FLAMBOYANCE
During the Specialisation Collections on AMFI, the semester before my graduation I finally found the right words / visualisation of the feeling I associate with freedom that I lack and need in my life.
I decided to create a collection based on this. I was very much inspired by the exuberance and frivolity of the Rococo time period. And also it’s ambiguity, I found relatable today. We try to make the world a pretty place but there is so much shit going on...
BREAK FREE FROM THE STRAIT JACKET OF SOCIETY
I wanted to be more exuberant and like the Rococo, this is reserved for the upper clase think of Popstars, Influencers. Why is it not okay for “the ordinary” to be extraodinary? And why is it so weird for me who identifies as male to want to stand outside of the “male ideal”. During my research I found out about genderstereotypes and how they put a strait jacket on society. That mental strait jacket was a very inspiring aspect for me that I wanted to visualize. I don’t want to put people in strait jackets, but show elements of that jacket in the collection to show the battle we had of breaking loose from it.
HELMUT LANG
Part of the curriculum of this project is that we had to visualize a collaboration between your own design stylle and that of a designer. This project that designer was HELMUT LANG. During my research I really found elements that I could relate to him breaking free from the social strait jacket, alot of the straps in the collection are also results of our “collaboration”
THE COLLECTION
I designed the collection into 3 phases. Each fase getting more “Femboyant”. I wanted people to ease into total femboyance, so in the first face, the silhouettes were quite basic, with layers that you could add to make it more femboyant and loose when you got scared. The second fase got more flamboyant. Silhouettes still quite wearable but there were also elements now that could not be taken down, also more exuberant fabrics. In the final face there is no more talk of layes that can be taken down when scared because these people ain’t scared anymore. The straps are loose, and dangeling showing how far they have come that they can release themselves from the social strait jacket.
“FEMBOYANT” PRE-GRADUATION RUBEN JURRIEN SPECIAL THANKS TO: Amsterdam Fashion Institute, Andrea Kristic, Lisa Kaimer, Roel Heeroma, Valerie Abeji, Mirjam Tijs, Tom Beckers, Joel Quayson, Marlon Doodeman, Anita Wertz, Alex Bartels, Stamhuis Purmerend