Those who listened closely could hear it whispered repeatedly from the front row or in the front row: Amsterdam Fashion Week looked like a real fashion week, like those in Paris and Milan. It was bubbling and bubbling, people were looking forward to it and then the sun shone incessantly. Crowds of fur-dressed fashion birds appeared. There were quite a few shows, numerous events, great venues. All this widely spread across the city, from the tight Zuidas to a rugged business park in Noord. Showings went from the basement of the Adyen building to the top floor of Capital C. And, surprisingly, there was even a trip to 010.
The program was announced late but turned out to be packed, with morning programs, talks, performances, podcasts and a sturdy concept store where passers-by were welcome. There was an old-fashioned rave in a secret place, organized by bag and shoe label Wandler, and a pole dance show in a red-light club in the Red Light District, conceived by Duran Lantink for shoe brand Steve Madden. On the agenda were big names between small labels and up-and-coming talents. Of course, the models were cast included. It was, in short, a fashion week comme il faut nowadays.
For five years now, entrepreneur and stylist Danie Bles has been in charge of Amsterdam Fashion Week, together with her business partner Lisanne van Egmond. In that time they have managed to create a credible event without subsidies and without a main sponsor. After the internationally acclaimed couturier Ronald van der Kemp, Bles also persuaded Viktor & Rolf to participate. Not that they showed a new couture collection, they only do that in Paris. What they did come up with was an original bike tour around the Amsterdam canal belt, past pop-up locations where they showed their smaller sub-collections, such as the bridal collection and their Monsieur line.
The only point of criticism: there was little innovative fashion to be seen. Following Ronald van der Kemp, Duran Lantink and (years earlier) Martin Margiela, for many designers the disassembly and reuse of leftover and discarded clothing and textiles was both a starting point and a recommendation, rather than finding new silhouettes or alternative materials. But anyway: hurray for all those sustainably thinking upcyclers. Although in an ideal fashion world there would of course be no unsold clothes at all should exist anymore.
RvdK
It was cheeky and it was brilliant: sustainable couturier gassed in a genteel room of the Tuschinski movie theater Ronald van der Kemp a select group of journalists on champagne and popcorn, before the lights went out and the movie lights on. We saw Kim Kardashian in a tiktok video, and heard her drawl about the thousands and thousands of clothes she had, and the time she spent looking for a new style over and over, upon which images appeared of a desert full of discarded clothes. It immediately made it clear how sickening Kardashian’s shopping spree is, just like the images of shopping vlogs in which young girls have bags full of fast fashion from the Chinese webshop Shein to their followers. The champagne was delicious, the popcorn was sweet, but no one left the room without a bad taste in their mouth. Van der Kemp’s statement had arrived.
Claes Iversen
The handwritten mixtape with retro music that the guests were sent home by invitation, turned out to be a foretaste of the show by the Danish-Dutch couturier Claes Iversen. When the models appeared on the catwalk in long dresses with colorful hoop skirts, enormous ruffles and colorful bow ties, it quickly became clear: the collection was one big party.
Iversen, known for his bridal wear and Eurovision dresses, normally sticks to a predetermined color scheme when designing, but now he let go of his own rules. Iversen: ‘I’ve been making clothes for fifteen years, so I thought: I’ll make a collection based purely on my intuition.’ The starting point was a dress-up box: ‘Children play with dressing in a casual way. Everything is allowed and everything is possible.’
In the context of sustainability, he dug into his own archive for the fabrics and toured the flea market. ‘A roll smelled so bad, but it was beautiful: I couldn’t pass it up.’ The result? A mishmash of prints and fabrics: terry cloth, knits, polyester and silk. ‘I threw everything in a heap and I thought: I’ll see what comes out.’ Yet the collection, which he presented in the basement of the Amsterdam Adyen building on the Rokin, forms a whole thanks to a graphic stripe that runs criss-cross over all the garments and connects them.
Darwin
Perhaps the most surprising presentation of AFW was not a fashion show, but a kind of mini musical, in which the up-and-coming designer Darwin Win-ready himself sang and danced, surrounded by six professional dancers. Winklaar already stood out with his graduation collection plus performance for the Gerrit Rietveld academy, with which he won Lichting 2020 and even made it to the Maison Amsterdam exhibition in the Grote Kerk on Dam Square. He sang in a mixture of Spanish and Papiamento about his native island of Aruba, about his youth, his memories, his family, about joy and sorrow. Although incomprehensible to many people in the audience: it arrived, roused and moved. The crisp white outfits with ruffles and sweet flowers that Winklaar and his group wore are based on his grandmother’s interior.
lighting
The most innovative creations could be seen during the Lichting show; a presentation of the best graduation collections from the seven Dutch fashion academies. On the top floor of Amsterdam’s Capital C building, once a diamond exchange, now a huge event space under a gigantic glass dome, the graduates showed their collections to the press and professionals from the fashion industry.
First prize plus a cash prize went to Ruben Jurriën (22) of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute (Amfi). With his collection Take my heart he wants to contribute to an inclusive fashion world. Because as a ‘big boy’ he often feels unseen by the popular fashion brands, which do not design for all sizes. Jurriën: ‘I’m fat, but I also want to feel beautiful like everyone else.’ That’s why he walked in his show himself.
His clothes are for everyone. For example, he accommodates five sizes in one pair of trousers: the waist can be adjusted between 120 and 80 cm with buttons. A top piece from his collection is a white blouse with ties stitched horizontally. With his work Jurriën wants to give the wearer the power that tailor-made suits radiate.
What does he want to do with the prize money of 10,000 euros? He prefers to open a studio in Amsterdam with a shop in it. With his winnings, he is in any case assured of a spot on the Fashion Week program next year.
martan
That the threesome martan (Diek Pothoven, Douwe de Boer and Eugenie Haitsma Mulier) in hotel Amrath was no coincidence. Pothoven lives around the corner and was fascinated by the expressionist Amsterdam School style of the Scheepvaarthuis in which the hotel is located. The collection was made from discarded damask tablecloths and Egyptian cotton sheets from the hotel. As soon as there is a hole in it, it has to go, but everything around the holes turned out to be perfectly usable. Martan showed men’s and women’s clothing with draped rope constructions characteristic of Martan. Under the direction of Char Li Chung of Toneelgroep Oostpool, a collective of models and actors staged a wordless play while the groups of guests were led criss-cross through the building, so that everyone besides the performance could also take a good look at each other.
Boijmans
The most spectacular location of the fashion week was not in Amsterdam, but in that other metropolis: Rotterdam. For the debut of the brand Francon the press was invited to the depot of the Boijmans Van Beuningen museum. To protect the art, all of the guests’ frivolous, fashionable outfits had to be covered with long, white coats, after which a brief peek could be made in huge wooden boxes that hold couture dresses from Viktor & Rolf.
Francon’s show took place in the 40-foot-high atrium on the zigzag stairs, dubbed “the floating Harry Potter stairs” by museum staff. A fitting place, because the Rotterdam Francon, consisting of creative director May Kaan and architect Kees Kaan, draws inspiration from architecture and designs collections not based on seasons, but on locations. Many wearable pieces passed by on the catwalk, such as the suit, the tailored suit and the ordinary jeans.
cup of coffee
Not only clothing was celebrated this fashion week, make-up was also allowed to be there. Hannah Bennett, senior makeup artist for makeup brand Mac, created a different look for each presentation. At the show at the Boijmans, Bennett took ‘evening in the art gallery’ as the theme. For example, she imagined someone putting on make-up in a hurry after work. So she opted for a look with dark red lips and black eyeshadow, applied and smeared with the fingers.