martes, 28 de enero de 2014
martes, 15 de octubre de 2013
Fashion in The Netherlands: Ella Brouwer
Pioneering in the field of 3D
printed garments, and with fashion designers constantly merging technology with
fashion, the Netherlands is on top of their game. This avant-garde fashion hub proudly
holds Iris van Herpen and Viktor and Rolf as synonyms of Dutch fashion. I got a
chance to talk to Ella Brouwer, a soon-to-be fashion design graduate from the
Amsterdam Fashion Institute. This is a fashion school that not only has its own
shop that sell student’s work, but it also has its own magazine, leaving any
fashion student green with envy.
Ella Brouwer |
The Netherlands,
often referred to as Holland, is a country that has become notable for having a
liberal government. Indeed, when I say liberal, I am also referring to the fact that
you can still smoke cannabis in coffee shops. But put that thought aside for a
moment. Besides that, the Netherlands is actually one of the wealthiest
countries in the world. Historically, their government has shown great
tolerance towards different religions and consequently a free-thinking culture
has been built. Their approach to fashion is equally iconoclastic. Dutch designers
are constantly innovating in garment construction processes and creating clothes
that inspire and catch worldwide attention.
Born
in Groningen, in the north side of Netherlands, Ella chose to move to Amsterdam
to study fashion. She is just about to start her last year at AMFI (Amsterdam
Fashion Institute), and with a sweet and timid personality she was lovely in
every step of our interview. She had big sparkling blue-grey eyes, and a sweet
smile that was highlighted by her intense red lipstick. She was wearing a big-chained
necklace and several bracelets on her wrist. Occasionally blushing, Ella tried
to answer very honestly every question that I asked her.
“I
think if I look at the whole Netherlands, mostly people just buy clothes when it’s
comfy. So jeans and jerseys are think, number one in the Netherlands. But of
course there is a whole group of trendsetters, people that want to be really fashionable.
I think that’s normal in every country. I think most of people want to feel
comfortable in their clothes. When you look at Italian people, they look very
classy and chic, and they are more into designer labels. In the Netherlands
it’s not that much, quite a few people, but mostly comfy clothes,” said Ella.
New
independent designers keep emerging, and they have a lot of support from
different associations, some offering awards like the Mini Young Designer
Award. There are also several shops that sell Dutch fashion all around
Netherlands. This continuous emergence of new designers made me question how
much the new designers are actually selling. “It’s not that much. I mean some
celebrities are really walking around in designer clothes. But for the rest, I think it’s more for an international audience.
I think here in Amsterdam there are also people who like to wear them. But
yeah, it’s expensive also for most people I think.”
Being
a country that is ahead of others in fashion design, it’s interesting to
understand whether fashion is really important for Dutch people. Without
hesitation Ella answered straight away, “yeah it is, I think also for also for
myself. But it’s really a way of expressing yourself, so that’s really
important. Also for young people my age they really want to stand for something
and fashion can really help with that. Because you can really tell your own
story, they want to be individual.” Did you grow up with a sense of fashion?
“Not really, because I lived in the north part of Netherlands, a small village.
So fashion is not that important. I do have to say from a young age it already
had my attention. My mother said that when we were on the street I was always
looking at people’s shoes. So for me it’s always been important.”
Cities
like Arnhem and Amsterdam are the homes of outstanding fashion schools. ArtEZ
Institute of the Arts is proud to enlist Viktor and Rolf and
Iris van Herpen as their alumni. Moreover, looking at the Amsterdam
Fashion Institute, I was quite impressed on the whole program. Not only do they
have a shop that sells student’s garments, but they also have their own label
called INDIVIDUALS. Ella participated in the creation of the latest collection with
other students. She explained how the garments are manufactured abroad and
after that, sold across Netherlands and other countries.
There
is also space for students who are interested in studying fashion management
and branding. These students also get to showcase their abilities through
several projects. One of them being a fashion magazine, this year called
‘Garment’. The magazine changes its name every year and it really shows how
professional and full of initiative the students at AMFI are. This school with
around 1,000 students seems to be a giant oven for creative designers and a
paradise for us fashion lovers.
Dress from Ella's 'Disclosing Illusions' collection |
AMFI
is also into the promotion of sustainable fashion. So for a school project,
Ella designed a sustainable green-grey dress as part of her ‘Disclosing Illusions’
collection. “What I did for ‘Disclosing Illusions’ was that I just used a
square of fabric. Also for the dress underneath I did the same thing, so you
don’t throw anything away. You could also wear it on two sides, so it was
multifunctional and also the fabric was 100% wool. Because you can easily
recycle 100% fabrics.” This wasn’t the only inspiration that Ella took, as she also
used a Dutch textile technique: “with this technique you just make it smaller.
A few years later when you make it loose, you still have lots of fabric.”
Netherlands itself is also a great promoter of Green
Fashion. There are organizations like ‘Made-by’ that help designers incorporate
sustainability into their designs. But on top of being green, Netherlands fashion
is also well known for experimenting with technology. Famous Dutch fashion and technology
pioneers include Iris van Herpen, who experiments with 3D printed garments. Daan Roosegaarde is the founder of Studio
Roosegaarde, a studio dedicated to joining architecture, technology and
fashion. Pauline van Dongen has been experimenting by merging fashion and solar
panels.
So in this country that seems to have it all in terms
of fashion design, are there any limitations for fashion students? After a long
pause, Ella answers, “Hmmm no, not really.” The job opportunities field looks
just as unlimited, “It really depends, what I really like is that some students
who graduated before, they work at the H&M in Stockholm. One is working in the
design department and other one is working in the printing department. When we
graduate there’s always a sort of event in the World Fashion Centre. Then we
have an event where all the graduates present their work. So everybody shows
their portfolios, and the graduation work will also be in a fashion show. A lot
of labels are going there just to see all the new young designers.”
Previously having studied retail, Ella found her way
into fashion design and recently interned with Dutch designer Ilja Visser. Now
starting her last year at AMFI, she is looking forward to finding work in
Stockholm after graduation. With all the innovation in fashion design going on in
this country, I could only think that London better watch out. A new fashion
capital might emerge in the future, and it could be the Netherlands.
Check out more of Ella's work: http://ellabrouwer07.carbonmade.com/
All pictures courtesy of Ella Brouwer
Fashion in The Netherlands: Ella Brouwer is licensed under a Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 3.0 Unported License.
Creado a partir de la obra en http://fashion-aroundtheworld.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/fashion-in-netherlands-ella-brouwer.html.
martes, 1 de octubre de 2013
Fashion in Bolivia: Fabiola Bernal Vargas
Bolivia is a country with enough cultural richness to
make their designers feel inspired and is quickly building the necessary tools
to shine within the South-American fashion scene. Fabiola Bernal Vargas is a
student of UPSA (Private University of Santa Cruz de la Sierra), the only
school in Bolivia that offers a bachelor degree in fashion. Presenting a
delicately draped green dress at her school show, Fabiola flaunts the sewing
and patternmaking skills that will take her far.
Fabiola wearing a jacket that she made herself |
Fabiola was very
serene with her words, and she seemed to have a lot of knowledge around the
culture and fashion in Bolivia. Her black hair and slightly brownish skin
seemed to make a perfect combination. The bad Internet connection only allowed
me to see Fabiola’s face enough times to say hi and then I was just limited to
hearing her voice.
Originally from
Bermejo, and now based in Santa Cruz, Fabiola is a year away from graduation. Fabiola has been in Santa Cruz for three years after she took the decision
to study fashion there. “I finally convinced my parents and they let me go to
Santa Cruz. There’s this moment in which the dad doesn’t understand that his
daughter wants to study fashion, but I made it, I made it.” I found Fabiola’s
work through a fashion show that her school organizes once a year. When I asked
for pictures of the dress that was in the show, she lamented not being able
to make a proper photoshoot after the show. She sold the dress to a quinceañera - a girl who was about to
celebrate her 15 birthday - and who wanted the dress straight away.
The theme for the
fashion show was ‘Santa Cruz, That’s how I am’, inspired in the city of Santa
Cruz, the fashion capital of this country. Fabiola explained how the next show
might be on myths and legends of Santa Cruz. The great effort from this school
to make the students connected to their culture is quite surprising. Above all, the school focuses on preparing their students from a
business point of view, so much that they have accounting classes. It also insists
that the students sew and pattern-make the work themselves.
Bolivia is the
only country in South America bar Paraguay that doesn’t have an official Zara
store to fulfill the need of fast-fashion. Fabiola doesn’t buy any clothes from
Bolivian shops but she promotes Bolivian fashion in her own way. “Look, I’m going to be honest with you. Five years ago I learned to sew
properly, with patterns and everything. Since I know how to sew, it’s rare that
I buy from a shop, I have to like it a lot for me to want it. So, most of the
garments in my closet are made by me. I dress by Fabiola. I sew really well.” Very
excited Fabiola explained how much she likes to go fabric hunting with a friend
of hers who also sews her own clothes.
Bolivia’s fashion
design is in development. The richness of their culture and their attachment to
it, make it possible for designers to keep looking inside their country for
inspiration. Bolivia has 36 different ethnic groups and indigenous people make
up 60% of the population. With that in mind, it’s easy to understand how their
fashion is building up.
There are also
fashion shows dedicated to ‘La Cholita Paceña’ an icon in Bolivia, an indigenous
woman recognizable for her typical garments. I asked Fabiola about it and with
a lot of knowledge in the topic she explained, “there
are designers dedicated just for them, the garments that they use are extremely
expensive, it’s very elaborated. Many of the garments they use are made by
hand, hand-embroidered, they use techniques like macramé. The work made for them is very meticulous.” I was very
intrigued to hear about designers dedicated to making garments for the cholitas, so Fabiola kept telling me
more about the expensive jewellery they wear, and then suggested, “It’s very
interesting, if you ever come around to Bolivia, you’ll see how beautiful garments
there are in this type of events. It’s very beautiful Bolivia, it has a lot of cultural
richness, like Mexico.”
This was the first interview I was conducting in Spanish for a very long
time and I felt closer to Mexico and to being able to compare it. However, the
love and high-knowledge of the culture that Fabiola had, seemed stronger than in
anybody else that I’ve interviewed. “Here’s it’s highly appreciated, there are
many needs in terms of the textile and that kind of thing. Each region has it’s
own thing, and different types of knitting. Santa Cruz uses different types of
fibres. La Paz is a colder place so they use alpaca, vicuña, and those sort of animals, and Santa Cruz more vegetal
fibres because of the heat. So it’s different but also interesting.”
The dress that Fabiola made for UPSA's fashion show |
Bolivian President Evo Morales had some influence in putting the
traditional fabrics in the map when he asked Bolivian designer Beatriz Canedo
Patiño, to make a suit made of alpaca for the Presidential election. Soon after
that, the President imposed a so called ‘Evo Fashion’ by wearing a red alpaca
jumper - called chompa – catching
worldwide attention by breaking protocol rules dressed like this whilst
visiting world leaders during 2006.
Nevertheless, Fabiola
didn’t think the president’s government had made a difference in fashion in her
country. “In fashion, honestly, no, I don’t think so, maybe there’s been an
emphasis in the use of the national fibre like alpaca and vicuña.” Very up to speed with the fashion news of her country,
Fabiola continued: “Mainly here in Santa Cruz there’s a big movement
in the last couple of years. Well, in the last three-years that I’ve been here,
I’ve been able to see that it’s grown a lot. More stores have been opened
supporting new designers.”
Fabiola is considering the possibility of studying a course in Argentina
or Chile for patternmaking, but she’s also interested in presenting a collection
for Bolivia Fashion (Bolivia’s Fashion Week). Her voice turned tender when she
recalled how she started in the first place. “I remember being 10 years old in
a reunion with all classmates and the teacher was asking what do you want to
study when you are older, and everyone was like: I want to be a doctor, I want
to be this, I want to be a lawyer, and I said: I want to be a fashion designer.
Everybody looked and me and said: What is that?!”, she laughed. “I was a kid,
maybe I didn’t know what I was saying in that moment, but look how things turn
up, I’m still with the same idea, I kept on and now I’m here.”
Fashion in Bolivia clearly has a strong connection to its culture, but
does that limit Fabiola in any way? “A bit, because sometimes
one wants to design something out of the ordinary and people have a hard time
accepting it because people like to dress the same. If the silk shirts are in
fashion everybody wants to go to the nightclub with silk shirts, so you can
understand. So people have a hard time accepting a completely different
design.” Despite this, Bolivia’s fashion will hopefully keep
on developing with this attachment to their culture and in a few years time it could
be launched into the international scene with enough strength to empower South
American fashion.
All pictures courtesy of Fabiola
Fashion in Bolivia: Fabiola Bernal Vargas is licensed under a Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 3.0 Unported License.
Creado a partir de la obra en http://fashion-aroundtheworld.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/fashion-in-bolivia-fabiola-bernal-vargas.html.
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