October 31, 2009
United Nude, the design agency run by shoe designer Galahad JD Clark and architect Rem Koolhaas has expanded its on-line shoe store with an off-line version on the Spuistraat in Amsterdam. No, that is not the Rem Koolhaas, it is Rem D. Koolhaas, his cousin.
Koolhaas told De Pers it took six years to open a bricks and mortar store because only now is the collection big enough. Also, the crisis made the rent right.
(Via: Bright. Photo: United Nude.)
Tags: Amsterdam, fame, names, shoes, United Nude
October 26, 2009
This merry-go-round coat rack by Wieki Somers won the overall prize for the best Dutch design project at the Dutch Design Week 2009. It is already in use at the Museum Boijmans – Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.
Other winners were the rain barrel by Bas van der Veer that we wrote about last week, which won the René Smeets award, the prize for the best project of this year’s Design Academy Eindhoven graduates.
Heleen Klop won a Doen Materials Prize of 5,000 euro for coming up with a method to repair holes in wool clothing using felt.
Other interesting designs were those of Digna Kosse, who experimented with how much material you can leave out of a dress and still call it a dress (may be NSFW), and Austrian Eindhoven Design Academy graduate Sonja Bäumel, who experimented with clothes that grow themselves in the areas of the body that most need the warmth by letting bacteria do the heavy lifting.
Dezeen has a lot of write-ups about this years Design Week.
(Source photo: Wieki Somers.)
Tags: Eindhoven
September 23, 2009
To protect the privacy of stewardesses (and stewards, I imagine), pilots and ground personnel, KLM has decided that they won’t be wearing any nametags anymore as of April 2010. Apparently, there’s no rush to protect them — odd. Their ‘title’ will still be displayed on a pin they’ll have to wear.
KLM personnel will also be getting new uniforms, as the ones stewardesses (and again stewards, I imagine) now wear date from 1990.
Yes, this is a silly picture of two co-pilots in an old DC-9 cockpit.
(Link: at5.nl)
Tags: co-pilots, ground personnel, KLM, stewardess, stewards
September 5, 2009
The ‘Colour-In’ Dress by Berber Soepboer and Michiel Schuurman comes with a set of textile markers included, assuming you are willing to part with 238 euro. The dress moved from concept to product quickly when the blogosphere picked up on it earlier this year.
(Via Bright.nl. Source photos: Berber Soepboer.)
Tags: dresses
August 27, 2009
If you can trade in your old car or your old computer for a new one, why not your old bras? Thanks to Dutch lingerie brand Triumph, you can get 5 euro back to put towards the purchase of a new bra.
“It’s a tasteless stunt,” says Kledingbank Limburg (‘clothing bank’ for the poor in the southern part of the country), reminding us that underwear is the only thing you throw out and buy new. Underwear OK, but bras?
The more open-minded clothing bank in Haarlem thinks it’s a good idea because a new bra is very expensive and the used ones are sought after.
If you google around, you’ll see that tons of people do it and that it’s pretty common. Or they get creative and stuff them with plants.
(Link: fashionunited.nl, via bright.nl, photo: ecollo.com)
June 19, 2009
It’s tough enough having to deal with this item of clothing that crawled back out of the gym and came back on to the streets, but now you can have cool leggings with nasty Dutch words on them like ‘kut’ (cunt, used as an exclamation like shit!) and ‘lul’ (dick, used more like dickhead, although they have words for that, too). Brazilian-born Amsterdam-based designer Bea Correa of Mind What You Wear has leggings and other trendy items like ‘skorts’ (a skirt and shorts combo), wool hats for penisses, and fake Louis Vuitton bags that were pulled off the market after LV got legally upset with her.
(Link: bright.nl, Photo: Mind What You Wear)
June 14, 2009
Last Friday, 12 June, under the banner of ‘Sustainability and Africa’, the Delft University of Technology welcomed former President of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize winner, F.W. de Klerk (in the middle), who was instrumental in brokering the end of Apartheid. He told the small audience, “even though I have been in government very long, don’t trust the government too much”.
De Klerk was invited to the Netherlands by the Amsterdam-based KidsRights foundation, a joint founder of the ‘Plakkies’ slipper initiative, a successful venture started by two Delft University of Technology students. Like some Dutch people in this video, I didn’t think much of these slippers, but with some background information, not just some uppity Afrikaans advert, it made more sense.
Designed by Michel Boerrigter, plakkies (Afrikaans for ‘slippers’), are made of used car tyres and were made hip and trendy for the ‘Western market’, with South African children drawing the designs that go on them. The profit goes towards a good cause and the business employs 70 people. The only disadvantage is that they do smell of used car tyres when you first buy them, but Boerrigter reassures people that this extra charm disappears quickly enough.
Tags: Delft University of Technology, KidsRights, plakkies, South Africa, Sustainability, TU Delft
June 12, 2009
Two and a half years ago Dénis van Vliet was fined 170 euro for wearing a T-shirt that read ‘corrupt’, with the ‘o’ logo of the Dutch police. He fought the fine in court and the winner is… the police.
Van Vliet was stopped by two policemen who were offended by the T-shirt. Van Vliet’s lawyer argued that there are many ways to intepret the T-shirt and that if the police are so easily offended, it goes to show how little power they actually exude. (The Dutch police ‘just talk’ to people who do ‘bad things’ and come off like nice old ladies scolding a puppy for peeing on the carpet.)
Oddly enough in a similar case, someone wore a T-shirt that read ‘poep’ (‘shit’), with the police ‘o’ logo and the courts dismissed it.
In court, the lawyer pulled out a baseball cap and T-shirt worn by the bomb squad with the words ‘kort lontje’ (‘short fuse’), saying that the cops can laugh at their own jokes, but not at other people’s.
I’m waiting for a list of things we can and can’t have on a T-shirt, so we can add that to the war on fun being waged in the Netherlands.
(Link: revu.nl, Photo shirtjes.nu)
Tags: court case, police, T-shirts
June 4, 2009
We’ve all heard men and women drive and read maps differently (both have their faults) and that despite all the business talent out there, gagdets are still mostly marketed to men. When electronic products are aimed at women, oblivious marketing people make the thing pink and call it a day.
Dutch GPS brand TomTom decided to jump on the marketing to women bandwagon and came up with the White Pearl, based on the TomTom ONE IQ Routes edition, but a bit different. It’s more luxurious and has ‘special content’ for women.
I’ve used a TomTom often because when I passed my Dutch driving licence this year, we had to use one as part of the exam. By the way, they axed that part of the exam, as we memorised the three routes and ignored the GPS. Basically, driving instructors all bought thousands of TomToms for nothing.
The White Pearl has a matching silk pouch that fits easily into a handbag. It has a ‘Help Me!’ menu and even tells you what lane to be in when things get hairy. The ‘special content’ includes categories that are in English in the Dutch version as well such as “Places to be seen”, “Shop ‘til you drop” and “Everyday fashion”.
The look appeals to me, no question. The content is clearly for “girly girls”, the kind that can’t even a change bike tire and wear high heels all the time. At least, that’s the very icky vibe I get from it. The special content I find insulting and useless, and I know my Dutch girlfriends will totally agree. And they’re the kind of women that drive big motorcycles, kick board of director ass and still look cocktail ready come happy hour.
Of course, the darn thing is more expensive than the regular model: 199 euro instead of about 120-150 euro, and will be available in mid-June. So I’m not sold at all, I find it insulting at first glance, but I would accept it as a gift.
And then the jokes:
– Does it feature a man’s voice that says, “Hey doll, fix your hair and let’s roll!”
– Turn right! NO THE OTHER RIGHT!
UPDATE: Marketing to women means finding out from women what they want, not guessing or letting men fill in the blanks. It remains a mystery why something so simple is so difficult to understand.
(Link and photo: rtl.nl, gadgetrider.eu)
February 5, 2009
Another well-known Dutch site about all things underground in and around Amsterdam ondergrond.tv unfortunately decided to call it quits yesterday. It seems that keeping a videoblog online took a toll on the 10 people working at it and who knows what else (time, money, etc.). Ondergrond.tv was popular among the 18 to 30 segment and was part of independent Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool.
The 495 videos made by Ondergrond.tv will remain online on their YouTube channel. We at 24oranges wish them all the best of luck in the future.
Tags: Ondergrondtv, videoblog
