Fashion and Photography Horst P. Horst / Mattijs van Bergen

Fashion and Photography Horst P. Horst / Mattijs van Bergen

The exhibitions Horst P. Horst and Mattijs van Bergen’s “Photo to Fashion”, at the Netherlands Photo Museum, are the last exhibitions of the interdisciplinary Black/White program, which lasted 3 years and was about cross-overs between photography and other cultural disciplines.

Horst P. Horst, Photographer of Style, is a retrospective exhibition. produced by the V&A, curated by Susanna Brown. On show are all Horst’s iconic fashion photos, including vintage prints that were never on display. Also on show; Haute-Couture dresses, vintage vogue magazines, sketches and personal notes from Horst. (Sept 26, 2015/10 Jan10, 2016)

The Netherlands Photo Museum and Dutch fashion designer Mattijs van Bergen collaborated on the exhibition “Photo to Fashion“. Van Bergen designed a small collection, he was inspired by 20th century black and white photography from, for example, Dutch photographer Ed van der Elsken (1925-1990). Mattijs van Bergen and the Netherlands Photo Museum then invited 3 Dutch fashion photographers, all female and from 3 different generations; Sacha van Dorssen, Wendelien Daan and Petrovsky & Ramone to interpret this capsule collection, next to B&W they all added color to their work, unlike Mattijs van Bergen; the copper accessories were the only touch of color to be seen: Chique!

Wendelien Daan is also the photographer of Mimi Berlin’s Fashion-Fests, she is family. We think she outdid herself with the “Nymphs” series she made for the “Photo to Fashion” exhibition. The museum liked it as well; Her work “Jamilla” has been blown up larger than life, printed on plastic and can be seen outside as wall, next to 2 images by Horst…..BAM

See some Party-Snaps, made at the opening of these exhibitions HERE

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Fashionweek in Amsterdam

The runway shows at the Mercedes-Benz Fashionweek Nederland are held at The Westergas terrein. Dutch fashion designers will show in two places at The Gashouder which is the main building, and at the smaller Transformatorhuis (January 23rd.> January 27)
Opening Night of Amsterdam’s FashionWeek
Mattijs kicked off at the main venue of the mercedes-benz catwalk. Picture this: On the stage a row of leafless trees. Opening in a very quiet way was a woman in a black evening dress singing Starry Night a-capella, she was pregnant. (This is Jolanda van den Berg, actress and the muse of Mattijs.) After she finished her song the models came on stage showing an autumn leaf color palette in plissee, prints (inspired by the painting techniques and the use of colors by Van Gogh) and knitwear. It seems like Mattijs toys around with the bounderies of couture and ready to wear. His choice of fabric is high-end, the shapes less so. He loves to mix, for example “evening wear” with a casual sweater. His autumn-winter 2014 is called Complementary.

MAISON the FAUX showed for the first time ever in the smaller Transformatorhuis venue. The show was opened by an opera singer (a member of maison the faux) she performed throughout the entire show getting more and more heated-up towards the end, we loved that! Maison the Faux created an orchestrated chaos on the catwalk and showed about twelve outfits, very extravagant ones, worn by young and older models, all in a pandemonium of pink, plush, ruffles, flowers and glitter. This show was clearly an introduction to the Maison the Faux Family, not so much to a collection of clothing. At the end the entire “family” (they are 6 in total including PR) came to clean up the stage creating an atmosphere in which the audience didn’t leave. Neither did we. We lingered on and went backstage to view the designs up-close: they are really more detailed and refined than one can comprehend during such a vibrant show!
Aziz Bekkaoi closed the first evening of the fashionweek in Amsterdam at the Gashouder. The Dutch newspapers were filled with reads on Aziz last week-end, probably because he showed for the first time in 10 years in Amsterdam. Aziz’s inspiration was clear and simple: the streets of the inner city in New-York with it’s  mixed religion and different cultures in the eighties of the previous century. That was clear from the opening of the show on; a large group of dancers dressed in black bomber jackets moving to “Fight the power” by Public Enemy. Continue reading