Fashion Future
Fashion Future is the face forward title of this year’s Graduation Show of the bachelor Fashion Design at ArtEZ. The fashion department of this Institute of the Arts in Arnhem has educated famous alumni such as designers Viktor & Rolf, Lucas Ossendrijver (Lanvin), Iris van Herpen, fashion illustrator Piet Paris, trend forecaster Lidewij Edlkoort and many more. So the show is always well visited by the industry, press and the wider public to face the future of fashion, spot the talents and label the public’s favorites.
Nineteen collections came down the runway and the overall feeling is that collections were very much complete, and telling a story. It’s was all very understandable; easy on the eyes colors and shapes, less conceptual than previous years. Or I am more adapted to the show than i think i am. Let’s start with men’s collections since there are always just a few. The two that stood out for me were Anne Kluyternaar’s Lux Is Crossing and Luuk Varkevisser’s Exit Through The Gift Shop. They couldn’t have been more different from one another.
Anne Kluyternaar - Lux Is crossing
Kluytenaar dressed her male models in very feminine designs. Wearing Chanel-like jackets accessorised with pearls, clutches and casually smoking cigarets. Varkevisser made more of a statement with his presentation; styling, choise of music (hip hop) the strong pace in which the models walked the catwalk. It complemented the alternative, biker-rock outfits.
Luuk Varkevisser - Exit Through The Gift Shop
Two collections that complemented each other were Arche-re-type by Yoram Tomasowa and Hemisphere by Eefje Wijnings. Both very graphic and in black & white, but the latter had more dramatic pieces.
Eefje Wijnings - Hemisphere
Tomoasowa’s work had a more lightness to it despite of some strict, layer folded designs.
Yoram Tomasowa - Arche-re-type
Bold color use in several collections, neon is still very popular, also in Jody de Lange’s collection Anthurium. But she combined it with sleek designs and organic, floral prints.
Jody de Lange - Anthurium
Another breath of fresh was Mood Masaic by Julian Stips. A blow up of iconic Mexican features without turning into costumes.
Julian Stips - Mood Masaic
Dark but sophisticated was Niels Tol’s collection Spring Awakenings. Not an optimistic dash of color in sight as you would expect considering the title, but it didn’t needed it.
Niels Tol - Spring Awakenings
Only time will tell if this class of 2012 will make name for itself in the future. A few of the graduates are off to a good start. Anne Kluytenaar and Julian Stips together with Peet Dullaert and Melanie Bomans have been nominated on behalf of ArtEZ for the Frans Molenaar Couture Award 2012. Classmates Jef Montes and Esther Kruyer have been selected as the two ArtEZ graduates to compete against the other selected graduates of the six other art institutes of the Netherlands for the Lichting 2012 Award. During the upcoming Amsterdam Fashion Week the winners will be chosen and announced.
Lisa Telussa
(Photography by Team Peter Stigter except Jody de Lange - Anthurium and Niels Tol - Spring Awakenings.)
Shift the Focus to Fragrance
During the Graduation Show, last week, at the Design Academy in Eindhoven a lot of projects caught my eye. Some even appealed a totally different sense. As Payam Askari’s graduation project Bouquet of Flowers did.
Granted, the fragile glass vials drew me to his presentation. But alongside lay a semi transparent booklet with pictures of flowers. And what were those five elixirs with pipettes doing there? Payam was so kind to invite me to have ‘a sniff of fragrance’ by placing my nose in the top end of one of the vials. But not before he had gently waltzed the vial in his hand, like you would do a glass of wine of brandy. Surprising me with a balanced dose of scent from one of the elixirs once i inhaled.
Every vial has a different shape, because every fragrance reacts and develops in a different way. A slot in the flank of the vials let’s in that whee bit of oxygen that every fragrance needs, together with the waltzing, to activate the molecules. When you would take a sniff of the five fragrances all together your nose would be filled with a bouquet of flowers. One that you could enjoy for many months, unlike fresh flowers, since you only need a drop of the elixirs. Payam’s project is still a prototype, but keep your eye out for it. Or should i say nose?
Lisa Telussa
