January 31, 2009
After Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany, a big chunk of Dutch pride in the form of a HEMA store has recently opened in Paris. Apparently, it is the store Dutch expats miss the most. The HEMA is kind of the French equivalent of the Monoprix (‘single price’ store), but with more Dutch goodies. It looks here in the video (Dutch with some French) more like the Casino stores and they do sell stroopwafels and “bonbons hollandais” (Dutch sweets), but no smoked sausage.
(Tip: Rachel, Link: vk.tv)
December 2, 2008
A man got arrested last Sunday after he kept his socks on for sex. The prostitute at the Doubletstraat in The Hague whose services he was availing himself of thought his behaviour was strange and asked him about it—she thought maybe he had cold feet. The man admitted that he was carrying a valuable load of drugs in his socks, and even offered to sell some of it to his supplier of sex. Instead the woman called out to two police officers who were passing through the street and who in turn arrested the man and discovered that indeed, he had hidden “229 drug balls, 32 pony packs cocaine and 2 bags of marijuana” in his socks, according to the Telegraaf (Dutch).
Photo by Lauren Weinhold, some rights reserved. Boy is there a lot of sock porn on Flickr.
Tags: drugs, prostitution, socks
November 25, 2008
Today “The House of Viktor & Rolf” opens in Centraal Museum in Utrecht, a retrospective exhibition of Dutch fashion design duo Viktor & Rolf. Apart from presenting many of the pieces the prolific pair produced in the past, the exhibition also contains a huge doll house with dolls dressed in the deft duo’s drag. The dolls wear exact miniature replicas of the original looks “as presented back then at the shows in Paris.”
According to RTL Nieuws (video, Dutch), the doll house took two years to complete. The clothing for some of the dolls took more time to make than the original designs. The house + dolls cost 1.7 million euro, but after the exhibition has completed its tour of Utrecht and New York, the museum can have it for the bargain basement price of … 1 million euro.
In 1998 Centraal Museum was the first museum to buy designs from Viktor & Rolf. Since then the museum has been keeping track of the duo by buying a representative piece from almost every collection. Currently, the museum owns 29 pieces by Viktor & Rolf, a large part of which will be shown at the exhibition.
The exhibition runs from today till February 8.
Photo by Centraal Museum / Peter Stigter, used with permission.
Tags: dolls, Victor & Rolf, Viktor & Rolf
October 15, 2008
The Dutch version of TimeOut Amsterdam won’t be the only new magazine to be launched in January 2009, as there’ll also be Glamsterdam. Glamsterdam will be a bi-monthly glossy magazine for “Amsterdam and its residents”. The content will be decided upon by locals together with an editorial staff. The goal is to portray the creativity of residents of Amsterdam (‘Amsterdammers’). Every edition will feature articles and reports of events and parties, music and film, and all that jazz.
Contrary to TimeOut, Glamsterdam will be free and have a print run of 40,000 copies. There sure won’t be a lack of anything to read in January 2009.
(Link: adformatie.nl)
Tags: Amsterdam, Glamsterdam, magazine
August 8, 2008
Lingerie designer Marlies Dekkers won a Contours International Lingerie Award (CILA) in the category Maternity last Monday with her “Maternity Collection,” three lingerie sets for mothers with babies. The nursing bras have broad shoulder straps and cups that can be opened, and a “milk marker” made from black satin ribbon to indicate which breast was last used to feed. The jury of this third installment of the CILAs particularly liked the Starlet Nursing Bra (see photo) for its combination of comfort and style.
The Oosterhout-born designer got the idea of a maternity line when several of her pregnant friends asked for a sexy yet comfortable nursing bra. Last year Dekkers also won a CILA, in the category Best Fashion Lingerie.
Photo: marliesdekkers.com. Via Knack.be (Dutch).
Tags: breast feeding, Lingerie, Noord-Brabant
April 19, 2008
Reverse graffiti is a delightfully provocative art form that works by selectively cleaning the grime off a city’s walls and streets (and by writing “clean me” on the back of vans). It has city governments the world over racking their brains over how to prosecute the perpetrators—how are you going to punish the people that clean your city for you? But officials need not worry much longer because they’re getting help from an unlikely source: the business world. The Dutch version of women’s magazine Elle has started a reverse graffiti campaign to advertise its wares. Surely no self-respecting artist will touch reverse graffiti now that it has been tainted by commercialism?
Elle’s “artists”—in a presumed rush to get as much work done as possible—are using stencils and pressure washers to clean parts of the pavement.
Photos: stills from Elle’s promotional video. See also: reverse graffiti by Moose (UK) and by Alexandre Orion (Brasil). Via Dagelinks (Dutch).
Tags: advertising, graffiti, magazines
December 12, 2007
Have you seen this man?
A tiny village in Groningen called ‘t Zand has been plagued by a pyromaniac since August this year. Recently, the police revealed that the arsonist had used a Bob the Builder sock during a failed attempt: they believe the sock was placed in such a way that it should lead the fire to other inflammable material. The fire petered out before it could reach that otherwise unspecified material, according to daily Dagblad van het Noorden (Dutch). The police know that the sock was made in 1993, and sold in the Netherlands, but they would like you to contact them if you have any further information about the alleged sock.
Tags: arson, Bob the Builder, Groningen, pyromanics, socks, toys
December 11, 2007
Daily Algemeen Dagblad reports (Dutch) that the number of old-timers in the Netherlands has doubled in seven years, with cars going from 121,000 in 2000 to 204,000 in 2007. The amount of classic motorcycles has risen even more, almost tripling from 32,000 to 94,000. Old-timers are defined as cars that are more than 25 years old.
A number of experts interviewed came up with different reasons to explain this rise. One of them suggested that it may have to do with the increased quality of cars and motorcycles; they last longer. Another thought it might have to do with taxes; owners of old-timers don’t have to pay road tax. A third guessed that the aging population may have to do with it; old people with money buying cars to be seen with.
Link to statistics. Via Telegravin (Dutch).
Tags: driving, oldtimers, pensioners, statistics, taxes
November 22, 2007
Doutzen Kroes, known as a L’Oréal and Victoria’s Secret model, has been asked to use her pretty face to make the Frisian language even more attractive.
The 22-year-old top model will be playing a major role in the campaign ‘Praat mar Frysk’ (roughly, ‘Just speak Frisian’) for the province of Friesland, which will be launched next week in Tytsjerksteradiel, according to news website Wâldnet. Doutzen was asked because she can show that she comes from Friesland and speaks Frisian ‘beautifully’. The goal of the campaign is to make Frisians aware of their language. Only about 2% of the Dutch population speaks it. And then a few years back, there was that nice duo Twarres who scored an international hit with their song ‘Wêr Bisto’, which is in West Frisian (the same Frisian I’m on about, as the Germans and Danish have their varieties).
For the folks who thought Dutch was the only official language of the Netherlands, there is also Frisian as well as the regional languages of Dutch Low Saxon and Limburgish.
(Link: reclamewereld.blog.nl)
Tags: Doutzen Kroes, Friesland, Frisian, languages
July 24, 2007
During the Haute Couture week AltaRoma in Rome, Addy van den Krommenacker won the award of best new designer 2007, which will be handed out in September 2007 in Taormina, Sicily. He is apparently thrilled about it. For his theme ‘A Tribute To The Academy Awards’ Addy was inspired by films and great actresses.
(Link: blik op nieuws, via Omroep Brabant)
