AFW FW2012 LAB-Show: Winde Rienstra & Marije de Haan

The last LAB- shows of the day.  It was up to Marije de Haan en Winde Rienstra to close it down this thursday night. And we have to say, a great closure it was. Two totally different collections, but both with some stunning pieces.

Marije de Haan
Contrast seems to be the keyword in the work of this young designer. And it shows in every element, from A to Z. Starting with her sources of inspiration: she explores the world of people that seems to be the most distant from hers: criminals. Already  during her time at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, where she graduated in june 2010,  she was fascinated by the obscure side of life, searching through police documents. And she did so for this collection.  ‘I don’t know why it fascinates me that much, maybe it’s because it’s a world so different from mine, which makes it very interesting’, she tells.

For this show it was American criminal Black Bart that inspired her. She takes us back to 1877, when he was one of the most famous robbers in America. Black Bart was familiar for the notes he left after every robbery. But is was especially his style of clothes that got her. Because no matter what, he was always dressed properly, wearing a three- piece suit and a bowler hat. But to keep anonymous he always wore something under his bowler that covered his face. And that she translated in some extravagant headpieces, like a blouse worn as a huge scarf covering a models face or a huge collar raised until the eyebrows. We also saw the classic menswear suit, but in a rough way. Like a leather pea coat or a denim blouse.  And you must have noticed there were real man walking down the runway, among which Ferry van der Nat. ‘Yes, I used older men as models, because they have this typical faces which suits so well with the story.’

Winde Rienstra
Graduated for Fashion Design in 2009 at the School of Arts in Utrecht, Winde Rienstra made a huge leap forward in the world of fashion with here strong, architectural shapes. As one of the few designers to promote slow fashion, she ended up as one of the three finalists in the Green Fashion Competition last year. ‘The environment is very important to me and I’ve always been eco- friendly in some ways.’ But she must admit it’s sometimes hard to find some good, eco- friendly fabrics for her designs.’

Today she showed here for the second time with an outstanding collection that made some people even speechless. The collection, based on a painting from Dutch painter J.C. van Schagen, was a perfect combination between strong and soft, feminine elements. Just the way she wanted it to be. ‘To give it that feminine touch is really important to me. I like feminine clothes, I wear only skirts myself too. I never wear trousers. And it’s also really nice to see how the hard and soft elements intensify each other.’ But it was also the strong 3D- effect that made this painting so special to her. ‘The light that falls on the painting determines the shapes and 3D- effects you see. So it changes all the time, which is so interesting.’ She translated that in big, sculptural 3D- pieces and all made from natural fabrics like silk, cardboard and wood. Like a cubist maxi-skirt made from silk or huge cardboard plateau shoes, which made it very difficult for the models to walk. According to the loud applause after the show this is probably not the last we will hear from this young talent.