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The past six weeks you may have read about ‘The road to Amsterdam Fashion Week‘, the diary that was kept by Individuals. I’ve been following it closely and was expecting a lot from the show, but never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined what the students of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute showed.
A very fashionable riot
They wanted to show their view on the time we live in, which sadly isn’t all happiness and butterflies. I knew it’d be raw, but this was absolutely amazing. It looked like a very fashionable riot. It reminded me in way of the song Stress by Justice. I was actually expecting to hear the song but they did something that was way better: they incorporated Martin Luther Kings ‘I have a dream’ speech into the music! The catwalk was covered in what seemed gravel, but turned out to be black confetti. The models wore bandanas or even masks to cover their mouths and noses, and some of them wore a beanie as well. The show almost had a political tone, it seemed an indictment to the way our world works nowadays.
The only thing missing was the models thrusting their fist up in the air.
There is no hope, or is there?
They used a lot of leather, knitwear and some fur. The clothing was mostly loose, the hoods of the jackets could easily cover your head and shoulders. Even though they didn’t present a neat, ‘polished’ look, you could see the pieces were really well made. Rick Owens would’ve been proud of this craftsmanship. There where sheer dresses, but with a second, shredded layer. Nothing about this show was even remotely sweet, it was dark, as was most of the clothing. A lot of black, grey, dark navy and green. They even wrote on one of their models, a girl who was wearing a dress with an open back. ‘Revolt’ was written between her shoulders, on her lower back ‘There is hope’, but stricken through. This may seem depressing, but it gave me a strange, positive feeling of rebellion. I think it was the music that made it idealistic. Without the famous words ‘I have a dream’ blasting through the speakers the show might have been too dark, but now it gave the audience -well, me at least- a feeling that you can change the world for the better and that we should fight for it.
Individuals showed courage and strength to stand up through their clothing. They gave us new punk. The only thing missing was the models thrusting their fist passionately up in the air at the end of the catwalk, knowing the brand got their point and view across to an audience who may not always get it.
Photos by Tony Perez.
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