Frontrow at Lichting 2012

Take a look who was sitting frontrow at Lichting 2012, from H&M’s creative director Margaretha van den Bosch to Karin Sweerink of Dutch Vogue.

Streetfashion AFW SS2013 Day 1

What are you wearing during the fashionweeks? Your Jil Sander-shoes, your latest Prada-shirt or that vintage Gucci? Maybe we’ll spot you in Paris, Milan, New York or Amsterdam. During the fashionweeks we refresh our streetwear posts regularly. We don’t judge, we’re not the fashion-police, we just enjoy fashion and your own personal style. Next stop: Amsterdam Fashion Week.

Sjaak Hullekes Amsterdam Fashion Week Preview

Japan inspired
After his Moroccan inspired collection last season, Sjaak Hullekes will present a Japan oriented collection of menswear this time. “I was inspired by Japan from before and after the industrialization. People in Japan really focus on tradition. Sepia pictures of traditionally dressed people in front of a flat were the starting point. Besides the Japanese style is just very beautiful. I love the folklore aspect of their way of dressing”, Sjaak says.

Details
The Japanese influences will be visible through the details of the clothes. “Menswear is always very much about details and with this collection it’s no different. You’ll recognize the Japanese style through the standing colors, certain fabrics, dessins and the Eastern overlap we used.”

Min‘yō
The Japan theme reaches even further. “The music, the colors and the title of the collection are Japan inspired as well. We’ve used faded colors, which we’ve seen in the sepia pictures, like beige, faded green, navy and brown/orange shades. The title of the collection is Min‘yō, which is traditional Japanese music. It represent the idea of continuing something and passing it on, which really appealed to me.”

Unconstructed
Throughout the new spring/summer collection, which will feature around thirty looks, the deconstructed signature of Sjaak Hullekes will be visible. “With most of my designs you can really see how they are created. I always look for fabrics and colors that give a design a certain strength. Plus, something has to feel really comfortable, like some of my jackets which are not lined.”

Casual chic
“The casual part of the collection is bigger this time than before. This because I personally really wanted to extend it. I want to wear more casual pieces myself. Therefore you’ll see more short jackets and safari jackets. One of the deconstructed jackets is my absolute favorite; it’s insane! It has a terracotta shade and we’ve used a contrasting fabric for both the color and the pockets. I think and hope it is going to do well.”

Head to toe
Sjaak recently launched his own perfume and will launch a collection of underwear (this collection will not be shown during Amsterdam Fashion Week) very soon; all part of the bigger plan. “I really feel the need to be able to dress a man from head to toe. I want to be a complete fashion house. The underwear, which is a very basic brief in both white and navy, arrives next week and will be sold quickly after that.”

New projects
“We’ve also just introduced our made to measure service, we are looking for our own store in Amsterdam and we’re working on a business-to-business level with companies like Microsoft, which is so much fun.”

Sjaak Hullekes will present his new menswear collection on Saturday 14 July at 06.00 PM

 

SIS by Spijkers en Spijkers Amsterdam Fashion Week Preview

An interview with Truus Spijkers

On track
On Friday 13 July designers Truus and Riet Spijkers will present their SIS collection during Amsterdam Fashion Week and they’re more on track than ever before. Truus: “We have shown our collection in Berlin a week before the show, so all of the designs already had to be finished. This gives us some extra time for the last show preparations.”

Excitement
It’s already the fifth time Spijkers en Spijkers are showing their work during Amsterdam Fashion Week, but that doesn’t mean the sisters aren’t excited. “It is starting to feel like a routine, but I still get chills right before the show every single time. The nice thing about showing in Amsterdam is that it is always very relaxed. Everything is well organized and if we forget something on the day of the show we technically are able to go back to Arnhem and get it. That’s a reassuring thought”, says Truus.

Circus inspired
For spring/summer 2013 Riet and Truus chose circus as a source of inspiration. “The very first circus artists at the turn of the century, the women in the trapezes, are who inspired us. We thought it was a light, dreamy and fresh theme for a spring collection. We want to portray the exotic atmosphere in the city when there was a circus in town. The lights and everyone all dressed up; more or less the feeling we got after seeing the movie Water for Elephants”

Pastels & Primary colours
The new SIS collection will include around 40 looks in a palette of different bright shades. “We start off with several pastel looks, than we introduce some primary colors and we slowly go to a darker palette. We’ve used a graphic cirque print, which in combination with black represents a city night when there’s a circus in town and it’s colourful lights. There is a more literal print too with small circus animals.”

Materials
Overall Spijkers and Spijkers stayed very true to their SIS signature. Truus: “The silhouettes will be smooth, we worked with colored parts and there will be graphic elements like our SIS designs have always had before. We’ve used cotton, silk, knitwear, crêpe de Chine and we even introduce a printed jeans. It will be an accessible show like people are used to with SIS.”

The new SIS Spring Summer 2013 collection will be shown on Friday 13 July at 06.00 PM

By Borre, Day show

That was quite a surprising show By Borre gave in Amsterdam this afternoon. It was all about movement indeed. Sportsmen demonstrated the comfortable, easy outfits of Borre Akkersdijk while performing gymnastics.

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

Summer in the City: H&M at A’dam Open Air

Follow H&M at Amsterdam Open Air Festival 2012 where visitors were styled by H&M’s style advisors in fantastic 50’s outfits from the ‘H&M for water’ collection and photographed against a 50’s backdrop. The collection will be available from May 31st 2012. Of all sales from this collection 25 % will be donated to WaterAid which helps to provide clean water and sanitation to some of the world’s poorest areas.

Catwalk Fashion Show Amsterdam Claes Iversen FW2012

After a few super feminine, glamorous collections designer Claes Iversen decided to opt for a slightly darker, tougher fall winter feeling. In de Oude Kerk in the city center of Amsterdam, yet another great and unique show area picked by the Danish designer, he presented his new range of clothes he has worked on for the last six months.

Inspired by a tea cup turned upside down Claes came up with beautifully shaped dresses and coats. They portrayed feminine silhouettes in contrast with lots of volume at the upper body.

More contrast came in the dynamic between masculinity and femininity, gorgeous highly embroidered, items versus minimalistic pieces and dark shades like burgundy, deep green and black combined with light, fresh tones like orange, white and mint.

Still the overall dark feeling came through in every single look, emphasized by the models’ dark lips, their hair in their faces and long, black leather gloves. It felt kind of Gothic (good match with the show location), yet Claes managed to still keep it beautiful.

He surprised us by presenting a white smoking as a wedding‘dress’ and a suit jacket as an evening gown. He woke us up by showing something different than just beautiful and feminine. Yet he stayed true to his detailed craftsmanship and his excellent taste. Hats off for Claes for taking a risk, but not taking it too far.

www.claesiversen.com

This was Amsterdam Fashion Week FW2012

Fashion is vaporized. All cameras are packed. Make up dissolved. The stage disappeared. This 16th edition of Amsterdam Fashion Week attracted almost 20.000 people. Visitors enjoyed the vibe and nice shows, to name some highlights: the openingnight with Bas Kosters and Sjaak Hullekes, the Lab-shows, Sage & Ivy-show, SIS by Spijkers & Spijkers, Jan Boelo and the Cast Iron-show. A special thanks to the organization of Amsterdam Fashionweek who made it all work out smoothly.

We’re on our way already to the next fashionweeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris.

So we’ll meet again.

 

 

Dennis Diem & Said Mahrouf Frontrow Catwalk Fashion Show Amsterdam FW2012

Who sat next to whom at Dennis Diem and Said Mahrouf?

Check out the front row of the last Amsterdam Fashion Week shows below.

« Previous Page — Next Page »