I have 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls. The boys are married already and I have 3 grandchildren. For many reasons, they live abroad. One lives in London, and the other in Amsterdam. As you probably have guessed, a big part of our (me, my husband and the girls) trips, either travel directly to one of those cities, or combine other trips with those cities. Because of Covid19, I saw my “Dutch” grandson, about a year ago for the first time when he turned 1 year old! But I was fortunate to meet his brother who came shortly after on the age of 2 months – a big improvement! My English grandchildren, two lovely girls and a gorgeous boy, were born in Israel, I used to see them a lot, at list twice a week, so when they moved, it was very hard and life changing.
Why am I telling you all that? Since I am a frequent visitor to those cities, I already saw all the tourist attractions, and I am looking for the hidden gems. And when I say that, I mean, small museums, with a theme that you can absorb in one visit, but make you want to come back again, and find out what’s new!
One of these museums is “Fashion for Good” The name was intriguing and I visited for the 1st time last March. The museum theme, as written in the website, https://fashionforgood.com/
“Fashion for Good is a global initiative to inspire change and drive the collective movement to make fashion a force for good. We work directly with the fashion industry to innovate towards solutions that are better for people and the planet, and empower behavior change through our sustainable fashion Museum.”
These pictures and all the pictures in this post (except the last one) were taken by me in the "Fashion for Good" Museum, Rokin 102, 1012 KZ Amsterdam, on my last visit in June, 2022
Well, it is really interesting. Since I work mostly with leather, that is a byproduct of the food industry, I am trying to find overlapping points between that and sustainability. But first, I want to tell you about the special exhibition, that I saw a couple of weeks ago, called Fashion Week: A New Era (20 May 2022 until 25 September 2022). Fashion Week, is defined as a phenomenon and the exhibition is aimed to explore “Its past, present and future through iconic runway moments and innovative looks of the future”.
Where the concept of “Fashion Show” come from, and how it changed over the years
The first fashion week took place in the 19th-century in Paris, France. Fashion weeks are a place for showing innovation. Besides catwalks and behind the scenes, there are historic moments, that took place in fashion weeks over the years.
The Catwalk acts as the threshold between the designers’ ateliers, the creative process, and the public domain. The design team and the seamstresses, translate the sketches of the designer, often influenced by processes taking place in the world at the time, and research of subjects and themes; to one of a kind sample. When the collection is finally ready, it is released to the public at the fashion show.
Fashion shows are a dynamic and powerful platform. At first, they were a space for innovation in design and a site for social justice issues such as feminism and climate changes activism. Its also over the years became a place for promoting of innovation of digitalization and technology in fashion and sustainability.
Some new ideas and approaches that were introduced in fashion week, and then, published around the world
Fashion and Feminism – Coco Chanel
The famous and very important and revolutionary designer Coco Chanel, that I mentioned in other posts, here is one of them How the Chanel 2.55 Bag, became the most stylish and famous bag in the world
Coco Chanel introduced this classic tweed suite, composed of two pieces, a jacket and a skirt. It’s an iconic and timeless piece, mostly because its revolutionary and feministic character, when it was introduced in the 1950’s. It is associated with women’s freedom, it has a comfortable cut and a minimalist shape, especially opposed to Christian Dior’s more restrictive new look with accentuated narrow waist, that was introduced in the same period. Chanel valued comfort and ease in her designs because she herself loved sports and spent a lot of time outdoors. Versions of this suite existed for a century, but it became popular thanks to Karl Lagerfeld, that was the creative director of the house of Chanel from 1983 till his death on 2019.
Fashion and art – Moschino
Italian fashion house of Franco Moschino was founded in 1983 encouraged by Gianni Versace, founder of the brand Versace house, whom he was working for as an illustrator at the time. Moschino, has since become known for his subversive, playful, and satirical designs, referencing pop art culture. Jeremy Scott, the current Moschino house designer continues his legacy.
One of Moschino’s most iconic qualities, is the tendency to parody famous and influential brands. Other themes, reflect on all elements of fashion industry like climate, with a twist.
This dress, reflects Moschino’s appropriation, channeling Yves Saint Laurent’s famous autumn/winter 1965 show, which respectively interpreted the work of the painter Mondrian, creating layers of cross-pollination between art and fashion.
Fashion and Social & environmental activism – Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Westwood, the British fashion designer and activist, has always used graphics in her designs in order to promote social and environmental activism. She was part of the London punk scene of the 1970’s and the 1980’s, and used her brand to rebel and question the establishment. She uses the catwalk as a platform to speak about issues as sex and gender, civil rights, and injustice. In the 2000’s she turned her activism towards care for the environment.
The design of this T-shirt is called +5Degrees Map/ROTS it’s a symbol which she started using to create awareness to the rising of temperature of the planet as a result of global warming.
These are only highlights from this beautiful and important exhibition. I will just pinpoint some more subjects that were raised there (and there are more), that I will not elaborate about, if you are interested, you will have to pay a visit, there is still time!
Few more highlights that caught my attention in this beautiful and important exhibition
Ronald Van Der Kemp
and fashion shows as a platform to amplify messages of change in the fashion industry itself.
Digital fashion
Fashion created especially for the metaverse world.
Fashion and sustainability
based on authentic stories about human existence using natural colors and handmade embroidery – Ka-Sha X Kbcols Sciences (Indian Brand)
Insights and conclusions for the future
In this exhibition, they mentioned the subject of animal cruelty in fashion. They mostly talked about fashion industry gradually moving away from using fur and animal products in general since the early 1990s. In addition, emerging of innovations in the textile industry which increased the use of plastics and polyesters, which later proved damaging to the environment (the same goes for materials that are allegedly called “vegan leather” and made of similar type of materials). I decided, for now anyway, that as long as leather is a byproduct of the food industry, and people still eat meet, I will continue working with leather.
As for sustainability, leather bags are long lasting, they age gracefully, and you can find them at vintage shops. They are passed on through generations, so they are definitely sustainable!
If you want to see more of my bags, it's just a click away! www.likamia.com/shop