Lanvin Catwalk Fashion Show Paris FW2012

Alber Elbaz not only celebrated 10 years at Lanvin with a great collection and party, he also performed at the end of the show singing ‘Que Sera Sera’. It was his party, so he could do whatever he wanted.  The collection seemed a Best of-collection, but then modernized and updated. It showed all the inventive and creative skills of this great designer: his use of colors, the cut of the silhouettes, the mix of fabrics, the shapes, the urban femininity .

The show opened with hourglass mini-dresses in bright colors and sweet, round shapes, then black leather followed and black dresses and coats. The ruffles balanced it out and made sure the clothes didn’t look to aggressive or harsh. After the show Alber Elbaz told reporters that this collection was ‘all about freedom’.

It’s all in the Family: Jan Boelo

This edition of Amsterdam Fashion Week we focus at designers and their biggest supporters: their family. Where would they be without their mom, dad, brother(s), sister(s)and or grandma’s? They help finishing their designs, they drive the car, they cheer them up and cry emotional tears. The next family we would like to present is Jan Boelo with his brother Bas.

Impressions of Amsterdam Fashion Week FW2012 Day 4

This was the fourth day of Amsterdam Fashion Week FW2012. An afternoon and evening filled with the Firestarters Talkshow, interesting shows of Custo, Tony Cohen and Gestuz. But the talk of the day was the Supertrash-show in the Passenger Terminal Amsterdam. Olcay Gulsen transformed the venue in a golden Las Vegas-space, where sailorgirls guarded the frontrow. She also launched her own perfume, Supertrash Phenomenal.

Gestuz Catwalk Fashion Show Amsterdam FW2012

Minimal meets French rock ‘n roll’, according to designer Arina Woron and CEO  Sanne Nielsen that’s the way to describe the fall collection of Danish label Gestuz best. The collection called ‘through rocks and waves’ shows nature around the Danish costal scenery in it’s most rough but elegant way.  The inspiration for the theme came from the work of Kirsten Klein, a Danish photographer who makes pictures of nature. ‘We wanted to show raw nature, old and destroyed. As a starting point we took little pieces of different photo’s from Kirsten and put them together to make it one.’ The actual result you see in the print dresses and shirts.

And not only the prints reflect the theme perfectly, it’s also the use of fabrics like lace, wool, silk and leather, which made some interesting combinations.  Like a cotton lace maxi-dress combined with a leather jacket, biker trousers with a casual denim blouse or a sequin dress. ‘We really played with soft and rough elements and combined them in one look. Like the sequin dress which looks really soft and feminine, but the sequins are made of actual metal which gives it that rough edge.’ And if you want to give a dress some sharpness, just wear some biker boots underneath it.

Also the colors came straight out of nature, like olive green, black, gray and dusty red. ‘We use a lot of dark colors, so the red is to soften it up a bit and add some color to the collection’.

The Danish label shows what the Scandinavians designers are best in: making wearable clothes, simple, clean and elegant but always with a personal touch. And in this case,  the rock ‘n roll worked really well.

by Eva Dusch

It’s all in the Family: Marloes Blaas

This edition of Amsterdam Fashion Week we focus at designers and their biggest supporters: their family. Where would they be without their mom, dad, brother(s), sister(s)and or grandma’s? They help finishing their designs, they drive the car, they cheer them up and cry emotional tears. The next family we would like to present is Marloes Blaas and her lovely and proud parents Annemiek and Hans, brother Wouter and sister Karlijn, who actually walked in her show.

It’s All in The Family: Elise Kim

This edition of Amsterdam Fashion Week we focus at designers and their biggest supporters: their family. Where would they be without their mom, dad, brother(s), sister(s)and or grandma’s? They help finishing their designs, they drive the car, they cheer them up and cry emotional tears. The third family we would like to present Elise Kim with her mother and father in law.

Backstage at AFW FW2012 Individuals

Take a look backstage at the Individuals-show which was dark and grungy. The students of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute got inspired by today’s world crisis, with protest-movements like Occupy. Functionality and survival are the main factor in this collection. The styling, accessoiries and hair/make-up tell it all.

AFW FW2012 LAB-Show: Furansu & Nieuw Jurk

During the third LAB- show it was time for fashion labels Nieuw Jurk and Furansu to show their collections.

Nieuw Jurk
It’s not easy these days, especially during this financial crisis, to work in the cultural area. But we have to make the best of it and support it the best we can, must designer Esther Meijer has thought. The designer graduated in 2004 from ArtEZ in Arnhem and showing here for the first time, is not pessimistic at all these times although she’s also struggling sometimes starting her new label. ‘I’m an optimistic person and although the difficulties these days, with this collection I want to show in a humorous way that you can make it work.’

Her current collection is named Krisis. To finance the collection she came up with the idea to use crowdfunding. And with success. The label raised half of their money via their website and half by subsidies. Although the sober name of this collection,  she showed very colorful pieces. All unisex, her trademark, and multi- functional.  ‘You can wear all these clothes in many ways. With some you can zip off the sleeves, others are reversible. And it’s for both men and women, very androgyn. Just like myself.’  She used different fierce hues and fabrics, like the body-con lycra dresses with some cut outs or patches on places that accentuate the shapes of the body. And not just patches, if you take a good look, you see these round patches form the eyes of a smiley face, happy or sad. It’s up to you what you make of it.

Furansu
Also showing for the first time at the Amsterdam Fashion Week is knitwear label Furansu. The two young Chinese designers behind the label, Annie Ching and Kay Lai, have known each other for years but have been working together since 2010. Both studied fashion across the world, he in the US and she in the Netherlands, but two years ago they, both graduated by the time,  decided to join forces. And it worked out really well. Their label is known for their well executed, timeless knitwear but always with a contemporary edge. ‘I like knitwear so much because I like to work with a lot of different fabrics and textures. They way it looks and feels is very characteristic’, Annie says.

Today they showed a collection based on German dancer Pina Bausch, tells Annie. ‘I saw a picture of her and got a lot of inspiration. In her way of dancing and expressing you see a lot of interesting contradictions and the one that got me the most was the one between strong and feminine. And these things we also used in our current collection.’ It resulted in some heavy knitwear but with soft, feminine elements. Like the long, knitted dress with the transparent sleeves. Or a dark blue jumper revised with a plastic topcoat in the front. ‘We like to use different twists in our clothes.’