SIS by Spijkers en Spijkers Amsterdam Fashion Week Preview

An interview with Truus Spijkers

On track
On Friday 13 July designers Truus and Riet Spijkers will present their SIS collection during Amsterdam Fashion Week and they’re more on track than ever before. Truus: “We have shown our collection in Berlin a week before the show, so all of the designs already had to be finished. This gives us some extra time for the last show preparations.”

Excitement
It’s already the fifth time Spijkers en Spijkers are showing their work during Amsterdam Fashion Week, but that doesn’t mean the sisters aren’t excited. “It is starting to feel like a routine, but I still get chills right before the show every single time. The nice thing about showing in Amsterdam is that it is always very relaxed. Everything is well organized and if we forget something on the day of the show we technically are able to go back to Arnhem and get it. That’s a reassuring thought”, says Truus.

Circus inspired
For spring/summer 2013 Riet and Truus chose circus as a source of inspiration. “The very first circus artists at the turn of the century, the women in the trapezes, are who inspired us. We thought it was a light, dreamy and fresh theme for a spring collection. We want to portray the exotic atmosphere in the city when there was a circus in town. The lights and everyone all dressed up; more or less the feeling we got after seeing the movie Water for Elephants”

Pastels & Primary colours
The new SIS collection will include around 40 looks in a palette of different bright shades. “We start off with several pastel looks, than we introduce some primary colors and we slowly go to a darker palette. We’ve used a graphic cirque print, which in combination with black represents a city night when there’s a circus in town and it’s colourful lights. There is a more literal print too with small circus animals.”

Materials
Overall Spijkers and Spijkers stayed very true to their SIS signature. Truus: “The silhouettes will be smooth, we worked with colored parts and there will be graphic elements like our SIS designs have always had before. We’ve used cotton, silk, knitwear, crêpe de Chine and we even introduce a printed jeans. It will be an accessible show like people are used to with SIS.”

The new SIS Spring Summer 2013 collection will be shown on Friday 13 July at 06.00 PM

By Borre, Day show

That was quite a surprising show By Borre gave in Amsterdam this afternoon. It was all about movement indeed. Sportsmen demonstrated the comfortable, easy outfits of Borre Akkersdijk while performing gymnastics.

Winde Rienstra Amsterdam Fashion Week Preview

Family business
When I catch up with Winde she tells me she still has a lot work to do on her collection. Winde: “Right now I’m working from 09.30 AM till 02.00AM almost every day. Luckily I’m getting some help too. I have two interns, my father is helping out with some of the wooden constructions, my brother and his girlfriend are working on the shoes and my mother is, besides cooking for me, giving an extra hand on the handwork. So it’s like a family business.”

Handcrafts
Besides her family Winde has two groups of people helping her out with the collection. “I am working on a project about handcrafts called “Spinning a Yarn” with people from different cultural backgrounds and part of the project is to ask them to collaborate with me on this collection. One group of four (a Dutch woman, an Iranian, a Chinese lady and a Turkish woman) is creating different handcrafted elements for the collection. The other group of ten women is working on floral embroideries, which eventually can be seen throughout the collection.”

Nomad
A modern nomad tribe was Winde’s concept of the collection, which will include a total of eight looks. “I am doing research about authentic tribes and nomadic modern tribes, I wanted to focus on the way modern tribes work and combing that with the way authentic tribes used to bond by doing needle work together. Modern nomadic tribes nowadays mainly exist online. You go on the internet to find people with the same ideas and interest, people travel online. That’s what I want to portray.”

Mystery shoes
The shoes seem to be the biggest mystery of the collection, yet Winde does dare to tell us a little more of what we will actually be able to see during the show. “Slow fashion is still very important for me, so there will be lots of handcrafted pieces. I’ve used wood (naturally), silk and fake fur. I have created my own transparent print by using the Ausbrenner technique.  And I will show more transparent items, as well as graphic shapes and loose-fitting dresses.”

This autumn Winde’s collection will be exhibited in Utrecht for three weeks from the 7^th of September, but for anyone who can’t wait her collection can be seen during Amsterdam Fashion Week (online as well!).

Winde Rienstra will show her Spring/Summer 2013 collection on 14 July at 03.00 PM

Elise Kim Amsterdam Fashion Week Preview

Dreamworld
The last show of this summer edition of the Amsterdam Fashion Week will be that of Elise Kim. The Vietnam born designer will show part two of her trilogy, which she started last season. “My previous show was all about the moment we fall asleep, this collection will be like a dream. During my show I want everyone to step into a dreamworld inspired by the twenties, my favorite decade”, Elise Says.

Twenties
In 24 looks Elise will give the fashion week audience twenties to the max. “The silhouette is very straight and I’ve used lots of beads and feathers. Most of the beads are extremely tiny; the tiniest beads we could find. I used them on several dresses and even created a few pairs of earrings with them. When the models walk in the dresses full of beads they move like crystal waterfalls; you see all kind of shapes and movements and it works beautifully with the light. Very pretty.”

1,5 km of beads
Finding the tiniest beads in the world is one thing, attaching them turned out to be one hell of a job. Elise: “I kind of underestimated the amount of work that goes into creating a dress covered in beads. Each dress takes up around two till three hundred hours to make. Can you believe we’ve been adding around 1,5 kilometers of beads?! At the office me and my intern make the best out of it and enjoy some music, tea and cookies while we’re working, but after hours and hours of threading it gets pretty dull. Yet I really wanted to show a lot of handwork and it is turning out very beautiful.”

Bright
After her latest collection full of black and navy this collection will be a lot brighter. “We start the show with black, then we go to bright blue (almost turquoise) white, green and white again. Green represents summer for me and blue stands for the ocean. I’ve used silk, crêpe satin and a mix of silk and wool for lots of dresses, blouses skirts and a few coats. Since the dresses are very outspoken I’m going to opt for a minimalistic way of styling.“

Risk
Even though Elise loves her new designs she feels like she’s taking a risk. “I’ve used glitter beads and the whole collection is about fantasy and glamour. It is very different, since I’ve never done this before. I wanted to show designs that were slightly more special. Yet every dress can be made without the beads as well. The opening look in black with beads that look like fringes and the last white colored dress are my favorite looks. The finale will be great as well, since we’re doing something special. I can not tell you what it is yet, but I’m very excited.”

Elise Kim will show her new collection on Sunday 15 July at 08.00 PM

Jan Boelo Amsterdam Fashion Week Preview

Going big
After having presented his previous collections in the afternoon Jan Boelo will hold a big evening show in collaboration with phone company Sizz during upcoming Amsterdam Fashion Week. And so Jan is going big with his collection too this season. “We’re creating about forty to fifty looks this time, twice the number of looks we did last year”, says Boelo. “Of course it tougher, but the number of team members working on the collection is doubled too and we’ll get some extra help the coming weeks, so we’ll manage. Since I only want to show the strongest looks we eventually might edit out about five of them during the styling process, but for now we’re just creating enough options.”

In the navy
The theme of Jan’s spring summer collection will be military, inspired by an editorial in French Vogue. “I’m showing all kinds of variations of the uniform. The army and the navy will be big themes in the show. The runway show will be a triumph, after battle. This means besides uniforms I will present garments men and women wear when returning home after war, for example leather long johns. All designs (in shades of sand, army, navy, red, white, blue, silver and gold ) will be slightly destroyed and the models’ hair and make-up too will look a bit off, in line with the theme”, Jan explains.

Seks & wax
The pieces will have a slightly different fit compared to last season, yet there’s no doubt they will still breathe the same amount of sex and rock. Jan: “The military jackets will be extremely tailored, T-shirts will be super tight, yet pants will be slightly looser and there is a focus on the shoulders. You’ll see my signature leather and jersey, plus I’ve used a special wax fabric for some of the coats and jackets. I will even present a sweater knitted out of chains, we are working on right now.”

Shine on
Jan already has a famous clientèle of mainly artists (Caro Emerald, Daily Bread and Ellen ten Damme) who wear his designs on stage. And it seems he inspires them as much as they do him. “The fabrics I use work really well on stage, since they’re often very shiny. It’s the stand out pieces (his metallic pants and baroque jackets from previous collections) that are selling the best. In Paris (where his designs are sold at Le Vestibule) a selection of Jan Boelo jackets was even sold out in four days. Jan: “The great thing is that even abroad mostly musicians and performers, people I’m inspired by, buy my designs.”

Celebs
And oh my do stars love Jan Boelo. Ever since his first fashion show he has had a star studded front row, something he never would have imagined. “I’m only 24 years old and I am actually just starting out. Sometimes I can not even believe some of the famous Dutch artists would actually come to my show.” Looking far ahead with his career is thus something Jan doesn’t do. “It’s hard to plan things, but of course I would love to expand. I would like to sell my clothes in London, Italy, Germany and Scandinavia, but time will tell if that will happen.”

Friday the 13th
For now Jan is finishing up his collection and is excited about the show. “I’m showing on the same day as Bas Kosters and Spijkers en Spijkers, so it will be a great day even though it will be Friday the 13th. I’m looking forward to putting on a great show together with them. ‘Cause I feel making Amsterdam Fashion Week a success is something you do together.”

Jan Boelo will show his Spring Summer 2013 collection on Friday 13 July at 09.00 PM

Karssenberg-Greidanus Amsterdam Fashion Week Preview

First time
Karssenberg-Greidanus will present their work for the second time during Amsterdam Fashion Week. For the very first time designers Sanne Karssenberg and Cleo Greidanus are presenting a summer collection, named CloudScape. Sanne: “Up until now we’ve only been working on winter collections and art projects, so this will be our first spring/summer collection. Now don’t expect it to be all airy and bright, ‘cause the show won’t have that typical summer feeling.”

Rainy summer
No bikini’s or tropical blouses, these designers translated ‘summer’ in their very own way. “We’ll show shirts and dresses that are perfect for summer. Plus, we’ve designed raincoats that are right for our rainy Dutch summers, since we always like to design functional clothes that made for protection.” And it’s not just the weather these coats refer to, the designers used rain as a metaphor too. “Rain stands for the large amount of data we receive every day, which can be kind of an overload. The raincoat can feel as a safe cocoon, but can be kind of suffocating too.”

Hello color?
It’s the first spring/summer collection but it is also the first time the designduo is working with color. Well, color…“Before we always used ‘non-colors’, now we’ve used shades of white, grey, black and red. We used these on lots of jerseys, some transparent plastics, knitwear, glass-like materials that represent water drops.”

Story to tell
Karssenberg-Greidanus have been absent for a while, but decided to show again during Amsterdam Fashion Week, since they felt they had a new story to tell. “For the first time we are launching a more wearable collection, we felt people should see that. We want people to know the story behind the collection and with a catwalk show you can tell that story. It is slightly more stressful though, because we really want the collection to portray the right feeling.”

Pre-show ritual
Sanne: “We’re pretty right on track. Every now and then I get a small anxiety attack, but apart from that the show preparations are going well. We hope we have time for our pre-show ritual on Wednesday. We like to go to the hairdresser together and get a new haircut as a last preparation for the show and a welcome getaway from the design studio where we are spending all our time right now.”

Karssenberg-Greidanus will show their Spring Summer 2013 collection on Thursday 12 July at 08.00 PM

See some the first impressions of the collection below.

Summer in the City: H&M at A’dam Open Air

Follow H&M at Amsterdam Open Air Festival 2012 where visitors were styled by H&M’s style advisors in fantastic 50’s outfits from the ‘H&M for water’ collection and photographed against a 50’s backdrop. The collection will be available from May 31st 2012. Of all sales from this collection 25 % will be donated to WaterAid which helps to provide clean water and sanitation to some of the world’s poorest areas.

Catwalk Fashion Show Amsterdam Claes Iversen FW2012

After a few super feminine, glamorous collections designer Claes Iversen decided to opt for a slightly darker, tougher fall winter feeling. In de Oude Kerk in the city center of Amsterdam, yet another great and unique show area picked by the Danish designer, he presented his new range of clothes he has worked on for the last six months.

Inspired by a tea cup turned upside down Claes came up with beautifully shaped dresses and coats. They portrayed feminine silhouettes in contrast with lots of volume at the upper body.

More contrast came in the dynamic between masculinity and femininity, gorgeous highly embroidered, items versus minimalistic pieces and dark shades like burgundy, deep green and black combined with light, fresh tones like orange, white and mint.

Still the overall dark feeling came through in every single look, emphasized by the models’ dark lips, their hair in their faces and long, black leather gloves. It felt kind of Gothic (good match with the show location), yet Claes managed to still keep it beautiful.

He surprised us by presenting a white smoking as a wedding‘dress’ and a suit jacket as an evening gown. He woke us up by showing something different than just beautiful and feminine. Yet he stayed true to his detailed craftsmanship and his excellent taste. Hats off for Claes for taking a risk, but not taking it too far.

www.claesiversen.com

This was Amsterdam Fashion Week FW2012

Fashion is vaporized. All cameras are packed. Make up dissolved. The stage disappeared. This 16th edition of Amsterdam Fashion Week attracted almost 20.000 people. Visitors enjoyed the vibe and nice shows, to name some highlights: the openingnight with Bas Kosters and Sjaak Hullekes, the Lab-shows, Sage & Ivy-show, SIS by Spijkers & Spijkers, Jan Boelo and the Cast Iron-show. A special thanks to the organization of Amsterdam Fashionweek who made it all work out smoothly.

We’re on our way already to the next fashionweeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris.

So we’ll meet again.

 

 

Said Mahrouf & Dennis Diem Catwalk Fashion Show Amsterdam FW2012

Sunday night Amsterdam Fashion Week came to an end with not one but two fashion shows, sponsored by Flower Fashion Group.

Dennis Diem

Dennis Diem’s collection ‘The Asphalt Jungle’ (inspired by this film noir film) was based on the beauty of the orchid. It included stunning corsets and bodysuits (Diem’ signature) made out of beautiful reptile scales, in black and off white. They were combined with incredibly high heels, with which Diem tried to change the charisma of a woman.

Besides the floral theme and the scales there were more nature-inspired influences in his designs. A black top was decorated by feathers, a light bodysuit was made out of white fur and bones and skulls were used for accessories (necklace and clutches) and those towering high shoes.

Like Mahrouf Diem also opted for very feminine touches like ruffles and floral shapes. He even ended his show with an exquisite white (bridal) gown. Still, his collection was completely different from that of Mahrouf. Diem added more of an edge to his looks and creatively showed off his handcraft skills in his details.

It might not have been the most wearable collection of the Amsterdam Fashion Week, but Diem certainly wowed us with his designs. We assume it won’t take long until Lady Gaga orders one of his unique looks to make a special appearance. Hats off for Diem for holding a great closing show. It might even be one of the best of the week.

Said Mahrouf

On a catwalk decorated with floral art Said Mahrouf was the first one to show his new collection inspired by roses and orchids.

During his fashion show debut in Amsterdam he showed summer dresses in off white and pretty pastels. Short playful dresses were followed by long elegant gowns. They all had fun and feminine details like asymmetry, ribbons, bows and twisted fabrics. The collection breathed summer, especially with the light yellow and green eye make-up.

A beautiful bridal gown with a subtle train and a white bouquet was the last look of Mahrouf’s super feminine collection. It perfectly combined the elegant collection and the show’s floral theme. How lovely!

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