National Identity and Fashion: A UK – Dutch Comparison
The National Gallery
19th of February 2010
18.30-19.30

New Monographs: Fong Leng and Oilily

Fong Leng
Fong Leng started her career in fashion in the seventies. She was the first Dutch designer that gave fashion an extravagant, glamorous and international appeal, writes Karin Schacknat who also lecturers fashion at ArtEZ fashion department. Fong Leng will be launched on January 28th 2010 at noon at the Amsterdam International Fashion Week in the AIFW lounge.

Fong-Leng is the fifth in a series of books focusing on Dutch fashion designers who have played a crucial role in the development of Dutch as well as international fashion. Although the work of Fong-Leng certainly had an international aura, her merit mainly lays in the fact that she made the Netherlands fashion-conscious. For the first time there was a realisation that the Netherlands, too, could bring forth idiosyncratic and creative fashion talent. When Barry Brun, her indispensable right-hand man, started teaching design in the department of fashion at the ArtEZ Institute for the Arts in Arnhem in the Eighties, something of Fong-Leng’s mentality was passed on via him to a younger generation. Viktor & Rolf, Saskia van Drimmelen, Michiel Keuper and Francisco van Benthum were all taught by him. Later they would say on several occasions in press interviews that they felt inspired by Fong-Leng. In their 2003 Flowers summer collection, Viktor & Rolf introduced a series of floral creations that were clearly inspired by Fong-Leng. That they were also presented by dancing Mathilde Willink look-alikes made it clear that the whole thing was an ode to Fong-Leng.


Oilily
In the monographic series on Dutch designers Jos Arts has written a book on the Dutch fashion brand Oilily. Oilily has it's origins in Dutch traditional dress. This book will be available from January 2010.

An unconventional business instinct and a unique design mentality: that was what Willem and Marieke Olsthoorn brought to Oilily, the very first brand of children's clothing that put its focus on the world of the child and no longer dressed them up as small adults. Right from the start, Oilily refused to be led by trends or competitive prices. Willem and Marieke only made things that they themselves found attractive. Oilily's preference for the playful use of colourful fabrics was also an expression of our own Dutch clothing tradition. In the early years in particular, Marieke Olsthoorn was inspired by the colourful traditional costumes worn in the villages around the IJsselmeer. The way the people of Spakenburg,Hindeloopen and Volendam combined various kinds of colourful Indian chintz - once imported by the Dutch East India Company - into a profusion of combinations is clearly evident in the Oilily style.