Amsterdam Fashion Week starts in July and our capital is dominated by new fashion collections for ten days. Models stride down the catwalk in creations by well-known Dutch designers and up-and-coming talents. 'Dutch Design' has sometimes been worse on the map.
Sylvain Kahn, director of haute couture house Hirsch &Cie did not know what he saw during a visit to Amsterdam in 1882. In his eyes the ladies were dressed so badly and unfashionably that it seemed as if he had ended up in China.
Hirsch &Cie had no plans for a branch in the Netherlands, but now saw a gap in the market. Finally, Dutch ladies would be able to buy haute couture in their own country. After being in an emergency building for a while, Maison Hirsch &Cie . opened in 1912 the doors of the new fashion palace on Leidseplein.
New wardrobe very time consuming
Before the rise of the big fashion houses at the end of the 19 e century it was a lot more difficult to get a new dress or a new suit, design or not. Windows shopping was not yet possible at the time, because the shops did not have large shop windows. The products were stored inside cupboards and drawers and were brought out on request.
For new clothes you had to buy all the parts yourself in separate shops, such as fabric from the fabric dealer and decorations from the trimmings worker. You went to the tailor (for men) or the costume seamstress (for women) who took your measurements and – possibly on the basis of a fashion print – tailors the entire outfit.
This cost quite a bit and was only reserved for the wealthy citizens. Most people had to make do with second-hand clothes or put together a simple outfit themselves. What was fashionable was irrelevant to them and only reserved for the elite. They couldn't afford to travel to Paris, the Mecca of fashion, to have a new wardrobe put together. The French court was the great example at the time and all of Europe looked at the fashion trends that arose here.
Invention of haute couture
Until the middle of the 19 e century, the costume seamstresses made what they wanted on behalf of the customer. But then something happens in France that would change the fashion world forever.
The Englishman Charles Frederick Worth came up with a few designs himself and made a collection for his own – and thus the first – haute couture house, which he opened in 1857. No commission was involved and haute couture was born.
Worth showed his creations in the blacked-out salon full of mirrors and chandeliers. The garments were all in black so that the customers could later indicate the desired colors themselves.
He mainly focused on luxurious evening wear because he was assured of a wealthy clientele. He was the favorite designer of the French Empress Eugénie and her entire court. In addition, he soon realized that his customers were willing to pay extra for a piece of clothing with his name in it. For the first time in history, the designer's name was put on labels and sewn into the clothing. The label or 'griffe' was an important feature of his haute couture and around 1865 Worth dressed almost all of Europe's nobles.
After Charles Worth, more designers and fashion houses followed, especially in France. Due to the increased prosperity, the new fashion houses dared to stock clothing. They supplied the fabrics and the couturiers designed a collection twice a year. Customers could choose from this and have the design made to measure. The choice was suddenly huge compared to the past.
Haute couture in fashion palaces
The Netherlands was not yet ripe for its own designers, but it was for haute couture, such as Sylvain Kahn of Hirsch &Cie rightly observed in 1882. Initially, this fashion house only sold haute couture, intended for the elite. For them, the new fashion house on Leidseplein was a real palace. Following the French example, the building had a gilded fence, enormously high ceilings, large shop windows and light and wealth everywhere. The official language was also French, so that it immediately became clear at the threshold who was allowed in and who was not.
The less fortunate, who spoke no French, could only marvel at the richly decorated shop windows. The store had a first after opening in 1912 with its tearoom and fashion shows. For the first time, the ladies were able to attend a fashion show in their own country, where creations from Paris and Vienna were shown. All over the galleries were chairs with a strip of gray woolly carpet in between for the mannequins. The hundreds in attendance saw French girls walking in a way they were unfamiliar with. It was as if they were floating on the carpet, accompanied by the music of an orchestra.
Amsterdam fashion city
The fashion show became an increasingly common phenomenon after 1912 and Amsterdam became the fashion city of the Netherlands. The cut of haute couture simplified in the 1920s and was therefore much easier to imitate. Clothing became cheaper and the latest fashion became available to an increasing group.
At first, the elite spoke disgrace to the maids who attended to the latest fashions. This had been the prerogative of the highest classes for all those centuries. But due to the improvements in fit and quality in the years that followed, confection was no longer a dirty word. Shops like Maison de Bonneterie did not sell haute couture but luxury ready-to-wear. The source of inspiration remained the haute couture from the French capital and that was certainly mentioned.
Due to unrest in Germany, many fashion studios moved from Berlin to Amsterdam after 1933. As a result, Amsterdam increasingly became a center of women's clothing. During the war, the haute couture and clothing industry had a hard time as textiles were on the receipt. The textile scarcity continued until a few years after the war, but then fashion made a comeback.
From 1947, the Amsterdam Fashion Week was held in Amsterdam twice a year organized. Not a French but an English name, because after the war everything that came from America was 'hot'. This week was organized by the Dutch Women's Clothing Industry and was aimed at foreign buyers. The manufacturers still had Paris as a guideline. They visited the shows there to have their own collection made with the inspiration and models that were pushed back.
The Amsterdam fashion shows were quite an event. Much was written about it in the newspapers and the Polygoon theatrical news also reported. It 'happened' in Amsterdam, but with a focus on Paris.
The Amsterdam Fashion Week was designed in this way until the late 1950s, but then it was the turn of the Dutch designers. They had always stayed in the background, but now they came forward and started putting on their own fashion shows. Their names are still known today, such as Edgar Vos, Frank Govers and Frans Molenaar. The gaze no longer went to Paris, but to the United States and Great Britain. The youth culture with sex, drugs and rock &roll was rampant and haute couture was exchanged for the mini-skirt.
After years of absence, the Amsterdam Fashion Week has been organized twice a year since 2004. Dutch designers show their creations here to the public – present only by invitation. In that respect, not much has changed with the fashion shows from earlier years.