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

Bas Kosters Amsterdam Fashion Week Preview

Changes
After having shown his collection during the evening the last couple of seasons Bas Kosters is holding a matinee next week. “I decided it was time for a change. The previous shows were always one big spectacle, but this time the vibe will be completely different. Don’t expect it to be a quiet and calm event, but it will be different”, says Bas.

Couture-focus
Changes will be visible throughout the collection as well, since Bas decided to focus more on couture. “My previous collections were always very prêt-à-porter, but sometimes that can come across as too commercial. Therefore we’ve now added more unique pieces and we’ve created a different balance. These couture pieces are the showpony’s of the matinee. With them I can really show what I stand for. They’re easier to portray my vision with and they’re meant to eventually generate more sales.”

Love Fuck Yeah
Couture and prêt-à-porter will meet each other in Bas’ new collection, named Love Fuck Yeah. A collection which is about love. So is Bas very in love? Bas: “I am, but oddly enough I came up with this whole Love theme last year in August/September when I was actually heartbroken. Yet love is about so much more than just being in love. It’s about communication too, but on another level.”

No elite event
Like last season Vodafone is Bas’ main sponsor. Yet after the last show, which seemed to be all about telephones, Bas will now focus on the customer. “We want to involve the costumer. My show should not be this elite event. Therefore we also organized model castings this time, so the show is for ‘everyone’.”

Mystery
How the designs are going to look like, will remain a mystery for now, but there’s a few things Bas can reveal. “What I can tell you is there will be a focus on color, use of materials and dessins, which we’ve produced ourselves. We’ve used lots of cotton, as well as velvet and silk. Oh and the shoes will be sponsored by Nelly.com and Palladium.”

Bas Kosters will show his Spring/Summer 2013 collection on 13 July at 03.00 PM
A new edition of Bas’ magazine Extra Kak will be launched during the show.

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.

Chanel Haute Couture Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2012

New Vintage, was the name of the haute couture collection Karl Lagerfeld presented yesterday. Because Vintage is soooo depressing Lagerfeld thinks. New Vintage is something to come, he states. Well, the clothes had a 1940’s line—broad shoulders, swingy coat, cape backs—in a color palette of black, gray, silver, and dusty pink that spoke of film noir interiors. The hair also had a forties flavor. The spine of the collection was suits, he paired them with sparkling legwear and wove silver through his “tweeds.”

Atelier Versace Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2012

This haute couture show was as Versace as Versace can be: the pastel chain mail, the hip-high slits, the scarf prints, the Medusa emblems, the bared skin. For colors, Versace favored nudes and jewel tones that matched the cocktail rings made from yellow diamonds, emeralds, and topazes the models wore on both index fingers. Short corseted dresses made from tarot-card-print silk laminated with PVC were  cut into narrow lengths; bits of flesh were visible through the slits.  Slashes on beaded evening dresses were sutured together with strands of crystals; another dress was patched together with silk chiffon lacing from pieces of leather that were hand-cut with tiny circles and hexagons.

Iris van Herpen Couture Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2012

Hybrid Holism is the title of Iris van Herpens last collection, It’s divers and complex in terms of form, structure and material. With this collection Van Herpen introduces a new technique called  ‘Mammoth Stereo Lithograph’. Its 3D printing process is build part by part in a layer of polymer. The polymer gets hard when in contact with a laserbeam, the result is a layered and complex form.  For this 3D print Iris van Herpen collaborated with Materialise and architect Julia Koerner. Innovation always plays a major part in Van Herpens work.
In this collections she used Swarovski crystals, lace made of silicone, copper,  Ecco leer and acrylic transparent skin. Colors like black. dark red and dark blue are mixed with metallic purple and transparent amber.

Christian Dior Haute Couture Catwalk Fashion Show FW2012 Paris

There are no words to describe the beautiful, elegant, French, chic yet modern collection Raf Simons designed for Christian Dior.

Jan Taminiau Couture Catwalk Fashion Show FW2012 Paris

Poetic Clash is the story of an encounter. An encounter between different cultures. Jan Taminiau shares his interest for the tribal African silhouettes, patterns and scarifications as well as the magnetism of ikats from Uzbekistan. Through this collection, he combines these ethnic inspirations with his Couture savoir-faire and traditional clothing construction crafts. Volumes get suddenly shifted to other parts of the body. Color patterns appear, for the first time in Jan Taminiau’s collections through the use of simple geometric shapes and color contrasts. Meters and meters of tulle are worked to create incredible volumes. The patterns are worked with different layers of tulle, beads or crystal ornamentation to reveal three dimensional details. The final wedding dress shows the amazing result of the collaboration between Maison Lesage and Jan Taminiau. A demi-couture collection will be derived from this collection.

Paul Smith Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2013

Paul Smith seemed very optimistic regarding his crisp and colorful collection. Smith’s signature slim silhouettes reminded us of the Mods — the double-breasted suit jackets had strong shoulders and were paired with ankle-length pants in mismatched shades of  peach, mustard and teal. A more laid-back vibe came in cotton or leather biker and blouson jackets. The whole collection offered a modern spin on Smith’s very British tailoring.

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