The Word From Amsterdam:
“Not Everything Has To Be Wearable”

Holland may have taken a blow in a certain soccer tournament of late, but there was no talk of runners-up at the gala opening of Amsterdam International Fashion Week, which kicked off Wednesday night with two radically different visions from Dutch design houses, albeit united by a shared aquatic sensibility.

First down the runway was a wearable, nautical-influenced collection from sister-sister duo Spijkers en Spijkers, whose Breton-striped shifts and Delft-hued, galleon-print maxi dresses struck a chord—not least with Amsterdam’s front-row boat owners.

Arguably less suitable for canal-side weekending were the uncompromising creations of Iris van Herpen, whose collection featured plasticized droplets cascading off garments and the sort of leather ribcage lattices that could spell tan-line disaster (pictured). Van Herpen’s headline appearance in Amsterdam represents something of a coup for organizers; having trained under the late Alexander McQueen, the Dutch designer is used to showing at London fashion week. But she treated her hometown to a ten-look preview demonstrating, as she told Style.com, that “not everything has to be wearable.”

Jean-Paul Paula, the fashion director of Amsterdam’s online MycroMag (and occasional walker in van Herpen’s womenswear shows), was glad to see the return of challenging fashion. For him, this collection signified a welcome return to a time when, as he put it, “Amsterdam was for renegades, much less conservative than what it has become lately. I know people are all too eager to make the comparison, but, like McQueen, Iris really does create her own universe.”

—Mark Smith