All pictures by me
Last Sunday I visited the show of Verena Michels || Zyanya Keizer. I decided to make two seperate posts about it, because each designer had such a different style so I felt like doing this more eloborated. Also, I want to say that Verena Michels is such a lovely person. Read further for more about this collection..
Verena Michels based this collection on her graduation project called Trümmerfrau. After graduation, she moved to Berlin in February 2014.She interned at BLESS Berlin and extended her collection with new pieces. The concept started with postwar Germany and its society and fashion. There were mostly women (so called women of the shreds) left after World war 2 and they had to be re-construct the cities after the bombarding. There was poverty and hardship, and they had to come up with creative clothing choices due to the lack of materials and textiles. So they used marine beddings to make elegant dresses, pillow cases to make casual t-shirts and rubber tires for solid shoe soles.. The main material used in Verena's collection is wool. The material she created from wool thread is handmade and with different densities. It can be suitable as innter and outer wear. The wool has been bought from bankrupt companies. The yarns come in high quality, but they are not available in all colours or qualities, they come over production. Verena Michels consciously chose for this limitation, so the consumer could enjoy high quality for a reasonable price. She also used second hand leather, army fabrics and cotton as well as reflective textile that contrasts with the crafted wool textiles.
The show started in an odd way. In stead of music whilst the first model started walking up onto the runway, it was all quiet and the model started saying a poem in German. This was because Verena was inspired by the poem "Inventur" by Günter Eich. It is written from the persperctive of a person in postwar Germany who counts and names all the few materials he has got left, and gives them a new function. This is what she actually does in her collection. She reavuluate materials and consumption and uses a limitation as a trigger for creativity. Verena used carpets and turned them into bags and cut up a military tent and made trousers, as well as using wool yarn but did not knit it. Instead, she invented a technique to stitch it to each other, This was all inspired from a poem and I have a lot of admiration for her clever, sympathic and humane brain.
Who would think this collection had so much draught and a detailed meaning. I am excited of what Verena will bring us in the future and I see a big career coming up for this wonderful female! The desins proved that you do not necesarily need expensive materials, but if you think creative you can come up with the best designs.