Spice up your Life

6a00e5508e95a988330168e8cad8ce970c-800wi.jpg

There's definitely a new Sims format that can come out of navigating the teens tiny, winding streets of the Marais during fashion week, where you can stumble upon showroom after showroom that is a world away from big budget shows at the Tuileries.  Five hundred Simoleons gained if you hap upon a good showroom with a few great labels.  Two hundred Simoleons deducted if you get distracted by the Rose Bakery on Rue Debelleyme.  

In a truly grim Parisian downpour, I trudged through a good lot of showroom visit last Sunday, which I think deserves a thousand Simoleons, just because it was like taking a shower at one point.  The great thing about some of the showrooms in the Marais is that they can feel like open house galleries, there for your viewing pleasure if you stump up a business card.  That's how I barged into Katrien van Hecke and Ingrid Verhoeven's joint showroom.   

Katrien Van Hecke lives and works in Antwerp but studied fashion design at the KASK, in Ghent and then cut her internship teeth at Bernhard Willhelm, Hussein Chalayan and later Christian Wijnants.  This A/W 12-3 collection entitled "Herbal" is her second one as she continues to explore hand dying her own fabrics.  Her interest in painting has led her to apply a painter's approach towards fabrics and so she experimented with herbs and spices such as turmeric, woad, sandalwood, nettle and cochineal to obtain some pretty unbelievable effects.  These are age old dying techniques but worked with her woven jacquards and fabric made out of banana leafs, Van Hecke is attempting to incorporate history into her experimental work.  Her large studio in Antwerp affords her the space to try out all kinds of ancient techniques and in this crazy fabric laboratory of her's, she mixed the spices with a type of metal in the fabric to prevent the colour from fading after washing.  The effects that I saw in the showroom certainly don't look like they have come from beetles and curry spices.  Without knowing how the fabric was dyed, the pieces looked to me like they had an organic and painterly nature to them.  As though someone had taken to fabric with a paintbrush and a steady hand.  It's interesting to see that Van Hecke's ambition is to create artisinal garments, ones that have bit of life and soul with them but it's even more fascinating to see how she achieves this effect without my looking at it and going "Oh, that's clearly a one-off piece."   

IMG_5868

Katrin1 Katrin2

IMG_5875

IMG_5873
Katrin3 Katrin4

IMG_5878

IMG_5871

IMG_5898

Katrin5 Katrin6

IMG_5901

IMG_5895

IMG_5896

On the other side of the room was jewellery designer Ingrid Verhoeven, who also works and lives in Antwerp (I feel I'm due another trip there, no?).  She has a simultaneously playful and precise approach that can be seen in these pieces in her new collection of "Cloud" jewellery.  The painted strips that make up the earrings and necklaces are actually cardboard that are varnished and laminated so that they take on the appearance of something far more precious.  It's a simple idea that is extremely well-executed and works well with a different kind of painterly approach from Verhoeven.  There we go.  Two painterly designers that I accidentally stumbled upon.  That should surely get me five thousand Simoleons.  

IMG_5884

IMG_5882 IMG_5883

IMG_5887

IMG_5888

IMG_5891

IMG_5892

IMG_5894

IMG_5893

IMG_5885

66 comments

  22. Sense2 brings to you relevant products for your promotional campaigns for outdoor events, in store merchandising opportunities, business to business communication and branding tools and Lifestyle related promotional toys and gadgets to engage your audience.yo-yo’s

  28. Amazing pictures! I was in this hotel before a year thorough last minute travel with my family. It is fantastic hotel very good for enjoying vacation with the family.

  29. Nice post. I have been searching for articles about valves and actuators and your post really helps. Thanks a lot for posting this.

  30. I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article and i am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well.

  33. hi, I just wanted to say how much i enjoy reading your blog. in a world full of spin, it’s nice to get some fact-based analysis. keep up the good work.

  50. 考慮すべきのような細部の多くは確かにあります。それは持ち出すのに最適なポイントだ。 プロモーションアイテム

  51. 私はあなたが投稿するものに自分の考えや時間を共有するためにあなたに感謝したいと思います！ 宣伝のための景品

  52. 初心者として、私はいつも私を助けることができる記事をオンラインで探しています。ありがとう 広告のための景品

  53. このことを知っていることがたくさん明らかにあります。私はあなたにも特長でいくつかの良い点を作ったと思います。 宣伝のための商品

Comments are closed.