Amsterdam Fashion Week Day Two
One of the highlights of my second day experiencing Amsterdam Fashion Week was a long boat tour across town. Amsterdam is a city that truly comes to life when you are gliding on water and there's a real sense of history and romance everywhere you look. I was soaking up the atmosphere and enjoyed a dreamy moment admiring the view. Philippe Pourhashemi writes.
The best menswear show was Ado Les Scents by Hyun Yeu, a Korean designer based in Amsterdam. Inspired by George VIII and aristocratic flair, he showed a strong collection of elegant, everyday pieces, which were desirable and fresh. His tailoring was particularly strong.
I had a bit of a "fashion moment" this afternoon when I discovered Oda Pausma's graduate collection. Inspired by the mythical Chelsea Hotel and New York's underground scene, she mixed leather and silk, offering looks that were both restrained and provocative. It was an incredibly sensual collection and Oda came across as a lovely, unaffected girl.
I also liked Quoc Thang's menswear show, inspired by camping and the outdoors. The Chinese designer had great jackets and used light weight fabrics for added comfort.
The big evening event was the Lichting 2010 show sponsored by G-Star Raw. 14 graduates were selected from the finest fashion schools in the Netherlands and each could present 5 outfits. There were lots of new ideas and creative thinking, shaping up the future of Dutch fashion in a promising way. Dutch design and architecture are famous worldwide, but local designers are starting to be being taken seriously. I would say that Dutch fashion offers a pleasant compromise between conceptualism and tradition, acknowledging the richness of the past, but also willing to adopt a futuristic stance.
