Designer Focus: Monique van Heist

''Monique van Heist's project:Hello Fashion is a new form of Fashion Activism. A fashion statement subverting the fashions system's vectors of power, but using its infrastructure for promoting multitudes, and transparancy of how fashion might be and what other means of expression and meanings it could manifest.''

On November 7th Dutch Designer Monique van Heist won the Mercedes-Benz Dutch Fashion Award 2008. She will receive a reward of 25000 to further develop her label ''moniquevanheist'', and to set further steps in the international fashion industry....

On Friday November 7th 2008 the Dutch Fashion Foundation organized the second edition of the Mercedes Benz Dutch Fashion Awards. This initiative to create a focus moment in the Dutch fashion industry saw its successful debut in November 2007. On November 7th 2008 an international jury once again chose the Dutch fashion design label most likely to succeed in bringing its label onto the international market. The winner of the Mercedes-Benz Dutch Fashion Award received a financial reward of 25.000 euro which will enable the label to take further steps in the international fashion industry. Last edition this award was won by the label Klavers van Engelen who used the reward to restart their label and are now among others exploring the Milanese market.

Monique van Heist also won the Media award,the Dutch Fashion Media Award is presented by leading Dutch fashion media and given to the designer that according to the Dutch Fashion Media Academy deserves an extra incentive on national soil through shown excellence in the past year. This award is made possible by Club Brillant, a collaboration of fashion conscious opticians, offering the Monique a possibility to collaborate with a renowned eyewear designer in the development of their own eyewear collection to complement her collections. She also won an incentive of 5.000 Euro to invest freely in the development of her brand....

And at last she won the Dutch Fashion Incubator Award, which is composed of substantial in-kind contributions from the industry to the realization of the ambitions of the winner of the Mercedes-Benz Dutch Fashion Award 2008. This Award extends not only to the support of the label, but as well to illustrate the value these products and channels have for the realization of the designer’s business objectives. This year introduced the generous offer of three companies in the field of software and technology, sales and production: Department store the Bijenkorf will take a part of the winning collection up in its assortment to be sold in its flagship stores in Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam next year. Lectra offers the winner of the Mercedes-Benz Dutch Fashion Awards 2008 a package of and training-course of the Modaris ExpertPro and Kaledo software. These solutions will enable the winner to streamline and accelerate his or her design process and communication with production facilities. The Fair Wear Foundation offers not only to the winner but to all the nominated designers a course to get acquainted with the fair wear principles and are being brought in contact with production facilities that comply with the criteria of Fair Wear.

(source Dutch Fashion Foundation)

As the above shows, this a very innovative and clever use of the Fashion-Industry's network, enabling Monique van Heist to introduce her newest project ''Hello Fashion'' which was launched at the Bijenkorf (a dutch version of Bloomingdale's) last may 2009. 

With  ''Hello Fashion'' Monique makes a fashion statement, while at the same time offering an alternative vision on how Fashion might be....: a permanent collection of garments presented in a loose-leaf catalogue, to which new items will be added randomly..(this is: not according to the traditional fashion-cycle).

'' Designers are creating more and more collections, and i am thinking: who's going to wear all those garments'' Monique van Heist expresses in an interview. This made her reflect upon her own role and responsibility as a Fashion Designer. Her Fashion is a research into the industry's vectors of power, and the driving forces of novelty and speed, in the end resulting in unnecessary waste. Fashion starts with an analysis of what people wear, and where they wear it. Monique turns this research to her benefit as a sourceof inspiration: every day life. From sociological fashion observations into highly wearable and desirable new forms of fashion design. Clothes that relate to us on a direct day-to-day level. She is literally getting in touch with society by means of her designs....

Monique designs unisex-style collections with an own character, which are referred to her''alter ego's", 

like the underneath description of alter-ego Nastasja:

Natasja, Me.

when they leave, she fakes to be busy. or better, hide and pretend to be gone.

where they make blazers, at night IT is hers (mine).

puts on the dustcoat and:

begin.

take the freshly oiled machine. push the button, hear that beautiful snoring sound. choose material(S)

shape by head, color by heart. instinctive distinction.

the rules of fashion are no longer at night, but her rules.

create what is hers, with innocent beauty.

posing, showing off and, happiness.

she is the maker of her universe- she releases her stars!

I am then NATASJA. It fits me better.

I am ready to wear it.  what it is.

she is a sewing factory.

she stands, still in fashion.

is her taste as fashion, is fashion tasty?

she knows.

All Monique's collections have a description of the character expressed by these collections.That said, the designs are such that they leave enough room to be personalized by the wearer. Monique explores the bounderies of uniformity within her designs, to just a level that the individual is triggered in developing/expressing its own unique persona, this in dialogue with ''the other'' expressed in the collection. 

It's about the concept of dynamic interaction between people in creating identity. The'' I ''does not exist without the ''other'', within a balance we find ourselves....

( source Levinas, Sartre,Damasio and others Philosophy of Mind)

The above forms the (meta)physical and philosophical mindset out of which Hello Fashion was created. The garments that get into the Hello Fashion catalogue are called ''moniquevanheist classics''.

The catalogue can be downloaded from her website: www.moniquevanheist.com 

Her other collections,and poetic descriptions of Alter-ego's can also be viewed on her website.

Monique van Heist has graduated from Arhnem Fashion Institute in November 2004, she launched her label ''moniquevanheist'' that same year with the launch of her first collection ''toni''. In May 2009 she launched her project Hello Fashion, and she is keen on developing this project/fashion concept worldwide....

working with the fashion-industry, instead of against it: this by subverting its power-vectors but using its infrastructure...and by offering a work-able, fashionable alternative of how fashion might/could be: HELLO FASHION!

Sources: 

BOOKS

''Crafts: On Scale, Pace and Sustainability'', Li Edelkoort

''Awaking to the other'', Emmanuel Levinas

''Eco-chic the fashion paradox'' Sandy Black

''Seven days in the art-world'' Sarah Thortnon

''Fashion a Philsophy'' Lars Svendsen

Websites:

www.moniquevanheist.com

www.dutchfashionawards.com/

http://www.edelkoort.com/

http://www.premsela.org/home/-/en

http://www.arnhemmodebiennale2009.com/read/en

Final Assignment: Street trends

 How very inspiring street trends might be, i found this the hardest assignment to ''grasp''..., especially with Fashion turning into a conceptual era, the interpretation of  trends in the street have become very diverse....Still i decided to focus on the interpretation of historical trends in the contemporary fashion scene, that is collections of 2009/2010....

Differences in suits as seen on the runway are very subtle....and styling have become an important issue to express the inspiration from historical street-trends.... as following images hopefully will express...

Zoot-suit image above, expressing political dimension of wearing these suits, leading to riots, and social-commotion in big cities like LA.

Underneath,interpretation by Lanvin ss 2010 men's collection: taking the 'activist' connotation as inspiring...

And totally becoming Mainstream, losing its political, activist dimension, in a beautifully interpretation by  Chloe 2009, Fall collection:

Suits have played a literally ''power-full'' role in the history of fashion...like i described in a previuos post. Another suit-style that set a trend coming from the streets, was the Teddy-boy look, underneath image shows Teddy-boys in a London-street scene. This look originated in the UK, where it still plays an major influence in the fashion-scene....,

Underneath, again Lanvin 2010-collection....

An de Meulenmeester RTW 2009, revealing its sober-aesthetic value

In a chronological order, the next street trend making it up to the runway was Beatnik, associated with existentialism, a philosophy-stream that originated in France, more specifically with thinkers/writers Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir (underneath the image). This style stressed the intellectual dimension of dress. 

Interpretation of the intellectual dimension of dress, by Comme des Garcons 2009

And a beautiful, mainstream version by Marc Jacobs, ready to wear 2009 collection

With the intellectual dimension openly adressed in Fashion, Music became an influence felt in Fashion trends caused by groupies got its counterpart on the runway.Music being considered the most ''intellectual'' form of art (Suzanne Langer, Philosophy in a new key) at that time....mere imagination.... The first street-trend assiociated with the music-scene making it upto runway was Mods-trend

Comme des Garcons, 2009, 

Diane von Furstenberg 

The mods where an introduction to its follower in street-style: the hippie trend. Within the music scene Janis Joplin can be considered as one of its trendsetters..... It was a critic on the values society was promoting...and a return to nature and humanity....On the Runway left image: Anna Sui, 2009. And  a revival of the hippie- values in the new Levis add below....

After the hippie-period in which it was all about make peace not war...came the provoking Punk influence in the musicscene....Sex Pistols where a notoriuos group within this scene, and still today its influence is felt....

On the Runway: Miss Sixty 2009, showing punk trend being mainstream fashionable....

And on the mens runway:Dirk Bikkembergs 2009 showing provoking power of this streetrend, in ''firing'' colours, and cutting-edge shapes....mainstream in a non-mainstream way....

By end 70's the disco trend had arrived...also expressed in other cultural sphere's as musicals and films ( ''flashdance'' and ''saturday nightfever'')...and ABBA whining the Eurovisie Songfestival...

On the Runway: Louis Vuitton Resort 2010: influence on the shoe-designs....

And a print by Anna Sui on her series of ''printed t-shirts''....

To conclude with the Hip Hop trend, introduced by hip-hop bands....

On the runway:  Dutch designer Daryl van wauw , known to incorporate all kind of street styles in his intriguing designs...

Men 2010 Bernard Wilhelm, in this collection he used reinterpreted ''ethnic-style'', hiphop can be considered as ethnic from a western point of view...

 

As far as new street trends, as a result of globalisation i believe the skirt, dress is losing its position of being a gender specific-garment....On the streets at Amsterdam Fashion Week 2009:

And on the Runway JP Gaultier:

And also on the runway...but as trendsetter...: Marc Jacobs...:

While his boyfriend is chasing streettrends with Courtney Love on another spot....: printed t-shirts...

On the runway, again designers as trendsetters themselves Gareth Pugh:

Historical Styles

Elizabeth Peyton's Marc Jacobs, Spring 2009,Oil on Canvas

Within this assignment we have to compile 6 images of fashion designs that show influences from historical artistic styles....Now,for me that is a very hard task, as i view the influence of historical artistic styles in any and everything...slightest detail can be an object of my ''tracing back''and thinking through.

.

Ok FOCUS...my choices must communicate...and explicit enough for others to grasp.

John Galliano for Dior seems an easy choice to start with...balancing between Baroque and Rococo styles, exploring the bounderies between the two. In the Dior Couture 2009 collection influence of the Dutch Baroque Painters  seems evident. But when one considers the show,  a mere theatre play, with the models taking an ''artistic pose'' at the end of the catwalk...before turning around.

Dior Spring 2009 

Jan Vermeer ,The Art of Painting c. 1666-73

When contemplating and reflecting on John Galliano's work for Dior. I eventually believe the spring show of 2009 was about''the art of painting'' itself....

or the '' technical mastering'' within creation of masterpieces. 

Where the Baroque paintings depict a kind of silence, or ''pose''....Dior's show seems all about movement, theatre and a certain joy of life...So in the end i would place John Galliano as an example of Roccoco Artistic style...

Dior  Fall  2009

Second Historical Artitic style i wanted to explore and track towards the fashion scene, was Impressionism....starting with Manet's painting being excluded of the Salon.This group was not as ''homogene''as i believed them to be , and even the ideas represented by impressionist artists did vary...

My favourite artist within this group of Impressionists was Paul Cezanne. (Cezanne's Doubt by Merleau Ponty is worth reading). For him living was by painting...

He was intrigued by human-perception, and gave this form by painting...He painted the world how he saw it...that being the only possible way...

Portrait of Gustave Geffroy,1895

The impressionists style tried to capture the way objects strike the eye...and Cezanne showed that ''capturing'' of this way, is dependent on the artist... 

Painting by Gustav Klimt

An artist that rejected naturalistic styles and made use of symbols and symbolic elements to convey psychological ideas was Gustav Klimt(1862-1918).His work emphasizes the ''freedom'' of art from traditional culture. The influence of this Symbolist Style can be seen in the work of the first fashion designer Charles Worth.

Decorative parts of garments where exclusively hand made by the House of Lesage and could be considered as works of art in themselves...The underneath image of a gown designed in 1923 by the house of Worth just captured my attention....in resemblence in colour, style and pose when looking at the work of Klimt...

Design of Gown, 1923 , House of Worth

And then  there was a guy that was called Duchamp, who shocked the artworld with his ready made's, and especially with a piece called ''Fountain'' in 1917. He changed the art-scene towards a new kind of art. An art that engages the mind instead of the eye, in ways that provoke the observer to participate and think....

Marcel Duchamp

Comme des Garcons Spring 2008

I think that Commes des Garcons shows the influences of this artistic ''style''. 

Its an Art-style referring and questioning herself....just as Commes des Garcon's fashion is referring to herself...questioning and suggesting...by means of creations.

Pop Art and Conceptual Art both carry the inheritence of Marcel Duchamp thoughts...

Famous artist within the Pop-Art style was Andy Warhol,

Silkscreen ink on painted wood,1964

With his Brillo boxes he showed that everything can be art...in principal...And in the opposite reasoning, everything can be merchandised, even art. The commercial aspect is entering the art-scene, and the art work becomes possible  as mere ''decoration'' or ''illustration''.

Influence of this artistic style can be seen in the ''mondrian dress'' created by Yves Saint Laurent in 1965. The plenarity of the dress seemed an ideal field for colour blocks. Whereas Mondrian's work was about the utopian ideal of ''spiritual harmony and order'' YSL's blocks in the dress become functional and serve the feat of dress making. The art-work is just a means...and semblance to the Mondrian order is aesthetic within the form of the dress.

YSL ''mondrian dress' 1965

Conceptual Art is an Artistic Style that has been viewed as the end of''traditional'' art, when art turns into philosophy ( Danto). Although when one considers the artworks, which function as mere symbols within a system of ''meaning''...they become crucial to communicate this meaning. Conceptual Art is a symbolic language expressing a theme the artist wants to communicate. The work of Kosuth is interesting within this Artistic Style, he takes you along a ''mental travel'', along objects and definitions in order to ''(re/de)construct'' a meaning in the mind of the observer...

Art as an Idea:Nothing, Joseph Kosuth 1968

The influence of the Conceptual Art can be seen in the work of Viktor&Rolf always working within a conceptual framework, and every element of the collection,is a representation of thought, thought within concept...their creations are symbols of a language typical for their own style...

Viktor&Rolf Fall RTW 2008

And atlast the Belgians. Within the Contemporary Painting (and i just love paintings...) Scene, the Belgians have developed special style, maybe due to culture, the ''un-identity'' of ''Belgians'', I have experienced in 9 years of living and studying, there is a special ''open'' environment, or maybe a kind of ''nothing-ness'' out of which the most elevated ideas come...

I just think its intriguing that both within Fashion (Antwerp 6) and within Art, the belgians seem to just do their thing, and in that...have their own style...

Underneath a painting by Luc Tuymans, and a garment of  Maison Martin Margiela

The Worshipper , 2005