Amsterdam: The return of Orson + Bodil

[andreas]

ORSON+BODIL COUTURE RETURNS

The fashion design duo Alexander van Slobbe and Guus Beumer have relaunched their Orson+Bodil women’s couture label from a new studio/shop in Amsterdam’s Westergasfabriek cultural complex, a converted 19th-century gasworks. The founding of Orson+Bodil in 1989 signalled the start of a more conceptual approach to fashion in the Netherlands, and helped put Dutch fashion on the international map. Thanks to the sober aesthetic, (de)constructivist twists, and meticulous handcrafted detailing of the garments, Orson+Bodil was the first Dutch high-fashion label to be sold in Barneys (New York) and Joseph (London). ‘It’s not just the hand of the designer, but also the hand of the maker that determines the quality of an item of clothing,’ said the label’s designer Alexander van Slobbe. So in 1994, rather than turning to mass production of Orson+Bodil collections, Alexander van Slobbe and Guus Beumer turned their attention to designing the men’s line SO. Ten years on, Van Slobbe and Beumer are realizing a desire to revisit a more experimental platform and explore a closer relationship between designer and client. This prompted their return to Orson+Bodil and collaboration with Pascale Gatzen for their new collection.

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