MBFWA Sistaaz of the Castle by Jan Hoek and Duran Lantink
Sistaaz of the Castle, is a project by photographer Jan Hoek and fashion designer Duran Lantink, in which they explore the colourful looks of transgender sex workers that roam the streets of Cape Town, South Africa. Most of the girls are homeless, living under a bridge beside the Castle of Good Hope. The local sex workers’ organisation, S.W.E.A.T., gave Hoek and Lantink the opportunity to meet and collaborate with their transgender support group Sistaazhood. Hoek and Lantink zoom in on six girls from the community: Coco (25), Cleopatra (23) Sulaiga (30), Gabby (29) Flavinia (33) and Joan Collins (57). Duran Lantink gave shape to the girl’s ultimate fantasies; one of the girls imagined herself working in a luxurious Victorian brothel, an other girl wants to become Miss Africa; those kinds of dreams. Jan Hoek photographed the girls in this full-force-fantasyland in Cape Town.
What Hoek and Lantink found in South Africa they brought back to The Netherlands; that’s what we got to see at the fashion show; Lantink gathered all the fantasies, including his own, and created the dream-couture-capsule collection. Amongst this collection the dream-outfits made in Cape Town were also on show; presented on a tableaux vivant-like mini stage on wheels, which was pushed over the catwalk by even more models (in all shapes and sizes known to human kind) who were wearing Bonne Suits in combination with shirts with photo prints by Jan Hoek. On the backdrop screen we could see Jan Hoek’s photo’s accompanied by quotes of the South African girls of the Sistaazhood.
The work of Hoek and Lantink matches (or complete) each other very well, and so do the South African girls and their the environment, a perfect match! Mimi Blogger Team was impressed and had to take a quiet moment by themselves after the show. Well done!
This project can be seen during MBFWA into two parts;
-MBFWA; The Sistaaz of the Castle dream-couture capsule collection, which was on show at the Gashouder (January 16, 2015 in Amsterdam).
-MBFWA OFF SCHEDULE; The Sistaaz of the Castle photography exhibition at Foam Amsterdam (opens on January 13 at 17:30 and is on view until 20 January 2016.)