The Fashion Show 2016 - Gerrit Rietveld Academie
NIELS KLAVERS - Head of Fashion department /The Gerrit Rietveld Academie attracts a specific kind of students, coming from all over the world, looking for ‘ freedom ’, and ‘ room for experimentation ’. They all seem driven, by some deep personality trait, to steer clear of the established order, and to carve out their future genius one experiment at the time. For quite a lot of them it is only during the Basicyear that their direction dawns on them, as teachers point out that the work is all body related for instance, in which case they will be advised to consider studying fashion. This is why you will always see so much diversity in the Rietveld Fashion department. Instead of ironing out their ‘ wrinkles ’ to make them fit the fashion industry, at Rietveld we nourish diversity, even to a point where it becomes a challenge. For us as much as for you, the audience and the professional field. Being comfortable with the uncomfortable, having the audacity to challenge addictive ideas like perfection and control, refusing to pay lip service to powerful elitist rules and conventions, these are typical strengths that we believe will ultimately enrich the fashion discipline. Our graduates of 2016 have all asked themselves questions like ‘ what is fashion? ’ and ‘ what does it mean to be a fashion designer today? ’ And their answers are as diverse as they are, and we hope they leave you with something to chew on. Because fashion, in the end, is what you make of it. We say : “ There are no rules! ”
Lingyun Cao, Nikola Cemanová, Jiarong Du, Laura Dubourjal, Lieselot Elzinga, Galatée Martin, Jahmuna Mcclean, Sonia Oe t , Tat ia n a Quard, Anna Sørensen, Yana Tebiakina, Sonia Witwitzka 1st year students:
Yaroslav Glazunov, Miro Hämäläinen, Karen Huang, Boris Kollár, Ninamounah Langestraat, Line Langkjer, Antonina Pawlowicz, Chelsea Peterson, Edward Show, Nathaly Vlaun, Yu Jin VAV Yung, Jonathan Aldenberg , TXT Sanne Bax & Anouk Beckers 2nd
year
students:
RALPH DENNIS, VERE VAN HAL, YOKO HILFLING RAHBEK MAJA HANSEN, MYRTHE VAN HARDEVELD, NAOMI WOUTERA HILLE, IRIS DE JONG, DAAN KEIZER, MARIANNA LADREYT, BILLIE VIKA MOZHAEVA, -EMELIE KAROLA THERÉSE PALMHAGE R , I S IS ELSA FEE POSTEL, EVA VALDIMARSDÓTTIR Graduates:
W
Niels Klavers Head of production: \ Py Tswang Jin Catwalk direction, choreography & catwalk \ training: Kim Vos (Bdifferent) [at] House of Orange, Michelle den Hollander [at] (Bdifferent) House of Orange, Diek Pothoven Light design & (Bdifferent) \ technical production: Stefan Prokop, [at] Abby van den Berg & team Music direction: Jurlights \ Tamara van der Laarse (Sounds Hair & make-up Like Tamara) \ graduates: Taco Stuiver, Severine [at] van Donkelaar & teams Hair & make-up House of Orange \ Head of Fashion department:
Ellen Romeijn [at] & team House of Orange, Mascha Meyer & team [at] House of Orange \ Styling: [at] Marleen de Jong NCL Casting advice: Representation \ Catwalk photography: Victor de Bie \ Livestream: Team Peter Stigter \ Water: Eventproducent \ Crew catering: Marie-Stella-Maris \ John Pastinaak, UNOCO Raw Coconutwater by FG Graphic design: Natural Products \ Halla Einarsdรณttir, William Jacobson & Viktor PR: Nystrรถm \ Schoon den Boer PR, Public Rietveld 1st & 2nd year students:
RALPH W DENNIS Great Britain ’92, ralphdennis@gmail.com / After a brief Graphic Design study back home in London, Ralph Dennis moved to Amsterdam and entered the Rietveld, his mind set on continuing in the same direction. Having undergone the ‘infamous Basicyear’ however, he felt drawn in by the ever laborious and productive Fashion department instead. “Fashion is something that has always interested me, although not explicitly; the idea of working with an art form that everyone can relate to is something that provides a constant stream of inspiration.” The recent death of a rather extraordinary relative by the name of Charles Swithinbank, a famous glaciologist and arctic explorer in the 50s, got Ralph reading his memoirs. This exploration into extreme survival became the main inspiration for his graduation collection. “As these young men were stranded on the ice for four years, it was inevitable they would have to assume all kinds of responsibilities such as being the team vet, dentist, cook, surgeon, hairdresser, a pilot and many more. It’s this idea of a multi-functional person I find so interesting.“ Further research took Ralph to the archives of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, England where he examined the actual worn out utility wear from expeditions, and he developed his own jacquards depicting Antarctic landscapes at EE-Exclusives in Heeze, The Netherlands.
‘92, verevanhal.nl / Growing up in Almere, spoon fed with art, Vere van Hal was very aware of how formative the school system had been, so she decided to shake it off working with several artists in Barcelona before she chose to study at the Rietveld. Once landed in the Fashion department she combined her study with a management position at Amsterdam’s oldest movie theatre De Uitkijk. Before graduation Vere took another ‘time out’ to do an extended internship at Pelican Avenue and pattern maker Elke Hoste in Antwerp, and to start the theatre community project Homerus, which she plans to continue with her new MaakPlaats foundation. Vere van Hal is as odd a fashion student as they get at Rietveld. In her struggle to relate to the phenomena called fashion and its seemingly unshakeable system, she found her vocabulary with which to formulate her answer. “All I could think was: ‘Not another collection!’ That started my search, being fascinated by clothes as I have always been. Where lies the emotional value for the wearers? When does that stop and does the actual garment transform into a mere object?” This deconstruction of the meaning of it all, entitled ‘Identity: A framed collection’, is what Vere managed to stage within the given presentation form of a catwalk show. VERE VAN HAL
The Netherlands
YOKO MAJA HILFLING RAHBEK HANSEN Denmark ‘89, yokomaja.com / Born and raised in Copenhagen, Yoko Maja, who is half Japanese, half Danish, vividly recalls her infant fascination for way too big shoes and the sound of stilettos on concrete. Working as assistant manager at an international architect’s office at 20 she realised how badly she wanted to study abroad. “Rietveld made me feel comfortable in experimenting with materials and forms in unorthodox ways. This is also partly why I chose to study fashion, because I admire this premise where research and idea is restricted by the body and has to be wearable in some manner.” During her years in the Rietveld Fashion department Yoko developed a curiosity for Japanese-ness and while interning at Maison Margiela under artistic direction of John Galliano she got intrigued by the near inexplicable Japanese concept of ‘Ma’. “Ma magically includes time and space at the same time and can roughly be translated as a ‘gap’ or an interval between two or more spatial or temporal things or events. Ma is a dialogue between things and this ‘in-between-ness’ is essentially what I find interesting.” Capturing Ma in her garments that have the versatility and lightness of an accessory, Yoko delivers a wearable comment to omnipresent sense of speed in modern society.
MYRTHE VAN HARDEVELD The Netherlands ’90, myrthevanhardeveld.nl / After a year in the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, a go at Spanish at the University of Amsterdam followed by a break in Spain, Myrthe van Hardeveld, who hails from Haarlem, decided she just needed to create. After the Basicyear at Rietveld she first chose VAV audio-visual department but finally found her groove in the Fashion department. “I am drawn to creating value by revising and transforming materials that we wouldn’t normally consider wearing or adorning ourselves with.” “If we make a stain, why is the impulse to remove it the first thing that comes to our mind?” This dynamic between perfection and imperfection was the root of Myrthe’s graduation collection. She researched our craving for the impossible, our misguided ideas about what is ultimately unnatural, and interviewed people with severe skin diseases and burn scars. In conclusion: we can never have it all, unless we learn to see the beauty in imperfection. The collection plays with underscoring perfection and imperfection and bringing them into balance so they become each other’s equals. “I want to continue addressing the perfection seeking fashion industry by creating new opportunities for both people and materials.”
NAOMI HILLE The Netherlands ’93, hillenaomi@gmail.com / Naomi Hille’s traditional small town Christian upbringing, with parents keeping pigs, sheep and other animals, and a grandmother who’s a key figure in the nation wide preservation of traditional dress, has been a theme for her to explore throughout her years in the Rietveld Fashion department. Her familiarity with such a close-knit community has become her most valuable asset, which she now brings to a fashion industry that stands guilty of neglecting any sense of collective benefit. “I want to make us mindful of what our priorities are and what they could be.” With 2,000 people contributing to a print design, 350 people volunteering to hand knit square shaped pieces to their own fancy, and in a similar way crowd sourcing her design choices using an online survey, Naomi deliberately exchanged the role of designer for that of curator in the entire process of her graduation collection. “With this collection I allow everyone to be part of the production process. I want to give people back their say in the design by way of participation.” A radically different approach, which sounds easier than it actually is, but for Naomi it is the start of a life long mission to initiate dialogue for much needed awareness.
IRIS
DE JONG The Netherlands ’91, iriswoutera.com / Iris Woutera de Jong had already started studying the movements of the human body at age sixteen, at an art school in her hometown Rotterdam. Audio-visual techniques and performance art were always part of her vocabulary, and gradually Iris fell into place in the Fashion department. Especially after interning in the theatre she became aware of the challenge of positioning herself. “My work is very intuitive and hoovers between performance, philosophical research, art and design.” Iris’s graduation project ‘Looming’ is the result of a dizzying study into the phenomena of the circle. “Looming is a dialogue with the body that lingers, and then suddenly, playfully claims its maximal round scope before withdrawing into flatness again. The circle as a ritual movement, wherein we connect. The body looms in its simple, unadorned entirety, and then gets woven into the shape. The body and mind are tempted to succumb their sense of freedom to the material with its slowing, hypnotizing energy.” Iris’s performance is an invitation to give in to the continuous wave of movement. WOUTERA
DAAN KEIZER The Netherlands ’91, dakeiz.com / Amsterdam native Daan Keizer got into fashion when at 14 years of age, he decided to make his own jeans as he couldn’t find what he was looking for in the stores. After a year in a more industry focussed fashion school Daan switched to Rietveld for its radically free and individual approach. Material became his main focus. “I have become particularly interested in the transformation process from something completely experimental into something totally wearable yet original.” Hands on as Daan is, for his graduation collection he decided to face the world’s largest refugee crisis to be: the one caused by climate change. “The rising sea level, extreme droughts and hurricanes will be our biggest challenges. I started to design with Holland’s biggest threat in mind, that of the water. I looked into functional products for survival on the water.” Blown up details of rubber boats and life jackets, inflatable parts and a colour palette to match this future catastrophe, they make for a stylish wardrobe that, although not likely to save lives, will keep us alert for things to come.
MARIANNA LADREYT France ’90, mariannaladreyt.com / Scholarly by nature, Marianna Ladreyt, who is of Cypriot and French blood, enjoyed theoretical studies in art and philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris before making contact with the practice doing Fine Arts at ISDAT in Toulouse. When she realised her work was constantly relating to the human body and its movements she had to find out what fashion and clothing is really about. “This is why I chose to apply for the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. I like this original, strong approach of wearables. What is it? What does it mean?” A recurring theme in Marianna’s work is ‘trompel’oeil’, illusions that, if only for a second, trick the eye and make us aware of our subconscious reflex to interpret sensory information. This relates to her fascination for the Greek toga, a flat piece of fabric that is just knotted somewhere to create its volume, that is there to protect and serve the body, it’s beauty universally recognized. No stitches. “For my thesis, I did research on the ‘flâneur’, this poetic figure of the stroller, the observing and contemplating wanderer who never stops trying to understand the world. What if it were but a décor with changing sets? In my graduation collection, the flâneur became a true adventurer and the togas got stitches.”
VIKA MOZHAEVA Russia ‘88, vikamozhaeva.com / In her hometown Saint Petersburg Viktoriya ‘Vika’ Mozhaeva did some work designing film costumes before she entered the Rietveld Basicyear, which got her ready to proceed studying fashion in the Rietveld’s typical experimental and critical way. After an exchange year at Parsons School of Design and a consecutive internship at TELFAR she’s all warmed up to face her future gaining more work experience in New York before entering a fashion master programme. Vika’s graduation collection is inspired by her thesis for which she explored a hypothetical post-human future
where we will be completely integrated with technology whilst having forgotten the functionality of objects from the past that we cherish as trophies. In this apocalyptic setting everything is possible; the gender issue, for example, is completely outdated and the most important thing is to survive in harsh outdoor conditions. “I’ve always wondered why the post-apocalyptic world is presented as something dusty and melancholic. Why can it not be modern and futuristic and at the same time in strong connection with the past?” Imagine our future selves, free of gender or ethnic differentiation, finding a treasure of then ancient objects and how we would put them to use in a completely new way.
THERÉSE PALMHAGER Sweden ‘88, Palmhager. tumblr.com Instagram @palmhager / Growing up in an unconventional family, Therése Palmhager started to question stereotypes and stereotypical gender roles at an early age. Her interest in human interaction and social constructions shows on her resume that next to several art, textile and fashion studies lists years of engaged social work. “I want to challenge the idea of what we can wear on a daily basis. My vision is a world where we are not limited by our gender or age.” Therése did her internship at Ann-Sofie Back. Throughout her years studying fashion at the Rietveld Therese maintained her pleasantly stubborn stance towards all prevailing norms. Now her mind-freeing experiments accumulate in her graduation collection, which illustrates the classic battlefield of rights and wrongs between the minds of children and adults. “As children we are allowed to explore what is real and what isn’t. The world is full of possibilities”, she argues. “As adults we are expected to follow certain rules and structures, we are limited by societal norms. For children these rules and structures exist only in a far distance. Everything is possible and the world is our playground.” She explicitly chose to design clothes that a fun loving and open-minded audience would consider totally wearable. BILLIE-EMELIE KAROLA
ISIS ELSA FEE POSTEL The Netherlands ’92, isispostel.com / Isis Postel’s broad interests are reflected by her resume, which includes dance and theatre acting, as well as training diplomatic talents in EU youth parliaments and on the board of a youth tennis club. However born and raised in Rotterdam, Isis felt straight away at home once she walked into the Rietveld, where she just knew she would study fashion after the Preparatory year and Basicyear. “I tend to take the shapes of the body as a starting point when I design; emphasizing them by adding volume or leaving parts bare. Like with sculpting, the shape should be interesting from any angle.” Always moving between different social groups, Isis developed a keen interest in how people read and qualify each other, and who decides what those norms are and what is unacceptable, outrageous. Why, in a society that boasts individuality, do we all look pretty much the same? And what are the responsibilities and what could be the a designer? influence of “My graduation collection merges two extremes in one proposition; great everyday basics, free from trend waves, and eccentricity, our need to make our unique selves seen, but without the immoral decadence usually associated with extravaganza.”
EVA VALDIMARSDOTTIR Iceland ‘94, evaldimarsdottir@ gmail.com / Although of Icelandic origin, Eva Valdimarsdóttir grew up in Wageningen, The Netherlands. At 16, straight after high school, she entered the Rietveld Preparatory year, and went on to the Basicyear and the Fashion department, where, in her words “we are taught to communicate and dissect visual information rather than just make.” During her two internships ‘reinterpreting denim’ at Faustine Steinmetz and Marques Almeida, Eva realized that working in a team can be as liberating as designing by yourself. She’s hoping to do more of that before entering a fashion master. Steadfast as Eva Valdimarsdóttir is, she is also hyper aware of the mechanisms that influence our modern life, such as the cameras in our mobile phones and how they become our two way mirrors on the Internet. Her graduation collection literally deals with the square formats we apply to our conscious or subconscious life plan. Quinceañera, Graduation, Marriage, Parenthood and so on, all we have to do is to live up to the stock images of those big life changing moments in our future that we have in our minds. “I have altered these garments to be less fixed by reinterpreting them as accessories that can be added on to a more daily garment.”
the Executive Board of Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Meester Koetsier Foundation, RAI Amsterdam, teachers of the Fashion department (Nicky den Breejen, Amie Dicke, Peter van Special
thanks
to
Gorp, Twan Janssen, Sonja Kip, Lise Lefebvre, Shirley Muijrers, Pernilla
Philip,
Wanders)
Oscar
Raaijmakers,
Mo
Veld,
Riëtte
, the VAV department
(Lisa
van der Breggen, Sergey Golubev, Margriet Kruijver,
, the Graphic Design department
Basile
Monsacré,
Mariken
Overdijk,
Alice
Sprascio)
(David Bennewith, Halla Einarsdóttir, William Jacobson, Viktor
Nyström)
,
Public
Rietveld
(Bieneke Bennekers, Karlijn Hoftijzer, Iris Loos, Marek
, Internships
van de Watering) Carly
Everaerts,
Elke
Hoste,
(Ann-Sofie Back,
Faustine
Steinmetz,
Maison Margiela, Marques Almeida, Melitta Baumeister,
Pelican Avenue, Schueller de Waal, Sushchenko, TELFAR,
, Jan van den Bosch, Mels Crouwel, Droog Design, Joshua Enker, Konstantin Guz, Jurjen van Houte, Jan Willem Kaldenbach, Duran Lantink & Jan Hoek, Simon Lextrait, Mimi Berlin, Tomoko Mukaiyama, Sylvia van den Ouwelant, Milou van Rossum, Torsten Ruhnow, Samantha Sowirono, Mark van Vorstenbos, Pien Vrijhof, Martijn Wiltenburg, X and L and everyone else involved Textiellab, Marga Weimans, Ximon Lee)
The Fashion Show 2016 is made possible with the generous support of Meester Koetsier Foundation, RAI Amsterdam and all Friends of the Fashion department
COLOPHON \ Mo Graphic design: Veld \ Halla Einarsdรณttir, William Jacobson & Viktor Printer: Nystrรถm \ Rodi Media Contributor:
The Fashion Show - 2016 Gerrit Rietveld Academie