With Wardrobe 19, Ronald van der Kemp celebrates a milestone: It’s been 10 years since he set out to establish “new ethics in luxury fashion” by upcycling pretty much anything into something that’s as fun to look at as it probably is to wear. Fast forward the better part of a decade, and the world has finally caught on, or almost.
“The fashion world can’t stay stuck in its old ways, but at the same time nobody really wants to sit around and listen to everything they can’t do,” the designer said backstage. “And I don’t, either.”
This runway show, then, was an object lesson in what can be done with little means and lots of imagination. Give Van Der Kemp some reproductions of Old Master paintings—in this case picked up during the revamp of a five-star hotel—and he will paint them over, cut them up and produce a dress held together entirely with eyelet rivets (their frames, meanwhile, might become jewelry). Pass along some deadstock gold leather, and he will turn it into a sharp little suit whose pockets are embellished with what might look like tweed but turns out to be a confetti of shredded euros snagged from the Dutch National Bank. He calls that one the “Where’s the Money?” jacket. Another magpie’s fantasia of a dress is called “The Swamp” for all the fabulous bits and bobs used to make it. That cubic gold dress: paper maché, because the designer likes the idea of fashion as art.
“It’s when you start to think, ‘What am I going to do with this?’ that you get inspired,” the designer offered. “Restrictions always make you want to do something cool.” The upside about working without a theme, he added, is that the looks don’t date. Not every outfit was a wild ride: a silver sequined dress with a white sash, for example, looked quite sophisticated.
Now that the business is self-sustaining, Van Der Kemp said his next move will be to bring his “new ethics” to the fore. Next month, he will launch a namesake foundation back home in Amsterdam. Its mission: to come up with new ideas and ways of doing things, with a little help from scientists, philosophers, and other artists and free thinkers. “It’ll be the same idea as Andy Warhol’s factory, but for sustainability and new ethics,” he said. “I want more people involved. Fashion touches everyone and together we could do so much good.”
