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The brand of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute once again had something different in store for its guests. A normal catwalk? Don’t be silly. Guests were directed to the middle of the Transformatorhuis area, surrounded by fences as if they were trapped. The models walked around the audience, sometimes pausing and gazing into the crowd. It would soon become clear why they chose this way of showing their collection..
The Hunger Games and unisex clothing
The collection consisted of two colours: white (which sometimes leaned towards grey tones) and red. The pieces were beautifully crafted, with fabrics that ranged from cotton to acetate (it might have been silk, but I do own a piece of iNdiViDUALS myself that looks silky but is in fact acetate) and rugged leather. The red in the collection was smeared on for the most part. Yes, ‘smeared on’ ’cause it looked like the models murdered someone. I guess it was supposed to look like blood. Maybe they’re melancholic about Dexter reaching its final season, or perhaps they’re just as big fans of ‘The Hunger Games’ (hello, Jennifer Lawrence girlcrush!) as I am. But, as we all know from the Brothers Bloom, real blood turns brown after a while. But white and brown just doesn’t look as good together. The collection was quite unisex which is smart when you think about the selling point.
The models sported quite the gangster look above their ensembles, as you can see on the photos. Underneath their hair was pulled back tightly, and braided into multiple braids. I wasn’t too fond of the hats, or the fabric of some of the pieces -as you can see on the last picture- which I got a great look at because I was standing at the most horrible spot (hence the terrible pictures). See, this -very innovative- way of showing the collection has its up- and downsides. The major downside being that the photographers hardly had any space to get decent pictures. People were sticking their heads in front of my camera because the models kept disappearing to a different side and ‘herding’ the crowd.
Exibit one:
The sound of the collection
The way they solved this for most of the guests was by putting up huge screens that showed not only the catwalk, but also the making of the collection. Quite interesting but not when you’re standing short at 5’6. The idea was splendid though. The ‘music’ that accompanied the show was brilliant. iNDiViDUALS worked together with MediaLAB to capture the sound of the collection which was composed and performed by the International Soundlings Collective.
You could tell they spend a lot of time on the show, which paid off and made for an interesting presentation that felt different. The collection however wasn’t the best I’ve seen of them. I still love this one better. Not only did it feel more like a ‘grown-up’ collection – but from a commercial point of view I think it it would sell a lot better. This time, it seems, the Amsterdam Fashion Institute opted for more of a show than a collection, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In this economic crisis, iNDiViDUALS slaughtered the idea of playing it safe.
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