Camiel Fortgens “Collection 3”

During the third show of Camiel Fortgens, the collection was presented in a living room setting in Amsterdam, on a random day in September. He presented a menswear collection, in all off-white, based on archetypal garments and elements of garments from different cultures, times and contexts. The collection was shown on man and woman. “Why not, anymore?”. The models walked on home-recorded hip-hop and rap songs through the room. The designer himself changed their outfits at the end of the catwalk in front of the public. There is nothing hidden, all is shown. Nothing is made glamorous, all is real. From the quick hand written invite, the show’s setting, the home recorded rap, to the rough fraying ‘sketched’ garments.

The collection is based on a series of copies of archetypal iconic garments: ‘the Blanks’. These ‘Blanks’ are all executed and united in neutral off-white, bringing together times, places and cultures, from street culture to Victorian style garments. Garments like a hoodie, a tracksuit, grandma pants and a goalkeepers-shirt are copied in white. The whole collection is made with 100% unbleached heavy cotton twill and finished with heavy-duty zips and natural bone buttons. The ‘Blanks’ are the base of the collection. Fortgens works on and around the ‘Blanks’ as he researches garments and it’s reason and norm in fashion and culture. He’s puzzling with element of clothing. He combines a tracksuit jacket with a fraying Victorian collar, a piece of white cloth is roughly sown on to a jacket to make it a coat and a grandma flowers print is roughly painted on to an apron and dinner jacket.

The garments don’t pretend or hide nor try to fit a norm or trend in fashion. The collection shows garments and research on garments and norms in fashion.