Fashion L'amour

Amsterdam Fashion Week | 2019 | A report |

Pictures by @teampeterstigter & @dr_dreps

De Nieuwe Kerk and Capital C in central Amsterdam were the stunning locations for Amsterdam Fashion Week 2019, and Fashion L’amour Magazine paid its very first trip to AFW, and came away yearning for more.

Amsterdam fashion week fell in the same week as New York fashion week, which isn’t ideal for a fashion editor who would love to see and cover both. A random chat with a photographer outside De Nieuwe Kerk, the stunning venue of day 1 of Amsterdam fashion week, also revealed that Amsterdam Fashion Week used to be an epic 5 day event, at Westerpark, till they lost their funding, and then had to scale it down. Be that as it may, there was much to admire over the four days, and although runway shows were just five in total, they did Amsterdam Fashion Week much justice.

The first runway show was by Ferry Schiffelers, who won the much sought after Lichting prize. More on that shortly. Ferry Schiffelers collection was named “ladies who lunch” of which there was a lot of beautiful ‘summer ball’ outfits and lovely couture hats. The best outfit was the stand out dress made entirely out of roses. A true masterpiece. A worthy Lichting winner from 2018.

Lichting itself, a competition for young fashion professionals working for international fashion-houses, and showcasing potential start-ups is viewed as the most prestigious award that is handed out in the Netherlands to talented fashion-designers. This year’s winner, will therefore have the first show next year.

The winner this year was the fabulous Dylan Westerweel, whose collection aimed to “redefine masculinity”, and to use his own words “FEM IS BEAUTIFUL // QUEER IS BEAUTIFUL”

The prestigious award also comes with a 10k prize, which is handy.

The last show from day one was by Ninamounah, whose models held a lot of snails. To quote the designer herself “we are all animals wearing a dress of culture”. It was a fun end to a very colourful and expressive day 1 of shows.

Day 2 of runway shows was at a new venue for Amsterdam Fashion Week. Capital C was a 7th floor location with GREAT light, and an impressive balcony, which came in very handy for networking…. and cocktail drinking ?

Batavia Stad & Duran Lantink was the first show on day two. The introduction to the show had shay tra litman sitting on the floor, and performing for most of the show.

What then followed was organised chaos of models, and groups of people, some in ski masks and shopping bags, completely flooding the runway, and sometimes breaking into dance. The theme appeared to be targeting fast food and our relationship to it, as models had actual food stuck on to them. The ending was equally frenzied, with an eardrum busting soundtrack to boot.

The last show, which was absolutely packed ,was Natan. Natan is a Belgian based brand, and they saved their absolute couture elegance for last. The pieces were simple coloured but highly mesmerising.

All in all Amsterdam Fashion Week had some highly impressive collections. The only shame was that there couldn’t be more shows. Having it at the same weekend as New York fashion week was also slightly regrettable, as it provides content posting headache for us fashion editors. It also shares the same ‘AFW’ hashtag as Africa fashion week on instagram, which can’t be helpful for either event when target searching on the gram. Apart from that, would happily come back every year. All fashion media should report more on fashion weeks away from the ‘big four’. Much like how travelling opens our eyes to other cultures and experiences and enriches us, seeing how the Dutch [and Belgians] do fashion is also very enriching to the fashion world.

For street style looks outside Amsterdam Fashion Week see HERE and HERE

Dank je wel!