By Katie Dominy / 04-03-2010

The eleventh year of ArtEZ Fashion Master graduates, Generation 11, has evolved from the traditional catwalk show to a presentation that encompasses multimedia and photography under the artistic direction of studio Freudenthal/Verhagen. Displayed at Galerie Joseph on 3 and 4 March 2010, the exhibition finished with a lecture entitled ‘Performing Fashion’ given by José Teunissen, professor in Fashion Theory at ArtEZ.

Generation 11 comprises eight graduating students under the course direction of Mascha van Zijverden. Each designer has his/her own room set within the gallery in which to create their own mood, complete with wardrobe and bed.

Pauline van Dongen's collection ‘Morphogenesis’ is concerned with the relationship between the body and the space around it – the void between the body and the garment -  'Is the body the content and the clothes the container, or is it the other way around?' Van Dongen has translated this study into a range of garments that perform as organic sculptures, using materials that create strong silhouettes, such as synthetic crin (horsehair) and metallic yarns that give knitwear the ability to hold a shape. Van Dongen was also announced recently as this year's Sacha Golden Heel Award winner with her shoe design Vertigo.

Oda Pausma was promoting her graduate collection ‘Hobohemian Heaven’, inspired by the Chelsea Hotel in New York. The tag line to the range is 'the roof over poetry and rebellion' and talks about 'curtains vigorously hauled from their rods' and re-appropriated (mostly in silk, naturally) as clothing for the city's fashionistas. The pleats of curtains appear on one side of the hem of a dress, with gold curtain hooks used to hold fabrics in place – a new take on the famous Scarlet O'Hara curtain-remaking scene from Gone with the Wind.

Rebecca Ward is concerned with the relationship between the mind and body and 'explores ideas of judging physical form to recreate ideas of the persona, giving the option to cultivate and improve one’s body and mind, or restrain it.' Called ‘Physiognomy’, the collection calls on layering and folding fabrics upon one another in a mix of body-hugging knits overlaid with textured structured fabrics that create unexpected volume, such as exaggerated calf-muscle silhouettes on fitted trousers, or oversized curls of fabric over the bust.

Nick Rosenboom's ‘The Sad Parade’ takes its inspiration from the media's rather prurient obsession with the victims of self-harm. Slicing into skin is represented by fabrics printed with a psychedelic wood grain effect. Rosenboom says, “I was intrigued by dark and sinister ways of self-harming as a form of communication, and this fascination triggered a starting point in me. By glorifying this topic, contemporary cruel reality has been transformed into a surreal sad parade.” The garments have strong and complex architectural lines. Volume is created from the shoulders and key pieces include skin-tight trousers layering around the legs and co-ordinating tops that wrap around the body.
 
Janneke Verhoeven's ‘Collusion of Angles’ deals with structure and symmetry. Verhoeven explains, “Searching for a way to integrate structure into my work, I used the geometric forms of the tangram puzzle. Shapes are created around the body with either flowing or rigid forms. Flowing lines are interrupted or disturbed by angles. They make parts of the garments protrude from the body, creating unexpected shapes with a renewed elegance. The body is loosely wrapped in large geometric forms.”
 
Josine Visser's collection is called ‘Syndrome Stendhal’, which is the name of a psychosomatic illness induced by overdosing on viewing art, especially paintings from the Renaissance. Visser explains how “Fascinated by this syndrome, in which beautiful aesthetic images produce an extreme and opposite experience, I play with strong contrasts, creating a new world...Elements and decorations from the Renaissance period are incorporated into this collection, brought to life into two-dimensional and three-dimensional by fabrics and constructions, using intense colours like cobalt blue, saturated moss green, faded purple and bruised orange; creating a similar confusing and
dazzling atmosphere.”

‘Adorned in Elegance’ by Jiska van Rossum is concerned with covering and uncovering the body and takes classic pieces of clothing adding tiny discreet openings to allow glimpses of the naked body. Franciscus van der Meer collection ‘Passer-by, Remember’ is motivated by the desire to make people aware of the threat to democracy of the rising ultra ring-wing activity in Western Europe and for people to realise the importance of historic buildings imbued with memories of the past, such as the home of Anne Frank.

Main image: Josine Visser
Image 1&2: Janneke Verhoeven
Image 3: Oda Pausma
Image 4&5: Pauline van Dongen
Photography: Peter Stigter
 

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