About the author
Once upon a time there were two young women aspiring to make people think, but even more so to make them laugh. Their combined efforts resulted in an awesome new brand, called F I S H & W O O D S, where they present you with seasonal collections of printed bags that do just that.
Something different
Jiska Fischer used to work (and still does, freelance) as a journalist. With clients like ELLEgirl, PWNed and Het Parool, one could say she was doing quite well. She wanted something different, though. “I still write, but this is more fun. Maybe because it’s new but also because you keep on learning new facets of the industry,” she says. Her companion, Laura Bos, has a background in finance. She works in healthcare and still has a consulting company, but just like Jiska she was looking for a change: “At a certain point you get fed up when every sentence starts with ‘No, that’s not possible.’” With their combined backgrounds, they seem to be a business match made in heaven, but this was completely accidental. “We met four years ago at Valtifest, later on we found out that our parents lived in the same street and even knew each other.” That’s got to be fate, right?
We want to show the things that are a bit hypocritical, that don’t really add up. But with a wink.
But don’t talk too much about ‘fate’ or other spiritual crap around these girls, ‘cause that’s exactly what irks them, and turns out, inspires them. One of the bags has a print that says ‘Don’t go all Deepak on me’, a reference to Deepak Chopra. “What he does is fine, I think he’s a cool guy, but it’s the people who follow him to a fault and post a bunch of those quotations on Facebook (like ‘Treasure every day’) while he’s getting loaded off of it, that’s funny. We want to show the things that are a bit hypocritical, that don’t really add up. But with a wink.”
I did Berlusconi
A different source of inspiration is the news. The girls started their idea for the bags when they were on a road trip throughout Italy just when the Berlusconi scandal blew up. “Just imagine being Ruby, what must she be feeling about this?” Laura says. His bunga-bunga parties led to the print ‘I did Berlusconi’. “We don’t want to profile ourselves as ‘super engaged’ in foreign affairs, but come on, he was asking for it. He’s just a slut.” Right now the girls are working on a new collection of six bags already and they revealed to be thinking a lot about Kim Jong-il and Kim Kardashian. Their enthusiasm is infectious and it didn’t take long before I was thinking about prints myself; something they encounter often and shows just how much fun the girls have (and exude) doing this.
Ridicule and smile
Prints on canvas bags have been around for a long time, but mostly with phrases like ‘I’m saving for my Birkin bag’ or ‘I left my Chanel at home’. This didn’t work for F I S H & W O O D S. “You want to give your audience a little more than ‘Chanel my ass’; a bit more substance. Not to be politically involved per se –I mean, I’m not one to take to the streets and protest myself– but to laugh about it and not having to explain the prints,” Jiska says. On the website they explain this as ‘ridicule and smile’. Something I personally think people need to do more.
The girls talked about collaborations with festivals where they could make special bags, or even expanding to foreign countries. Until then they have fun coming up with new phrases and having Kim Feenstra pose with the ‘ETC. End of Thinking Capacity’ bag. “But she was actually cool, her management didn’t like her posing with it but she thought it was funny.” From here on I want to say the sky is the limit for these girls but “we hate clichés as well”. So I’ll just go and say they are ‘two to watch’.
You can get your own bag at Hutspot, ANNA & NINA or at their website!
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