Dear creditcard,

Don’t think I forgot about you since you haven’t heard from me in a while.
I just wanted to make you happy, and I was very happy to be with you for the brief moments we had together. I probably would have gone mad and drunk on love. I wasn’t involved with any drama at that time, but I still find it very unpleasant love always comes with a box of drama.
I think our love was a beautiful form of creative expression, and it was an extra with the friendship we already shared.

Help me with this part; it seemed much more real and valid to me for us to be together than you and that whore. Well, I wanted you more than I needed you.
There was never a label on us, and that was for the best.

Love,
Me.

Guess the joke’s on you.

Years of high school pressure have failed to halt my personal development. Those pathetic, insecure, plastic girls, who attacked me during gym class, ballet and regular classes, temporarily disrupted how I saw myself, but now I can reveal I have fully recovered from these assaults. And the latest findings on Facebook; status updates and photos posted by themselves, provided the most compelling evidence yet that what you get is what you deserve.

Of course I got upset over their double game with the rest of the society, where they made me believe I was nothing in this small world. Calling names and whispering just as loud enough so I could hear has been effective, too. So I decided to have things my way: cooperating with society enough to make it useful and loving but obstructing the coalition’s plan just enough to make it nearly impossible to hurt others again. I have learned happiness can only maintain at a level which satisfies some of us. Some of us can only be happy when others are miserable. There are nights when I still twist and turn, asking myself if they were happy when I was unhappy. How trapped they must have felt to hurt others to feel better of themselves. How sad their lives are while most of them are still stuck in the same loop, at the same place. On the contrary, it helped fragile girls getting stronger.

Needless to say, girls are hideous when they are dripping of jealousy and envy. I still see girls like that every day. It breaks my heart to see how young girls have to deal with this.
This is a lesson that I am not likely to forget; the next generation beautiful, strong, independent, women will depend on their ability to forgive. Being happy stretches way longer than ‘feeling better than others’, it’s about feeling better about yourself; even compared with others.

Scenario.

I can tell you about this scenario where I was head over heels. Secretly. Let’s start with this awkward moment when you fell in love with someone and he can’t possible love you back. There are several reasons why it was not a surprise. And all of them are stupid excuses which aren’t helping at all. It feels better when you expect it, but worse at the same time. It’s basically seeing a piano getting closer. From above.

The absence of a plausible, rational, satisfying answer is unhealthy, because feeling good over yourself is good for intellectual decisions just as it’s for how you show yourself to the world.
World, you do not want to see me in a state of broken hearted. You will feel better about yourself when you see me with no make-up, exploded hair and not-sure-if-it’s-a-pizza-or-chocolate stain on my sweatpants. But I might gross you out.
Social skills and appearance is simply not enough to get somebody to like you, as I once said before, but women do not become powerful unless they have these positive features. Changes in these structures may have consequences; just as growing boobs or long hair have consequences on how society will criticize you.

This hypothetic, scripted illusion between him and me will not happen, however, as long as I have my emotions life will not get boring. In these moments literature is waiting to be born.

Goodbye my almost lover, I will never forget you.

ArtEZ – The new aristrocracy.

Life-loving, vivacious, decadent and an eye for every, little detail; a must for every fashion design student from an art academy. If you’ve seen the collection you can see it’s more than the colors keeping this group together. There’s this huge talent these students have on their tech side. Yeah, it sounds very done if you hear the theme is aristocracy (Gaultier, Valentino, D&G, and so on..) but it’s a whole other deal when people have show them their new and own vision on a very rich theme.
If you must have the characteristic summed up, then it was all about gold, bling, and extreme silhouettes. Extreme design is as a play-yard where everything is possible. We like to see more of that.

SuperTrash.

Olcay Gulsen is of course in her own show, wearing a (very) short glitter dress and golden stiletto heels, looking happy and performing a dance routine while launching her first perfume Phenomenal.
For those who’ve never heard of SuperTrash (shame on you!), let me explain this brand with a poetic line: Super sexy women with long curly hair and perfect silhouettes, taking over the world partying without even damaging their nails.

In this Fall-Winter 2012 collection you can see a lot of glitter (of course), gold, earthly tones, bright zig-zag prints, but floor sweeping gowns as well.
I am sorry Olcay, but I was not dressed in SuperTrash. I do own a moss green jacket, but it’s just not glammed up enough for an event like this. So I just made my own outfit..

Dress: Self-made from the wool everybody was throwing around during the Students in Motion kick-off.
Shoes: Self-made, Yayoi Kusama inspired.
Purse: Hong Kong market
Scarf: Ordinary Sundays.
Bracelet: Shoot it, Use it.
Catwalk photo’s: Team Peter Stigter.

I Approve.

I Approve lesbian love.
I Approve Gay love.
I Approve Bisexual love.
I Approve Transgender love.
I Approve all kinds of love.

What about you?

It’s the last day of the project when everybody is stressing, and we’re at a café Kalkhoven on the corner of the famous Westermarkt in the neighborhood Jordaan, Amsterdam. While we are enjoying some green tea, doom scenarios flash by with no people on the spot at 15.00 o’clock. At this moment the wind and rain are mind blowing, literally. By the time we finish our preperations, it’s clear we did not pick the best day for our event. But seeing the look in the eyes of my team I know; we can do it.

I Approve is a guerrilla tolerance event where eight students of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences try to make people aware of the big taboo which still exist on other sexual preferences in our apathetic society. There are a lot of people who do support the Lesbian-, Gay-, Bisexual-, Transgender community and who want to show this positive message. By writing down a message or sign the cards you show you approve. These cards will be attached to 120 helium filled balloons and released from the granite memorial for gay and lesbian victims. This triangular monument is designed in a way it doesn’t disrupt the surroundings but to be there as if it’s always been there, just to inspire and support lesbians and gays in their struggle against denial, oppression and discrimination.

One hundred fifty-six people have shown their support on the spot, the corner on the canal which has a set of steps leading to the water, to be precise. This wedge points towards the National War Memorial on Dam Square and is a symbol for the past. We leave the past in the past by releasing the balloons and hope our love will spread from the Jordaan to the rest of Amsterdam and eventually; to the rest of the Netherlands.

A lot of people told us they support the message. Unfortunately the majority could not support us in person; Thursday afternoon is still a working day. We are excited and emotional of the fact so many people support us. As straight people we are filled with love to hear all the positive feedback. Most gay people are very annoyed by the fact that a tolerance event is usually a pro-gay event where people walk around as if it’s a Brazilian carnaval with lots of glitter, pink and feathers. If you’re gay it doesn’t automatically makes you love rainbows. Everybody who participated did wear a fluorescent pink band on their wrist; it was very clean and stylish.

Of course this was also a time for reflection upon ourselves. The alignment of the third point is symbolic as well and points towards the headquarters of COC Nederland, a Dutch gay rights group, and is symbolic for the future.

For now it’s just an one time manifest, however the whole team is still very excited and driven to host more events with the same message. In the end we hope there is no need for these kind of events anymore and we hope there will be a day where people will stop seeing homosexuality as wrong or strange.

Straight or gay, we approve. What about you?

Mathijs van Nieuwkerk approves!

I always wear Chanel. LBD in the morning, No. 5 by night..

Coco Chanel (1883-1971) was several people in one. For starters: an icon. A self-made millionaire, role model, socialite, designer but above all: a great actress who never broke character. Her private life was a disordered whirlwind: royal lovers, obscure lies about the past and friends who helped her adapt to her new life. Other than most designers, she had to fight herself trough misery and created a glamorous alter ego. Strongly driven by her struggles with her poor past: the hard life without guardians and no education or economic recourses, she opened her first boutique at age 31.
However, the details in her life are interesting; enough to write books about, her marketing strategy is extremely fascinating.
Since Chanel you don’t buy a Chanel-piece, you buy Chanel. You buy a vision, a dream and a concept.

She wanted her work to be accessible; and was flattered when it was copied by so many. Until today her iconic biographic pieces are still in fashion. Other than her extinct rivals (say Schiaparelli), the Chanel signature isn’t bound by time. The charm is a combination of the neutral silhouette and the straight forward textile designs. Her innovative machine made jersey in solid colors, simple stripes, pleats and straight lines will never become dull. It made a boring knitted fabric athletic, sexual powerful and independent.
Every fragment screams Coco but there is no trace of Gabriëlle. Coco is a public figure who lived the good life and was always dressed in her own creations. For many fashionistas it’s just about clothing but for true fashion insiders it’s all about personal and physical transformation. It’s about the lifestyle you buy; it even comes with free clothing. These clothes come in many shapes and sizes, on different models (high class socialites or hired models) but somehow they always end up being Coco. It’s not only the pearls, the flat shoes, the glasses and the boyish short hair. It’s about the feeling you get in your stomach experiencing this.

Immediate effects of wearing Chanel are instant class and instant aerodynamic. The simple colors don’t need ornaments. Most women opt themselves for one look and then stick to it. It takes a lot of strength and innovative ideas to change an inconspicuous and neat ideology in order to create a new type of women. A woman who does whatever she wants, who doesn’t wear corsets, doesn’t pursue this impossible s-figure.

For the final stage of my attempt to clarify the one brand everybody recognizes instantly, I want to point out how smart she was to use the stage for her campaigns. It’s not a polished campaign starring Keira Knightly, Audrey Tautou or Blake Lively, but then I recall Romy Schneider, Gloria Swansen and Ina Claire were celebrated, independent women at that time. At first sight that approach may lead to a uniform that doesn’t look like it fits the characters at all, and due to the timeless designs they actually can be used in every setting.

Whatever the substance of this vision is, millions of people buy Chanel, just for the interlocking double-C. Until we decided that buying clothing with the intention to cover ourselves was a task too primitive for us. Many more of us will be seduced to get into that magic world of Coco at some point in our lives.

See you on the other side.
Love,
Lin.

-reflection on Coco Chanel & Contagious Celebrity – Rhonda Garelick-