Style and Stereopsis with Pauline van Dongen
Photo: Mike Nicolaassen
It was in the midst of a flurry of clothing changes, makeup artists, and a slightly disheveled runway producer that I first met Dutch designer Pauline van Dongen. Across a sea of models and crew at Vancouver Fashion Week earlier this year, Pauline stood, checking to see if the cuts and style of her dress matched her model. With a quick nod, the model was gone and another appeared in front of her so quickly that I almost missed the change. At the age of 24, Pauline van Dongen had the confidence of a designer twice her age, never letting the stress of her first international show get to her.
Stereopsis by Pauline van Dongen was one of the most unique fashion experiences of 2011. The Fall and Winter collection of Stereopsis was born out of a process by which, as described on paulinevandongen.nl, “the brain exploits the parallax due to the different views from the eye to gain depth perception and estimate distances to objects.” Creatively, Stereopsis combines elegance with incredible textures and eye-catching designs.
Pauline van Dongen is one of the most exciting designers to come out of Europe in last year. Fearless yet intelligent and incredibly perceptive, van Dongen knows when to push the envelope with her creations, that when inspiration hits, you have to go with the creative flow.
THE DEADBOLT: Can you talk a little bit more about your inspiration behind this collection?
PAULINE VAN DONGEN: Yes, of course. Well, I have always been very fascinated by the relation between humans and their surroundings, the way they move in surroundings and the way they act and behave in it. My previous collection, I actually researched the space between the body and the clothing. With this collection, Stereopsis, I wanted to take it a step further and research the space itself.
I asked questions to myself like, “How do we see space?” and “How do we perceive depths?” and “How does light influence our way of seeing two dimensional or three dimensional objects?” So that’s something that I implemented in my work. I started creating shapes on the doll because I worked directly on the mannequin with certain fabrics and I tried to create this effect of illusion. It’s actually very three dimensional, but it’s human light and space actually.
Photo: Mike Nicolaassen
THE DEADBOLT: So you mention the research. It’s interesting just the amount of time you put into developing the type of collection you want to make.
VAN DONGEN: Yes, in that sense I think my work is very conceptual. It’s very based on this abstract concept. In the beginning, that’s often hard to explain when I am just starting out with it. At a certain point it translates into some kind official aesthetic around the body and then that is the point where it actually becomes the clothing instead of just an idea.
THE DEADBOLT: Where does your creative inspiration come from to work with the materials that you use?
VAN DONGEN: Well, I am often very inspired by different artists. For instance, for this collection, the work of James Turrell was very inspiring. He works a lot with light in his work, and also with the idea of illusion, creating illusions. The materials, they come from a certain curiosity I have. I really like to work with unconventional materials and like to explore and see how I can work them into a garment and how I can finish them.
For instance, the wood fiber material that’s in a lot of garments in this collection, it’s something that’s been used for hat and I found it in this very small store, like in a little village in Holland. I just found it very interesting the way it acts. It’s very organic and very sculptural and that’s how I started working with it around the body and tried it in different garments.
Also for this collection, I fused a laser-cutter and then started laser-cutting different silks and leathers in patterns, and then afterwards reassembled all these different patterns together to create a three dimensional structure. So yeah, the experiment’s very important in my work.
THE DEADBOLT: You use unconventional fabrics and materials, which can be a bit of risky venture as a new designer. How would you encourage other designers to make that leap as well?
Photo: Mike Nicolaassen
VAN DONGEN: I think you shouldn’t force it. If it’s something that comes to you naturally, then its something that you can really use and make something a strong feature in your work, because I think it can really have a great effect during a show. But you should know how to work with it and make it a real garment in the end. It’s not like just use some weird material and it becomes fashion. That’s not the case, I think. You should really think of how you can implement it in a real wearable garment. It should be worn in a sense and not just trying weird stuff.
THE DEADBOLT: Can you talk about the importance of presentation when a designer releases a collection?
VAN DONGEN: It’s very important. You really have to think of the whole image. I mean, there are also a lot of designers that don’t do shoes, of course, but still you really have to think about how you style your collection and how you present it. When I was in school, they really focused on how you do your photography and how it matches with your image of your label. So this is a very big important point.
But again, I think it’s very personal. I like to express my vision in other ways as well. I really like to do video because it really expresses an emotion and an atmosphere next to the atmosphere of the clothes as well.
To learn more about Pauline van Dongen and Stereopsis, head to paulinevandongen.nl.
