thisisnotparis

I can’t help it. I’m facinated by these kind of fan shirts.. Quite a job to make a shirt like this I think..

I was asked by Lucien Ulrich to design the first real team outfits for the new club Ampram United (Ghana).

To be honest.. I think this is the most beautiful uniform I can imagine with all these yellowish, orange and brown tones.

Here my first design proposals;

Design 1. is very sober. Colour: 2% Magenta, Yellow, Cyaan
Typeface: National
The team players wear their own personal socks to finish the outfit.

In design 2. The shirts can be made by recycling existing yellow fabric or shirts. Colours are based on a team outfit they imoprovised for a tournament last year. Players wore different yellow soccerhsirts (Celtic, Cameroon, Borussia, Brazil) to make a team. The color of the socks are based on possible shirtsponsor FairPhone.

and their shoes: ; – )

Last weekend was the opening of the exhibition T-T-Shirt at El Generador in Tenerife. On show there the a part of the BVB fanshirt collection (http://bit.ly/dJV0TF), the United by Stripes poster and Archive. The show is about the communication function of t-shirts.

18 -33 March 2011
http://www.t-t-shirt.org/
El Generador
Santa Cruz de Tenerife

I just did read a great article from Christopher Turner about the origin of art and how it is connected with blots.

“Ever since Leonardo da Vinci urged artists to search for inspiration in the dirt on walls or the streaked patterns in stones, they have found that the accidental blot, the chance mark, or the naturally occurring stain can be a starting point for some extraordinary art.”

Here you can read the full article; http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue21/blotsturner.htm

I Always have been fascinated by Blots and stains in clothes. They tell a history of little accidents that happen if you life and act. A piece of clothes is only be for an hour or a day in it’s virginal pure form and color. The moment you squeeze yourself inward the story begins… Myself I like grass blots (soccer players and park lovers), hard workers blots (painters, repair men etc.) and foodblots. If you are a real gourmand like me it can happen that (by accident) you decorate/ spoil your shirt in a way that can be quite inspiring.

Quite some work of mine is connected with blots. Here some of them:
The project WIT, a tribute to housepainters.
Later on I made baby sweaters from the material I collected at painting companies.

The sweaters are on sale now at parisfashion.nl

Together with Natasha Hagenbeek I developed some tasty colors and fabrics that revered to our favorite food. We also made a design for pants with grass stains on the knees.

And with Arne Hendriks I did a research for a text in Mister Motley about sweat, grease and other stains in dress. In our youth we made our own bleached spotted jeans. Right now the spot is everywhere in fashion. But the mass produces spots in H&M are bit dead and have little to do with playing soccer in the park or drowning yourself in plate of fresh strawberries. Spots show who you are… Well maybe that is word a new study about hosophobia, perfection and authenticity..

and.. last week in the newspapers from last thursday:

I’m working on a basic set of dress patterns that can be used as format for design experiments. What does one really need in a basic set of clothes? Let’s start with the head and neck. The neck is a very vulnerable part of the body and important in body language (flirting). Covering the neck is somehow a defensive act. Defensive or not, I like to wear scarfs a lot! You can play with it and they keep you warm. The Balaklava Helmet can be considered as the most unsexiest piece of clothes one can imagine I guess. But to be honest I think it is great to have one for the winter. I came upon the helmet while reading the book of Orlando Figes about the Crimean war when I was in Yalta for holiday’s. It was the first war that was covered by the media. The book and its strange quiet and beautiful pictures illuminate the power conflict between many involved cultures. It also recreates the lived experience of ordinary soldiers and how they survived the bare Crimean winter. Soldiers were not prepared for the winter and improvised warm outfits from animal skins and rags. War is always good for some innovation in dress design. One of the inventions to keep the cold outside was the Balaclava Helmet. The cap we now know by the name of Bivouac cap. The Balaclava helmet is a close fitting woollen cap that covers almost the whole face and neck. A perfect way to keep the cold outside.

Knitting for the services..

A pattern for a Balaclava helmet by Jeager. This design is made with earflaps to enable good hearing during telephone operations.

A pity that this clothing item got so many bad connotations as it is mostly used by robberies. Famous is the helmet (with an open space for his pipe) worn by Marcos, the leader of the Zapatista Army. In this case the cape is used to hide the identity of the person.

That you can also express your identity with a Balaclava cap is clear when you see the great designs of Walter form Beirendonck’s caps.

Some other dress innovations from the crimean war:

The Cardigan. Named after the earl of Cardigan; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Brudenell,_7th_Earl_of_Cardigan

http://www.ehow.com/about_5097613_history-cardigan-sweater.html

The Raglan sleeve. Names after lord Raglan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitzroy_Somerset,_1st_Lord_Raglan
http://www.ehow.com/about_5097613_history-cardigan-sweater.html

‘The Revolutionary Institute of Fantastic Design’ gebruik ik als titel voor de ontwerp projecten met jongeren die ik organiseer. Jongeren hebben een fantastische kijk op de wereld. Als ontwerper geef ik jongeren graag de handvatten en de ruimte om de wereld naar hun eigen inzicht te ontdekken en te vormen. Ontwerpen is een manier om je plek in de wereld in te nemen en te laten zien waar je voor staat. Waar sta jij? Waar is de ander mee bezig? hoe staan we samen in de wereld?.

Een mooi begin om elkaar te leren kennen, te praten over wat jij bijzonder vind en te kijken of je jouw wereld om kan zetten in een fantastisch ontwerp!

I just started my new job at RAiR! (Rotterdam Artists in Residence). This is the program we organized around Art Rotterdam. The poster is designed by Arie de Vroed.

Finally.. fresh from the press; I like it, I love it! workshops by Parisfashion. Here the online preview.. The design is by Arie de Vroed.

Parisfashion collection I LIKE IT, I LOVE IT!

Parisfashion is a collaboration between me and Natascha Hagenbeek. We started Parisfashion in 2008 as an experiment to design fashion items with and among other fashion lovers and creators. ‘I LIKE IT, I LOVE IT!’ is our first collection of fashion items.

We developped some workshops within the line of our collection. After the workshops we processed some of the outcome into our collection.
See also: www.parisfashion.nl