Amsterdam International Fashion Week Preview: Jan Taminiau FW2011
January 24, 2011 by Jetty
Filed under Fashion, Featured Items
For upcoming Amsterdam International Fashion Week designer Jan Taminiau has the honor of showing during the opening soiree. And while two designers usually show during this evening, Jan is doing it alone, presenting two different collections.
Jan sure has been busy the last couple of weeks designing not only for his brand new Haute Couture collection, but also for his Demi couture collection. Yet for Jan having to coordinate two different collections at once, is not bad at all. ‘It just feels like I can now ‘play’ more, cause I now get the make twice the amount of designs. It’s like synchrone dancing, since I’m making the same progress with both collections’, he said.
Demi Couture – Seperates
Jan will open the Amsterdam Fashion Week with his Demi Couture collection, a slightly less pricey collection, for which he focused more on his customer. ‘The Demi Couture collection is not very different from the Haute Couture collection. Yet if a costumer would want an item from the Demi Couture collection they would only need one appointment with us, compared to five appointments for a design of our Haute Couture collection’, Jan explains.
The Demi Couture collection is, like the Haute Couture collection, not based on a certain season. Jan: ‘My customers travel to the sun when it’s winter and go skiing in the summer, so I never really work with seasons.’
Jan used the word ‘demi’ (this means ‘half’ in French) as a joke in his collection too. He would not tell us exactly what he did, but we guess certain designs will seem like they’re just one half of an item.
Jan: ‘The collection will be feminine, sexy and tough and you’ll see soft tones like gold, beige, off white, soft green and light pink’
Haute Couture – Irradiance
Jan’s Haute Couture collection is called irradiance (it’s about inner glow) and is inspired by hiding and being visible. ‘It’s based on a certain feeling you might have right before you enter a stage; you want to go on stage, but you’re also afraid and want to hide. You want to take that moment, yet you are hesitating. I always compare it to the moment you, as a child, have to give a presentation in front of the whole class; you have to do it, but you’d rather disappear. It’s about that vulnerable, yet positive balance’, Jan explained.
Jan: ‘I loved making this collection, cause there were no rules or restrictions, since this Haute Couture collection doesn’t necessarily have to be about clothes or wearablity.’
All materials for the collection were woven in the Textielmuseum in Tilburg and a lot of the details of the clothes were made by hand. The silhouette, as well as the colors of the collection are typical for Jan Taminiau: ‘You’ll see a lot of grey, silver, black and white and the music of the show will be moody.’
