, but focuses on the relationship between contemporary fashion and religion. It emphasizes the integration and translation of religious symbolism in designs of the past decennia. A few examples of what will be on display are original interpretations of burqa's, a praying carpet transformed into a handbag, rosaries and habits remodelled as catwalk ensembles and haute couture nuns.

Devout/Divine - Fashion vs. Religion will be a compilation of creations of national and international designers and the exhibition examines how religion is integrated in their work. Rick Owens, Walter Van Beirendonck, Mada Van Gaans and Bernhard Wilhelm are just a few names of designers that will participate in this expo.

Devout/Divine - Fashion vs. Religion
June 26, 2010 - January 9, 2011
Hasselt Fashion Museum, Hasselt Belgium

Written for BLEND.

Kevin Kramp.

Kevin Kramp is a men's knitwear designer from London. He combines exaggerated, bold, soft and beautifully refreshing shapes with luxury fibres of angora, mohair, cashmere, wool, cotton, textured silks and nylons, using a wide range of colours, stitch techniques and jacquard patterns. With these techniques and fabrics he creates beautiful, innovative, sophisticated, high-concept, sexy and wearable garments.

Kramp received a first Bachelor's degree in Visual Art and a second Bachelor's degree in Fashion Design with Knitwear. His degree collection at Central St. Martins immediately caught attention of the global fashion industry.




Written for BLEND.

Recht voor zijn raap.

This summer, the Central Museum Utrecht in collaboration with the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture, offers a platform to young and innovative artists. For this exhibition, the museum has selected visual artists, designers and architects, who have received a starter stipend for their work from the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture between 2006 and 2008.

The works of 31 promising young artists, who are not afraid of sharing their opinion about modern-day society, are on display. Various disciplines and talents come together: design, architecture, photography, illustration, painting, and film. Despite all diversity, the nature of the works can be characterised as clear, direct and confronting, like the title says in Dutch: recht voor zijn raap.

The exhibition is not only presenting work of up-and-coming talent, but also work of artists who have already developed themselves and became successful in the past few years. For example, Christien Meindertsma, who won the Dutch Design Award in 2008 for best design with PIG 05049. And illustrator Gijs Huijgen and fashion designer Iris van Herpen with the same prize in 2009 for their work in the categories best illustration and best product fashion, jewellery & accessory. Especially for the exhibition, several artists, like Sjocosjon and Marc Koehler, create new work.

Also a two-part catalogue about the exhibition will be published, made by the designers Alfons Hooikaas and Felix Weigand.

Recht voor zijn raap

June 19th - September 12th

Central Museum Utrecht

Written for BLEND.

Wild Gathering: A Triangle Project.

Tomorrow, the Beijing Angle Modern Art Gallery opens the exhibition Wild Gathering, an exceptional global exhibition where photography and fashion meet, showcasing modern youth culture and featuring photographers Madi Ju (Beijing) and Peter Sutherland (New York) alongside fashion designer Hiro Sawatari (Tokyo).

The three artists are connected by their interest in youth culture. Early on Peter SutherlandMadi Ju exchanged photos made in a variety of environments, but all with kids expressing strong emotions in their natural habitat. They shot in cities all over the world and sent the photos to fashion designer Hiro Sawatari, who created T-shirts with collages from the pictures. Then, Peter and Madi shot six looks from Hiro's collections, which, including the clothes and the other images, will be on display in the gallery.

Madi Ju is a freelance photographer based in Beijing. Her images are steeped in the style of the snapshot aesthetic; loosely framed, usually shot on a compact camera and often an extension of the photographer’s life. Peter Sutherland is an American photographer, born in Colorado in 1976. His work employs some of the techniques of traditional documentary photography to capture the hidden beauty of ordinary objects and everyday situations. Hiro Sawataris is born in Fukuoka, Japan in 1981. Harmonizing a nostalgic grace with Japanese minimalism, Hiro Sawatari creates solid menswear by using fine couture fabrics.

Wild Gathering: A Triangle Project
June 5th till 12th 2010
Beijing Angle Modern Art Gallery, Beijing

Written for BLEND.

Una Burke.

Una Burke makes the most remarkable objects, both fashion and art related. Carcass-like in form, each artefact is hand crafted from tanned leather, resulting in a colour indicative of human flesh. The pieces can be used as artefacts and can be placed in the environment of a gallery or they can be used in the context of a fashion accesory. When broken down into sections, the pieces can be combined with other garments and worn as structured accesories for the body.

This collection of emotionally charged fashion artefacts is based on the subject of human trauma. Victims of this often create emotional barriers as a means of protection against the re-occurance of pain. These barriers have the potential to become a trapping device, resulting in an inability to function in certain situations. But when the body is removed from these leather structures, the shape of the contorted human form is retained and a moment or feeling remains apparent. Also a number of pieces resemble medical braces used to heal broken bones and spinal injuries; this signifies the potential for healing.



"Through my work I continually aim to create leather objects which are both visually captivating and technically challenging. They are pieces of wearable art which are indefinable as particular garments, preventing them from being placed into the conventional categories of the fashion industry." thus Una Burke.

But Una has had her work already requested by several influential stylists and has also received orders from artists like Lady Gaga and Madonna. She's now slowly developing ranges of smaller leather accesories and bodypieces for stores in London and San Francisco.

Written for BLEND.

American High Style: Fashioning a National Collection.

At the moment, the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York is presenting an exhibition of some of the most renowned objects from its costume collection. Works by the first generation of American women designers such as Bonnie Cashin, Elizabeth Hawes, and Claire McCardell are featured, as well as material created by Charles James, Norman Norell, Gilbert Adrian, and other important American designers.

American High Style consists of approximately eighty-five dressed mannequins and a selection of hats, shoes, sketches, and other fashion-related items. Besides the pieces of American designers, also work of French designers who had an important influence on American women and fashion are included. Designers such as Charles Frederick Worth, Elsa Schiaparelli, Jeanne Lanvin, Jeanne Paquin, Madeleine Vionnet, Paul Poiret and Christian Dior.

The exhibition explores developing perceptions of the modern American woman from 1890 to 1940 and how they have affected the way American women are seen today. It focuses on archetypes of American femininity through dress and reveals how the American woman initiated style revolutions that matched her social, political, and sexual emancipation.

American High Style: Fashioning a National Collection
May 7th - August 1st 2010
Brooklyn Museum of Art , New York

Written for BLEND.

Kate Marks.

Canadian designer Kat Marks combines fashion and film in her work. She creates videos that feature her thought-provoking pieces.

Marks has a conceptual approach to her work and is always looking for the boundaries between art, fashion and film. There are connections between medicine, architecture and fetishism in her designs. She mainly focuses on creating body pieces in rigid materials such as plastic that are characterised by sculptural sensual forms.

She has created two collections so far, called Infundibulum and Yugas Elder, which was also featured in a film directed by Daniel Shipp, produced by Goran Boskovic and showcased at Nuit Blanche 2009. Now she is developing her third collection that will have ten designs in plastic, leather and textiles. Besides that, she has just completed a new film, The Granfaloon, an experimental study in fashion presentation that features macabre atmospheres and futuristic body pieces.

Written for BLEND.

Granfalloon from The Wonder Years on Vimeo.

Maison Martin Margiela '20' The Exhibition.

Maybe some of you have seen it before, but for the ones who missed it: Maison Martin Margiela '20' The Exhibition. This time not in MoMu Antwerp or the Haus der Kunst in Munich, but in the Somerset House London.

The exhibition is made for celebrating the 20th anniversary of one of the most influential and enigmatic designers. The exhibition captures two decades of Margiela's unique aesthetic and vision, incorporating garments, installations, photography and film. It will provide an opportunity to learn more about the brand and its philosophy through a visual examination of themes. The themes underpin the essence of the fashion house since its creation. Various iconic pieces from both the women and menswear collections will be on display, such as the highly replicated 'Tabi' boots, as well as specially recreated garments for the exhibition.

No other fashion house has had quite the same impact on our understanding of fashion and its relationship to history, craft, commerce and innovation. Martin Margiela's radical questioning and rethinking of what fashion is, how we clothe the body and ideals of human beauty, are still as groundbreaking as ever. And most of the time his creations seek the boundaries between fashion and art. Margiela's clothes are 'thinking fashion', imbued with obvious intellectual rather than monetary value.

Maison Martin Margiela '20' The Exhibition
June 3rd till September 5th 2010
Somerset House London

Written for BLEND.

New Collection: Sandra Backlund.

Sandra Backlund is well known for her knitwear in the fashion scene. Yet her Autumn/Winter 2010/2011 collection is a little different than we're used from her. Still employing her iconic knitting techniques, Backlund integrated different fabrics in her designs for the first time.

She uses ribbed motifs, angles, folds, rigid wings and exuberant pleated circles, that create sculptural geometric patterns and continuous variation. The result of all these forms is a collection with a strong three dimensionality that improves the natural shapes of the body. The voluminous yet controlled designs exaggerate and highlight certain parts of the body. Also different types of decorations are added to the collection: embroideries, appliquéd motifs, crystals and fringes.

However, half of her collection is still knitted, but this time she decided to approach the knitwear from a surface point of view: using stitches that give the illusion of fur and feathers.

Now, with this new collection, it's finally possible to buy the pieces Sandra Backlund made. This is one of the reasons Backlund made a little change in her work. So if all goes well, her work will appear in stores next fall!

Written for BLEND.