Zirkus

Happy new year everybody! As promised I’m starting my blogging again in the new year. What do you want to achieve this year? I, myself haven’t really thought of anything yet the only thing I want to do right now is concentrate on school since I’m in my last year.

So last Wednesday, 30st of December, me and my best friend Amber went to Amsterdam. When people mention Amsterdam they think weed, and prostitutes but Amsterdam is more then that. They’ve got really cute vintage shops in ‘De Negen Straatjes’ which means ‘The Nine Streets’ or ‘The Nine Little Streets’ in English. All the stores (excluding some of them like the le coq sportif store) are special in their own kind of way, and there are alot of vintage shops there! But the vintage shop I loved the most was Joosje, which is not located in the Nine streets. Bought my mom a pair of earrings there and myself a really cute brooche.

As you can probably see yourself, this is my brooche. It’s a circusclown that, when attached to your shirt or other garment, moves his legs when you move. This gives the impression that the clown is jumping or swinging around. Haven’t got a pic of my mom’s earrings yet, but they’re pretty simple, yet very nice.

Go visit Joosje when you’re in Amsterdam! It’s not only vintage, also new stuff. She sells vintage stuff downstairs, and upstairs she sells stuff of designers from Isreal and her own clothing line. The jewellery is everywhere, and the stuff isn’t very expensive at all. Then I’m talking about the jewellery haven’t seen the tags of the clothing yet. I bought the brooche and the earrings for 8 euros. 2 earrings for €8,- be sure to check the store or the website.

http://www.joosjeamsterdam.nl/ or the facebook page.

Last Thursday, the last day of 2009 my mom bought me a bracelet. I fancy the bracelet, it’s pretty and so simple! Picture below.

It’s just silver but I love it!

Le Petit Antoine

You probably haven’t heard of Antoine Peters when you’re not from The Netherlands. But since I am, I did hear from him and saw him in person when he gave me and 20 other people a presentation about his work as a fashion designer. And yes, I was impressed! But who is he?

Antoine Peters is a dutch fashion designer. After he graduated from Fashion Institute Arnhem in the Netherlands he got to show for Amsterdam International Fashion Week with some other designers. He has worked for the dutch AvantGarde magazine, Viktor & Rolf and is one of Hollands most promising designers. There’s one thing that one can always see and feel when they are looking at his collection: Humor. Humor is one of the most important things when it comes to him designing clothes. With titles for his runway shows as: ‘Fat People Are Harder To Kidnap’ and ‘Turn Your Frown Upside Down’ he always makes the crowd laughing before the show even starts. Even the tags in his garments are in the shape of a smile, and they are stitched in a way so that on the backside of the garment is a little smile.

He’s also well known for his idea: A Sweater For The World. This is a huge sweater that can be worn as an oversized dress but also as just a sweater for two (or more) people. Also this idea, comes back into some of his collections.

In most of his collections patterns are used, no not the usual patterns that we already know like the scottish pattern or pied-de-poule but patterns he creates himself. Like in the collections: ‘I’m with stupid’, ‘Fat People Are Harder To Kidnap’ and ‘To Make An Elephant Out Of A Mosquito.’

 

The first five pictures are pictures taken from the collection: ‘Fat People Are Harder To Kidnap’. He uses a pattern he created himself. The pattern consists of pieces cut from the newspaper that we sometimes see in movies (old movies most of the time) when they show us a threatening letter. In the third and the fourth picture we can see this clearly, but when you focus on the first two pictures you can see that the pattern on the garment is the same as the others but only it’s a magnification. This collection is from the FW 08/09 show.

The last four pictures are taken from the collection: ‘I’m With Stupid’. He was inspired by the cheesy T-Shirts that say: I’m With Stupid with a arrow under them pointing to the person next to them. I’m not really a fan of these patterns but some really stand out.  This collection is from the FW/2010 show. Which is his latest collection. In both of these collection we can see a lot of drapery.

The pictures 7 to 16 are taken from the collection: ‘To Make An Elephant Out Of A Mosquito’. This a dutch saying: ‘Van een mug een olifant maken.’ Which basically means: that someone makes something bigger and worse then it actually is. This saying is often used when someone makes a big problem over nothing. We see shapes that are inspired by the shape of an elephant like the shoes of the first picture in this post. And there is a mosquito pattern all over the dresses. Then there are the jumpsuits which makes the arm appear as the nose of an elephant. Picture 13 and 14 have a pattern that looks like this up close:

He told us: ‘I use these catwalk shows for publicity, a way to show what I’m capable of.’And he sure did!

Go to http://antoinepeters.com for more of his collections. (Fat People Are Harder To Kidnap, Le Petit Antoine and etc.)