February 2012

Archive | February, 2012

Fashion faux pas (part 4)

Some time ago I went through a rough period and decided to talk to a therapist. I made an appointment and a few days later I rang the doorbell. The therapist opened the door herself and looked at me. She seemed a bit surprised…

The waiting room was in the basement and she offered to help me get down the stairs. I thanked her, but it wasn’t necessary. Waiting for the therapist to call me to her office, I wondered what made her think I needed help going down the stairs? Maybe I looked very distressed or panicked?

When it was time to join her in her office, again she asked if I needed help? She began our talk by asking me why I dressed up for the appointment… A bit startled by her question, I said : ‘I always look like this’ (most of the time when people ask me something similar, I ad : ‘I only come in one flavour’, but this time it seemed inappropriate to make a joke…). I was wearing an antique-green silk velours ausbrenner dress and because I like mixed ‘n matched, I combined it with a pair of black canvas laced-up wedges.

After 50 minutes my time was up and she escorted me to the door. We shook hands and then she helped me over the doorstep and asked if I would get home safely. No problem, my bicycle was nearby. She raised her eyebrows… and looked at my shoes. Then I understood …. My shoes had a ‘fashionable orthopedic look’, but my therapist thought they were actually genuine orthopedic shoes!

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Categories Fashion faux pas

Barbie’s influence in fashion

26 Feb

My mum told me I was 4 years old, when I spent my summer holiday at a sewing course for kids. Actually I was to young to join this course, but because my sister went there ánd I showed a lot of talent, I was allowed to enter.

I started out sewing by hand and I made my first accessories, a pair of mittens, black cotton over the palm of my hand and white faux fur on top. I was so proud. I wish I still had them. After a few weeks I was allowed to sew on a machine, one you had to turn a cart-wheel by hand to make it work. Soon I didn’t want to do anything else, but sit behind a sewing machine….

The course ended with a competition, make an outfit for Barbie. I already liked a bit of drama, so I made an enormous bridal dress for my Barbie and I won. That’s how Barbie became my first muse.

When I decided to write a post about Barbie, I didn’t know which direction to go, because there’s so much written about this phenomenon, but googling pictures of Barbie it became clear to me I had to stick to the high fashion side of Barbie and her influence on fashion.

Winter ’94/’95 Martin Margiela was inspired by doll’s clothes for his collection and suddenly you looked at Barbie and Ken in a whole different way. Margiela’s collection featured well-known classics like a pair of jeans, a cardigan, BB checked shirts and a pea coat, made in human proportions the way they were simplified for dolls. As an accessory he made lager than life army identification dogtag.

Through the years lots of designers and stylists were asked to dress Barbie. I like to stick to the latest designs, like Maison Margiela’s and Gareth Pugh’s tribute to Barbie and Ken at Barbie’s 50th birthday celebration and Comme Des Garçons’ Barbie in floral print. Hermes made her bags, Christian Louboutin shoes and boots, Diana Von Furstenberg a travel outfit and Stephen Jones a hat collection….

Barbie also has a shoe fetish and does love heels. In her shoe collection even a pair of Vivienne Westwood Dragon shoes for Melissa….

I guess a lot of people would love to have some items from Barbie and Ken’s wardrobe, I certainly would! Like a Barbie duffel coat, Brigitte Bardot jeans or her vintage look sweater. And for men a Ken’s t-shirt or cardigan… Maybe H&M could do a ‘Barbie & Ken evergreens’ collection, I am sure it would be an incredible success!

Barbie went through many fashion changes, she started in sixties clothes, wore a lot of haute couture, was dressed by the famous designers, had her disco period, even resort collections and nowadays she dresses in high fashion. In a couple of weeks Barbie will celebrate her 53rd birthday, I know because she’s a year older than me and she still rocks (we both do…)!

Barbie even inspired the famous painter Johannes Vermeer for his ‘girl with a pearl earring’…. ;-D

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Categories inspiration, stories

Fashion,Future & Music

19 Feb

My friend, one of the first stylists to work for Dutch ELLE magazine (nowadays fashion director for Dutch Vogue magazine), was asked to do something special at the party celebration of the 20th anniversary of ELLE. She called me and asked if I would work with her on this project. The theme was Fashion & Future and we decided to make a short movie. It would be the first time for us to work on film, but we had worked on so many photographed editorial stories together already, we knew we could do it. Talking about Fashion & Future, we came up with the idea, children are the future and the children we wanted to film had to represent famous fashion designers and fashion icons.

I asked Eddy de Clercq, who has been responsable for the music at shows and performances of Viktor&Rolf the first 10 years, if we could use a piece of music he created for the performance ‘Paris-Tokyo’ by V&R.

The making of this short movie was a great experience and again I want to thank all children and grown-ups, who collaborated with us, for their time and enthusiasm ! I still love it….

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Categories adventures

Jeffrey Campbell

19 Feb

I have a huge shoe-fetish… for sure. My taste is quiet diverse, from very girly to heavily proportioned shoes, but they need to have high heels or be wedges… Thankfully I can walk on all heels like others walk on sneakers. Ofcourse I would love to buy all of the most beautiful designer pairs, but I can’t afford it ánd there are many non-designer brands,which make amazing shoes and give me as much pleasure to wear as the expensive high fashion designs.

A couple of years ago I discovered a brand called Jeffrey Campbell. It was the first brand I found, that made a lot of wedges, even before wedges became very fashionable. I bought my first pair of J (effrey) C (ampbell) booties in a shop in Amsterdam. The next season I went back to this store, to see if they were selling the new JC collection. Over the years I bought quiet some pairs. But because in Amsterdam not many people buy this brand, it’s difficult for the store to stock up the whole collection. Hallelua for internet-shopping…

The brand Jeffrey Campbell is about 10 years on the market and comes from the heart of Los Angeles. Over the years JC has become a footwear brand well-known in the USA. The small family owned fashion forward footwear label is already available across Asia,Canada, Australia,The UK, New Zealand and has become more available in Europe.

Sometimes the brand gets inspiration from high fashion houses, but also from artists and movie characters. They are selling heelless shoes, a bit like the ones designed by Noritaka Tatehana (ashame Lady Gaga wears these all the time, for this makes me nót want to wear them)…. http://noritakatatehana.com/biography.html

Another inspiration is Edward Scissorhands, the movie character so brilliantly played by Johnny Depp

Vivienne Westwood is definitely also a source of inspiration.

A tribute was made to the famous Salvatore Ferragamo shoes, with the coloured platforms.

And some Viktor&Rolf

And a tribute to one of my favorite painters, Jackson Pollock.

And some other shoes and boots of the brand…

You can buy Jeffrey Campbell at www.solestruck.com . They sell almost the complete collection. Don’t get derived by the lesser designs of the brand!!!