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Once upon a time, when humans still crawled through life on all fours – those were the days!- there was a beautiful young lady named Lucy, was thoroughly fed up with all those Neanderthals checking out her equally beautiful ass. So she, a genuine Australopithecus afarensis if ever there was one, decided to exchange the horizontal for the vertical, at least during daytime hours. The results of this decision were amazing: suddenly men seemed even smaller than they looked before, she could see over the horizon, her head was in the clouds and her feet felt like dancing, as stiletto heels weren’t invented then. I mean, why should they, when everybody went through life on their knees?
Anyway, there she was, strolling in the desert, proud as a lioness and tall as a giraffe, wearing billowing dresses knotted around her delightful body, her eyes protected against the glare of the sun and from her jealous –while still horizontal- sisters, by huge scarves tied around her head & neck.
She surely was an amazing sight, which wasn’t lost on Baba, son of local king Abdal-Kadir, who spotted her while crawling towards his next dinner, an old and therefore slow ostrich, who still packed in a mean punch with his feet however. But that’s another story.
Baba fell in love with Lucy at first sight, as he admired her guts and her outfits in equal measure. But how to catch her, when he couldn’t even catch an old bird?
Extreme actions were called for, mused the price, while lazing about in the heat keeping the sunrays out of his face by pulling his ruffled Foreign Legion-style hat even deeper over his eyes. But how? What to do?
Then suddenly he knew: which woman could resist new clothes, especially clothes as wonderful and special as herself? So Baba took his mobile out of his caftan jacket, called his good friend Bernhard in Antwerp and asked for a speedy delivery of his entire winter collection for winter 00/01.
“But by then it will be summer in Australia and the desert will be unbearably hot!”, cried out the all-but-stupid designer. “Since when has that tiny fact stopped women to get the latest & greatest in fashion and wearing it that very second, regardless of the weather?”, Baba wanted to know. Because he might be horizontal –and many of the sexiest men alive today still are- he knew his women inside out. And so the conquering of the entire globe by Mr. Willhelm was a fact. To be taken laying down. Or not.
The Collection
Fabrics & Prints: natural colours for wide “marquise” stripes (Arabic, Turkish, Afghan) on mixed fabrics like cotton/wool, cotton/linen or on canvas… woven Ikat, spot-printed silk tafta, wool crepe, chiné “carpet style” wool, curly “teddy bear” mohair, hand-painted chiffon, the “wrong” side of tapestry (multicolour threads), diamond motifs, embroidered or appliquéd city landscapes, flowers-, horses- and name-jacquards, two-colour effects, plus net and tie-dye details for cotton jersey pieces.
Show:
Moulin Rouge, Boulevard de Clichy, Paris
Look Book:
Graphic Design/Photography: Elle Verhagen and Carmen Freudenthal
Styling Woman: Maarten Spruyt
Styling MMen: Yasmin Eslami
Make up: Inge Grognard & M.A.C. Team
Hair: Marc Lopez |
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