Fashion

I create clothing pieces that are primely recycled, reused or renewed (Three Rs). The pieces I create are also often hand stitched, I love the look of a hand stitched piece, knowing that the piece I made can’t be remade the exact same way. With a sowing machine there are many people who can create the same stitching pattern, but with a hand sown piece you add more uniqueness to the piece. That’s not to say I don’t use a sowing machine sometimes. In cases where it’s smarter for the construction to use a sowing machine I do, but when it comes to anything else, its all hand sown. A hand sown piece is far more personal, takes more times and is harder to replicate. I gain my inspiration from the Wabi-Sabi philosophy that I was raised with. Therefore I often use a patch work technique in my pieces. Wabi-Sabi is a traditionally Japanese philosophy were there is an appreciation for imperfections, but the part that stayed with me was that every piece of fabric was reused. My mother and grandmother taught me this philosophy, I was raised with my grandmother making dresses for my as a child from old fabric scraps from her old clothing pieces. You can see this philosophy often infused in my clothing pieces. A picture of either fabrics or objects brought together to the clothing item. Due to my upbringing I was normalised to the I idea of mixed fabrics and a cycle of the Three Rs.

FransHals be/come as you are

I was working at a youth center called Flintys and got approach to help organise a youth project for FransHals museum. The concept was that we wanted to make a group portrait of the Haarlem youth. That instead of the FransHals museum having only old portraits of Haarlem tools have a modern take on the well known group portrait paintings. We picked an artist to work with for the portrait. We picked Airch. A Amsterdm artist who worked with us on the story and the symbolism in the art piece. Airch took photos of the youth and later on edited it into the art piece that we have now. We wanted every youth to bring/make something that represented their view of Haarlem. We wanted to show in one art piece multiple sides of Haarlem youth. This was achieved with the use of symbolistic pieces that the youth was either wearing or holding. I was asked to make my own fashion twist to the symbolistic items. I worked together with FransHals to compose an outfit that brought my image together. In the art piece you see me with a pair of jeans, the jeans were made with a patch work technique. I use a lot of patch work in my clothing due to the Wabi-Sabi philosophy that I was raised with. Wabi-Sabi is a traditionally Japanese philosophy were there is an appreciation for imperfections, but the part that stayed with me was that every piece of fabric was reused. My mother and grandmother taught me this philosophy, I was raised with my grandmother making dresses for my as a child from old fabric scraps from her old clothing pieces. My shirt is a bleach painted shirt with a design I made and the words “become as you are” from the project name. My glasses are second hand glasses with two spikes on beachside symbolising the alternative scene and the use of spikes in the clothing. The spikes on either side make a devil horn like look playing on the idea that in populair media the alternative scene is seen as demonic.

Kunstbende Noord-Holland

I participated in the 2022 North Holland fashion competition. I walked on my own with a video and audio that I worked on with a producer and editor. I gave a speech explaining what I wanted to do with my name. What the point of infuse it. It went something along the lines of: “I want to combine all forms of art. To show the world that you don’t have to pick one art form that expresses you the way you want it to. To eventually infuse my art forms into a multi media world. A world where fashion is combined with story telling in a way that hasn’t been in the spotlight as much as I think it should be. I want to do more than just create, I want to build a new image of the future norms of art.” I won first place in the fashion category for North Holland in 2023. I went to go to participate in the nation finals competition. I unfortunately didn’t get the first place.

On The Spot

On The Spot was a project that FransHals and Stoked organised and I was part of the organisation team as part of Stoked. We organised together the premise of the project, being: We wanted to show a different view of Haarlem. Giving a chance for youth in Haarlem to photograph their view of Haarlem. Things like their favourite spots, places that they spend the most time at, locations that remind them of Haarlem, people they instantly think of and more. We decided together to give the youth analog cameras to photograph their view of Haarlem. We thought it would be interesting to bring the past and the present together by letting them use a analog camera to take photo’s of present Haarlem. The youths were able to write up a story about their photos and why they decided to photograph them. I was asked to create two fashion pieces to go together with my photo’s. I wanted to bring two sides of Haarlem that I experience. I notice that there isn’t as much of a mixture between the Punk scene and the HipHop scene. I took a photograph of two people to represent the two sides that I experience, in the photo you see one of my very good friends and the other a HipHop artist SCHOOIER. I created a leather jacket to represent the Punk scene and a ski mask for the HipHop scene.

Outside The Box

Outside The Box was a festival inside the FransHals Museum garden with an after party inside the Haarlem Centrum Bibliotheek. I was on the organisation team. We together booked artists, made a main focus point of the festival (subculture) the name and in my case the logo. I was asked to make the logo for the festival. I had my own workshop there at the festival. The workshop was a jewellery workshop. I was showing and helping people who were at the festival to make jewellery out of beads. Showing that you can creative even in simple forms such as bead jewellery.