Ninamounah FW19 campaign imagery. Photo: Woody Bos
With year round drops and big names opting more and more for alternative ways to showcase their collections, smaller fashion weeks are increasingly gaining more traction worldwide too. Today, sees the opening of Amsterdam Fashion Week, which—now in its third edition—is still an under-the-radar affair, but if the success of Copenhagen Fashion Week is anything to go by, is likely to explode in the next few years. In celebration, we caught up with one of the leading lights of Dutch fashion, Ninamounah, to find out what to see, where to grab a bite, where to shop and of course, what to wear this Amsterdam Fashion Week.
What to wear….
Backstage at Ninamounah FW19. Photo: Piet Oosterbeek.
What to see…
Left: SS19 trousers courtesy of @camielfortgens. Right: Courtesy of @
“Batavia Stad x Duran Lantink got shortlisted for the LVMH Awards, has his own exhibition in the Centraal Museum Utrecht, and has just collaborated with Nick Knight. Also a Rietveld graduate, he cuts up outlet designer clothes and makes new, layered garments. Works with reconstructed design, like we do with our special line made from vintage Italian tailoring that’s taken apart to its skeleton and reassembled in our signature motor suit designs.”
“Even though they’re not showing, but they are also good friends of ours! They have an amazing selection of stockists but only started doing presentations recently. They’re showing again this coming menswear season. Their garments are beautiful and poeti. Camiel did not study fashion, so he invented his own rules.”
Where to grab a bite between shows…
Left: Courtesy of @mediamatic_eten/. Right: Courtesy of @chouxrestaurant
“Self grown, organic food and a lot of experimentation. They also run a completely self-sufficient greenhouse and an artistic program.”
“Just beautiful food. Mostly vegetarian.”
Where to shop…
Left: Comme des Garçons courtesy of @onleydesirables. Right: Courtesy of @rataplan.
“Best thrift store—a bit like a German Sozialkaufhaus. It’s way better than most second hand stores here (those are all way too curated). At Rataplan, you can find real treasures
“Onley Desirables is a consignment store for vintage design pieces. The owner is a wonderful gentleman who lives for the garments he stocks and he has a fetish for ’90s Jean Paul Gualtier. You can find amazing Comme des Garçons and vintage Jil Sander pieces here too.
“A multi brand store started by three women after iconic stores SPRMRKT and Van Ravenstein closed down. They stock an international selection of brands and are situated in one of the best design stores that has a cute café hidden on the attic.”
Where to take a break from the Fashion Week madness…
Sauna Deco. Image via @saunadeco.
“It’s a beautiful sauna in an Art Deco style building hidden on the Amsterdam’s canals.”
“Or take the ferry into the northern part of town. There’s a lot of new art spaces, cafes, bars, etc. A bit more in the direction of Zaandam, there’s the Hembrugterrein, where trees grow through the middle of old warehouses, which are being reclaimed as ateliers right now, but without getting rid of the wild nature. There’s also this new atelier and exhibition space in an old bullet factory that just opened.”
Where to do some Dutch drinking…
Patti Smith performing at Maloe Melo.
“Cafe Saarein is a traditional bruine kroeg and an infamous women’s bar, filled with amazing (queer) women that pack a lot of punch and drink a lot of beer. It’s right around the corner from our atelier—you can find us here for a late afternoon meeting, or for a 1AM beer on a Friday night.”
“Also, around the corner from the studio: Maloe Melo, a blues, rock ‘n’ roll and punk live band music bar. It’s been open since the beginning of the ’80s, and icons like Patti Smith, Jeff Healy and more have performed on their stage. We gifted Patti Smith a blouse with an embroidered bee on it, and by coincidence the socks she was wearing were also embroidered with bees, so she gave them to us as a return present. She told us we had to wash them first, but we didn’t and now they’re hanging in a frame at our studio.”
Ninamounah FW19 campaign imagery. Photo: Woody Bos
Amsterdam Fashion Week runs from 5—8 September. Ninamounah will show tomorrow evening.