Longing for depth and warmth

Anne de Grijff Collection A/W 2010-2011

“I see garments in a line, a line I would like to break into or divide, over and again. Before I start to shape I don’t know the exact direction of this line but by proceeding it, and then breaking and disturbing it, new unexpected courses and forms occur.” Anne de Grijff



What is the meaning of fashion for you and how do you translate this in your designs?

Fashion for me comes with a feeling, a feeling to create something new. Unsuspected lines, processes, silhouettes or details. My collection expresses the way I feel about fashion. I create wearable luxury: idiosyncratic pieces with an aesthetic nonchalance. I want to show an image that is not necessarily fashion related. With my designing image I want to try to get my own group of followers.

For the A/W 2010 - 2011 collection I asked myself the question: What happens when you flip or move seams and parts of patterns? Lead to designs with turned pleats, patterns and seams and moveable drapes.

What are the artists and / or things that inspire you to create a collection?

It’s diverse. I’m always searching for a certain profundity and class. Things or people with wilfulness and personality. Mostly unexpected. Things that surprise me in daily life.
For the A/W collection I felt a longing for depth and warmth. Simultaneously I discovered an untitled chair that was used in an exhibition of pictures from Barbara Visser. The chair refers to an egg where they pulled out the lining, like a peeled egg.

What story are your designs for the AW 2010 -11 collection telling?

It’s a story of evolving lines and connecting patterns that are, after breaking, folding, or continuing, eventually getting together. It works well in larger and rounder shapes but also in flat patterns put together for a balanced story. It’s a challenge to assemble ideas because sometimes it can be like mathematics. The story has to end somewhere. The designs come to live and evolve in the fittings when a real person is wearing it.

What are your dreams for the future and how would you like to evolve?

I’m really happy with my increasing salespoints in the Netherlands. Next season my whole collection is to find at Kabinet, a new salespoint in Amsterdam. I want to give boutiques a certain exclusivity which means that soon I have to look across the borders for new points of selling. I’m looking forward to. It’s going fast and it bubbles. I have a feeling that things really start to happen now and I get so much energy out of this.

I attract a lot of committed people that are willing to help me. The people around me almost seem to share the same passion for the collection as I do and I realize that’s special. In future I would like to have a larger team that completes the process and me. I dream of the days I can think without boundaries and when I can more and more focus on only creating.

Text: Maaijke Middelbeek
Photography: Sandor Lubbe

Luis

Luis is the second in a series of 2: LUCIA, LUIS Y El LOBO
by Cristóbal León, Joaquin Cociña, Niles Atallah

LUIS from diluvio on Vimeo.

BIG BANG Theory

Photography: Leonie Zijlstra
Illustrations: Maaijke Middelbeek

Dendrochronology

Photography: Leonie Zijlstra
Illustrations: Maaijke Middelbeek

Song #1

Your picture is silent and perfect
You with your dark sleek hair, porcelain skin and raspberry red lips
Sitting with folded hands wearing your spotless white shirt, smoking a cigarette or two
Staring into the water that reflects in your light almost transparent eyes
I can see a school of fishes swimming in your watery iris
Want to follow them go deeper into your body and veins
Let them guide me through your life and brains
Want to read more about your intriging story
Want to touch the hairs on your skin and kiss your humid lips
To feel your soft cheeks and hold your slender body

Catch me in your web, if only you could...
See me, eat me, feel me, don’t ignore me!
Silence gets interrupted, the entracing image is moving
Disillusions sets your watery bright eyes on fire
Your face turns from perfect in sad
A seeking glance and trembling lip foretell unrest
Where is this pain and anger coming from? Who or what chained you in life?
Who are you waiting for?
Let me find the key to open your chains and free you
Stop staring into nothing and look in my way
Find me attending, waiting under this old tree right by your side
If I could capture your attention for only one second
Know when we exchange thoughts, crossing moments, it will be...

Birds are flying away, following you leaving your seat
Lightning another cigarette walking towards the old tree
I feel connected and .. say; Can you light my fire?
You smile but also look surprised and trapped,
dragged away out of your day dreams
Set back into this real world realizing you are not alone
After the first time I saw you I just could not let go
Don’t you feel the same hunger and love?
You say goodbye and I say: “Wait!”
Touching your fingers asking: “Who are you waiting for?”
She sighs and says: “Nobody... but you.”

Lyrics: Maaijke Middelbeek
Music: Giorgos Daskalakis
Photography: Leonie Zijlstra

My First crush by Julia Pott

A short Animation about love

Nocturnal sounds of Gothic Chique

In the end of the nineties, when we started our studies in fashion and invested in a lot of magazines, the face of this remarkable flame-haired model with porcelain white skin and unusual features, was there, everywhere. From Vogue and W to Dazed & Confused, and we remember the hymn of Dutch to Karen Elson. She and her modelfriend Erin O’Connor were outstanding their classically pretty modelling colleagues at the top with an exceptional beauty.

Elson’s husband Jack White (White Stripes) must have noticed this too. The singer and musician, who is noteworthy for his eccentric looks and contribution in music, asked the British model to appear in the White Stripes music video “Blue Orchid”, dark and poetic, and that’s how the romance started. Now their passion for eachother and music has blended and resulted in Elson’s debut album “The Ghost who walks” (one of Elson's nicknames at highschool). The model always dreamt of a career as a singer.

Now she illuminates the stage with songs that combine different music streams such as Nashville, the place where the couple is housed nowadays. With this music appearance Elson also outsings most of her preceded fashion colleagues. Walk on Karen!