Ever since I started scanning fashion magazines I have this little fantasy, or neurosis, which in short comes down to: my house burnt down and I get to start over from scratch and some fashion fairy grants me to pick a brand new, although absolutely bare minimum, all-I-need designer wardrobe for the coming season. (Diane Vreeland said it: “Elegance is refusal.”) I guess this little game forces me to think about what is essential for that particular fashion season, or at least for me. So when the KLAVERS VAN ENGELEN spring summer 2010 lookbook landed in my mail, I couldn’t help but indulge.
It wasn’t hard to pick my five KLAVERS VAN ENGELEN looks that I would then have to spend the whole summer in, although I admit I would probably need something of a sweater or coat, living in Northern Europe and all, and at some point an old T-shirt or so. I know I’m being silly but it’s hard to keep up the ‘objective journalist act’ when two of your favourite designers drop one collection after another simply oozing with ‘the new you’.
So what is essential about the collections Niels Klavers and Astrid van Engelen have been putting out ever since the re-launch of their label in the winter of 2007-2008? Like I said they rank among my favourites and I’ve kept a keen eye on them for over a decade so this is not my fad of the week. With their label’s second coming, it’s preview gracefully sweeping up the 2007 Mercedes Benz Dutch Fashion Award, KLAVERS VAN ENGELEN successfully matured on a commercial level without loosing their inimitable artistic approach. In short, what looks like some simple rich and delicate fabrics thrown on these women by a divine breeze, is the result of many years of hard work, processing their conceptual inspirations into unavoidable garments. We all know that ‘effortless elegance’ is hardly ever effortless – it just looks that way – but Niels Klavers and Astrid van Engelen do possess a highly contemporary fashion aesthetic without using any obvious force. Elegant and tough, poetic and straight forward, vulnerable and aggressive, a women in KLAVERS VAN ENGELEN looks all that and more, because even though these clothes actually deserve to be labelled ‘design’, somehow they do not wish to overrule the individual wearing them, which I think is pretty essential, now as much as ever.
Hosted by The White Club in Milan for three seasons in a row KLAVERS VAN ENGELEN managed to rebuilt confidence with former clients who by now sound more than pleased in spite the global recession. The SS10-shows at The White Club however got cancelled last minute for lack of funds, which made KLAVERS VAN ENGELEN redirect to Paris. Also the collection in preparation, fall winter 2011, will be shown in Paris this March, with a private showroom presentation only. Unfortunately maybe, but as Niels and Astrid explain: “We could invest all our revenue from this collection in showing the next– a catwalk show is by far the most ideal way to present a collection – but after all those years of putting ourselves out there like that we’ve come to see it is not realistic for the moment. We’ve finally learned to act and think like a business and for now we just want to focus on steadily growing our client base and keeping them happy. They sell through very well at the moment and orders keep growing steadily. Hopefully with our new sales agent we’ll break some new grounds like the US and we’re interested to intensify our web presence. It’s great how you can trace who visited your site and a lot of that comes from the US, via blogs mostly. We do some interesting art and theatre projects as well, like this modern Orlando play by the Dutch Oostpool Company. These collaborations are very informing and energizing but they’re about all the showbiz we can deal with on the side.”
Oh, and fairy dear, since the open-toe boots are customised showpieces only (what a shame!) do throw in a pair of those nude leather, hand made, one off KLAVERS VAN ENGELEN for Orlando-pumps, will you?
Tags: Klavers van Engelen