Gerrit Rietveld Academie
The Fashion Show 2014
Credits With thanks to
Gerrit Rietveld Academie, B. Amsterdam, Seeing and Hearing, House of Orange and
Hair
Taco Stuiver / House of Orange Ellen Romeijn / House of Orange
Make-up
Severine van Donkelaar / House of Orange
Graduation students
Anne-Rixt Gast, Carlynn Armour, Fien Ploeger, Jurjen van Houte, Katja Hannula, Klára Valkova, Marcel Kröpfl, Marije Seijn, Mikolaj Kocon, Simon Lextrait, Tijme Veldt
Styling
1st Year students
Victor de Bie
Eva Valdimarsdóttir Iris de Jong Marianna Ladreyt Myrthe van Hardeveld Naomi Hille Ralph Dennis Therése Palmhager Viktoriya Mozhaeva Yoko Maja Hansen
2nd Year students
Chisom Ogundu Daan Keizer Tone Bjerkaas Ting Gong Isis Postel Karim Adduchi Ksenia Nunis Roosmarijn van Kessel Sophie Hardeman Vere van Hal Vita Stasiukynaite
Marleen de Jong / NCL Representation
Model casting Head of production Py Tswang Jin
Technical production
Harmen van‘t Loo / Seeing and Hearing Hans Siemerink / Seeing and Hearing
Back & front stage
Simon Visser, Sal Riani, teachers and students of the fashion department
Head of fashion department
Catwalk photography
Concept & set design
Livestream
Regie & choreografie
Graphic design
Niels Klavers
Team Peter Stigter
Merel Bernhardt, Stefan Voets
Event Producent
Kim Vos & Co / Bdifferent Art & Catwalk direction
Catwalk training
Michelle den Hollander, assisted by Rachel Tauwnaar / Bdifferent Art & Catwalk Direction
Music direction
Severin Bunse, Niklaus Mettler, Line-Gry Hørup
PR
Schoon den Boer PR Public Rietveld
Tamara van der Laarse / Club Lederhosen
Colophon Contributor Mo Veld
Graphic design
Severin Bunse, Niklaus Mettler, Line-Gry Hørup
Printer
Rodi Media
Special thanks to:
Alina Ozerova Alla Kuzmyk Amie Dicke Clément Carat Henri Snel Hortense Lauras Linda van Deursen Lise Lefebvre Marcelo Horacio Maquieira Marga Weimans Margriet Kruyver
Mariken Overdijk Mark van Vorstenbos Mo Veld Nicky den Breejen Omri Bigetz Oscar Raaijmakers Peter van Gorp Riette Wanders Shirley Muijrers Sonja Kip Timna Tomisa & everyone else involved
Welcome Looking at our graduate class of 2014, eleven highly individual talents from all over Europe, one common denominator appears especially significant: they are all looking for an escape from reality.
The concepts they have been working on for their final collections involve themes like ‘the explorer’, ‘lucid dreaming’, ‘hyper reality’,‘cults’ and sometimes radically romantic approaches such as finding a spiritual balance between nudity and dress.
Others address our ability to appreciate banalities, yet another to see through veils of the past. What do we really perceive? What do we get from ‘fashion’? What notion of identity are we looking to express? Every single one of them has been delving the depths of fashion looking for something exceptional at its core. Anything other than getting sucked into the current exhaustive fashion system seems a solid strategy for self-rescue. As a designer you want to leave a mark, one that touches something essential for both the present and the future. You want to break through the mirages and propose something autonomous, something pure and truly valuable. Something that raises fascinating questions rather than answering to false desires. Not for an affluent and ‘in the know’ elite, but for everyone ready to travel along. I hope my colleagues and I have prepared them well for the continuous exploration that lies ahead.
Niels Klavers
Head of fashion department
Graduates 2014 p. 08
Klára Válková
p. 14
CZE 1992 +420–731872578 kl.valkova@gmail.com
p. 09
Marcel Kröpfl
AUT 1990 06–18381112 marcelkropfl@gmail.com
p. 10
p. 11
Simon Lextrait
FRA 1991 06–30435489 simon.lextrait@gmail.com
p. 12
p. 16
Jurjen van Houte
NLD 1990 06–30566683 jurjenvanhoute@hotmail.com
p. 13
Mikołaj Koco´n
POL 1983 06–42496080 milkydot@gmail.com
Fien Ploeger
NLD 1988 06–36452043 fienfienfien@icloud.com
p. 18
Tijme Veldt
NLD 1991 06–22873632 tijme@live.nl
p. 17
Katja Hannula
FIN 1990 06–49239744 katja.hannula@gmail.com
Marije Seijn
NLD 1987 06–36132636 marije_seijn@hotmail.com
NLD 1988 06–53791167 annerixt55@hotmail.com p. 15
Anne-Rixt Gast
Carlynn Armour
NLD 1991 06–27239369 carlynnarmour@gmail.com
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Klára Válková
Ralph Brown – La Sposa, 2000
Heimo Zobernig – Untitled, 2012
She was supposed to become a lawyer or a doctor but insisted she wanted to do something ‘more concrete, more immediate’. Klára’s fashion studies started in High School and at a University in the Czech Republic, but when she switched to Rietveld entering the fashion department’s second year she found ‘the missing part in her life’.
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“I want to give women clothes that offer total freedom of expression; she decides how to wear them. She, and only she determines their limits and boundaries. Modern. Smart. Elegant.”
Celestial sphere (dome of stars)
Hussein Chalayan – Frame, 2000
Klára studied clothes to the point where she stopped judging people by what they are wearing.
“Eyes Wide Shut” Stanley Kubrick, 1999
Coming from Austria, Marcel attended a Dutch High School and went head on for Rietveld offering both freedom and a serious challenge. Just as determined he chose to study the applied discipline of fashion so as to reach a wide audience.
Marcel feels especially drawn to loosen up the mores in men’s fashion. Inspired by cults and their leader Marcel stumbled upon striking resemblances with a more current hot topic: the world of bankers.
Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)
N.Y Stock Exchange, 2010
Magical Circle of King Solomon, 1904
Marcel Kröpfl
“The collection proposes the coming out of the banker, with his strict dress code, as a cult leader, in considerably less uptight robes. It is not meant as a comment, but rather as a serious fashion proposal.”
Tyout for shoes. Special thanks to www.schoenmakerijvlietstra.nl
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She hated University, where she studied Psychology for a year, as much as a fashion college she tried next on a whim. Marije then applied at Rietveld to study art, but soon steered back to the fashion track, “without a moment’s regret.”
Little Eddie, “Grey Gardens” – 1975
Marije Seijn ©2014
Marije’s main inspiration was Edith ‘Little Edie’ Bouvier Beale, first cousin of Jacky Kennedy Onassis and iconic socialite Lee Radziwill. Little Edie became a star with a rather tragic lustre through the 1975 documentary ‘Grey Gardens’. She and her mother ‘Big Edie’ came to symbolise the decay of glory, the fall from grace. “I have used existing garments such as a wedding dress, a women’s suit, a fur coat, and created my own fabrics by gathering and layering them. Most of this is then placed in the front, covered by a veil that is our memory.”
Little Eddie, “Grey Gardens” – 1975 Marije Seijn ©2014 10
“Grey Gardens” – 1975
Marije Seijn
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Gerrit Rietveld Academie
The Fashion Show – 2014
Gerrit Rietveld Academie
The Fashion Show – 2014
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Simon Lextrait
“I have been working with some optical illusions principles such as Anamorphosis, Lenticular effect and other techniques that directly involve the viewer in the way he or she receives the information.”
The idea for Simon’s menswear collection was triggered by the confrontation between the tendency of the fashion industry to reject banality and his personal interest in observing the passionless, seemingly trivial things of everyday life.
Amie Dicke
Simon Lextrait ©2014
Untitled, John Paskievich –1976
From the facebook of Etienne Garanchon
“After having studied art and design, fashion appeared as the best choice for my creative process and to work as closely as possible from human and social behaviors.”
Simons grandfather’s homevideo tests Bethnal Green, Oct. 1997 – Derek RIdgers
After one year studying History of Art, Anthropology & Archeology in Lyon and an Art Foundation year at Beaux Arts de Lyon, Simon entered the BA Fashion Design at HEAD in Geneva. From there he switched to Rietveld where he entered the fashion department in the second year.
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Rietveld was really the only option for Jurjen as it offered him all the freedom and space to develop himself. During the Prep Year and especially the Basic Year his tendency to work with the body became evident and so he chose to study fashion, even though it was the last context he could see himself in.
“It really doesn’t matter what discipline you choose, you just have to learn to completely stand for your own work. And the fashion realm is a huge one.”
Jurjen van Houte ©2014
Jurjen van Houte
Jurjen’s collection is an exercise in suggestiveness; realizing a strong effect with minimal, comprehensible gestures. 12
Jurjen van Houte ©2014
Jurjen van Houte ©2014
“Everything is in silk, very fragile. This suggestive material is held captive by plastic rimming, which determines the shapes.”
Mikołaj Koco´n At a young age Miko was looking to study something art related, but the academy of his liking happened to be a private fashion school in Cracow. Miko then chose Rietveld to continue for his BA in fashion. “Fashion is a nice combination of creativity and social context; telling visual stories.”
Office building FSM in Bielsko-Biała, Polen
Mikolaj Kocon ©2011 Photograph: Ewelina Konior Słowinska
Mikolaj Kocon ©2014
“For me fashion isn’t just about ‘looking good’, it should provoke and even annoy; raw, unfinished materials, garments that are hand crafted, there are errors, and they can be beautiful. I like clothes to live, get used, get old and worn out just like our bodies do, so they can tell a story. Things are never permanent or finished.”
Nick Van Woert – Untitled, 2011
As Miko’s views on fashion shifted to more conceptual he learned to combine different art disciplines.
Mikolaj Kocon ©2014 13
A course in marketing, communication and visual merchandising, a year in Brasil, a Prep Year for Rietveld and a year of studying fashion in The Hague got Anne-Rixt in shape for her BA fashion studies at Rietveld. Mixing as many cultural codes as possible, including the high and low, Anne-Rixt aims to challenge our fashion antenna, or as she puts it; “to fuck up the game.”
Bedouin woman in Jerusalem, 1912
Anne-Rixt Gast
Kurdish costumes, 1873
“DHAMMA means ‘the laws of nature’. The collection is inspired by traveling races like Gypsies. The path they follow symbolizes my own: towards enlightenment. The garments are constructed out of one piece, showing uninterrupted lines and circles. It is all about covering or uncovering, amalgamation, infinity.”
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Anne-Rixt Gast ©2014
Anne-Rixt Gast ©2014
Anne-Rixt’s graduation collection ‘DHAMMA’ is inspired by a silence retreat she did in Sweden.
Alpinist Gaston Rebuffat (1921 - 1985). Photograph from his book: “La Montagne set Mon Domaine.”
Katja Hannula Looking to study abroad Katja stumbled onto Rietveld merely by accident. After a Prep Year course and the Basic Year, fashion, although it seemed intimidating at first, turned out a natural choice.
“I tend to do everything very neatly but I have learned to loosen up and make much more generous gestures.” “I want people to see these girls on the catwalk that have a journey behind them, they have toughened up. Elements from mountaineering and
The inspiration for Katja’s collection is the explorer, an archetype that encompasses the gathering of life experience and strength.
Katja Hannula ©2014
Polar expedition by Yves Borgwardt, 1900
Motorcyclist Dane Rowe, 1970s
Katja Hannula ©2014
navigation relate to the explorer theme. I offer a story, a world to enter, an adventure.” 15
Tijme Veldt ©2014 16
After a brief try out at the Design Academy Tijme quickly redirected himself and entered the Rietveld. “All I ever wanted was to design chairs but during basic year I discovered that my work fits in the realm of fashion. This started me thinking of what messages are actually being conveyed through what we wear.”
Collage by Tsunehisa Kimura (1928–2008)
Tijme Veldt ©2014
Tijme Veldt ©2014
Tijme Veldt
Lucid dreaming, and allowing oneself to loose control and let the colourful world of the subconscious enter reality, this is the idea behind Tijme’s collection. “Stretching, shrinking, transparency, cascading colours and pieces falling apart, transforming into something else, all this is used to illustrate this half way world.”
Fien Ploeger Switching academies from Utrecht to Rietveld, Fien entered the fashion department in the second year. Before her BA level, she took a more technical oriented college degree in fashion. “The Rietveld has been a huge challenge to get to the bottom of me.”
Fien’s collection explores the concept of hyperreality in relation to the body. Her designs alter the body in a way that not necessarily answers to current beauty ideals. She explores the extremes of our tendency to perfect ourselves.
Original photograph of Amanda Lepore by Kris De Witte. Collage by Fien Ploeger ©2014
First try out, the collection started with this image. Fien Ploeger ©2014
Fien Ploeger ©2014
“Is it still fashion or does it become an object? The estranging fashion objects are made of slick, shiny materials that grant them a sense of beauty, like Jeff Koons balloon sculptures.” 17
Carlynn Armour
“For me fashion was always about the glamorous life, but in my second year I discovered the rather unglamorous ‘other’ side of the industry. My ambition took a radical turn.”
Carlynn Armour ©2014
At first Carlynn studied to be a fashion stylist, but already in her first year she realised that she wanted to design the looks she envisioned from scratch. Thus she applied for Rietveld.
Carlynn Armour ©2014
To draw attention to the wasteful ways in fashion Carlynn decided to create her collection entirely from fabrics made of recycled rest materials. She then turned her other cheek to our craving for newness and decided on one outfit consisting of two rather dated base patterns and simply repeats it twenty times.
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“The final outfit is then made entirely from all the leftovers of this collection. This way I realise my zero waste fashion line.”