Duran Lantink’s namesake label is built around sustainability, and in July he won the ANDAM Special Prize for it. But for his first official, on-calendar PFW outing, the Dutch designer somehow managed to draw attention away from the now-expected deadstock-upcycled-repurposed talking points to make a larger statement.
“At the moment I’m really experimenting, trying to find my handwriting,” he said backstage before the show. “I started with combining clothes and pieces, and now I am really thinking about shape.”
Lantink hasn’t tackled seasons before, so summer opened with mod floral prints in nylon made from repurposed plastic bottles and, logically enough, a water theme, notably lifesavers. Picking up where his last collection left off, he sent out pneumatic silhouettes, from a curvaceous, artificially puffed-up sheath dress to floating necklines, itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny “bubble jeans” bottoms, and tops resembling floating devices known in France as “frites” (fries), though the show notes called them “tubular objects d’art.” A lifejacket was cleverly worked into a forest green bomber. A whale’s tail became a dress—make that half a dress, since the back was pretty much just a veiled backside.
Speaking of veils, a 19th century silk one was paired with a traditional Dutch bonnet to become a sundress; a vintage macramé tablecloth got a similar treatment. Both were charming. Other hybrids included a cage dress made of a sliced black T-shirt, knit deadstock and a piece of a skirt worn over a white bubble top; an experiment in three-dimensionality, the designer explained.
“Speedo-jeans” were another attempt at something new. Those starred the classic men’s swim briefs spliced with vintage jeans and hand-knitted leg warmers. Elsewhere, jeans or knits were bisected with tulle inserts, then reassembled again. A white vintage Helmut Lang coat from the astronaut collection of fall 1999 likewise was bisected and reassembled anew. Slipped amid all these experiments was some solid tailoring: a beige hooded jacket, an ecru suit, liquid pajamas.
But Lantink’s focus is solidly on questioning our relationship to traditional clothing. The final number, a black hourglass cut-out dress with hook-like shoulders, was a case in point. Even before the designer revealed, post-show, that the Met Costume Institute, the V&A and the Stedelijk museum have all acquired his work for their permanent collections, this outing gave its audience plenty to think about.
