Spotted in Amsterdam: Alfonso Mendoça

During Fashion Week Amsterdam I spotted this lady with a colourful necklace. She told me that it is designed by Alfonso Mendoça, a Columbian jewellery designer. It seemed heavy but she let me touch it and it wasn't! It is hand made of dried wood.

Style & Stories will bring his designs to the Netherlands only a few weeks left!

Esther Haamke @ Amsterdam Fashion Week

Esther Haamke showed her fall/winter collection for 2016 during the 24th Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Amsterdam, named 'The Fortune Collection'.

Esther Haamke's collection was all about glamorous street wear. It is a humorous take on the materialistic society, playfully using casino signs, lucky charms, bright colours, glitter and full of prints, Esther's speciality is illustration and I loved the maneki-neko, the lucky cat.

The show was cheerful leaving the guest with a smile, especially lucky number 179!

About the designer
Esther Haamke is an Amsterdam based fashion designer who launched her label end of January 2015 with the collection ‘Snake Preview’. After her studies in illustration, she went to Antwerp to study fashion design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Nevertheless illustration stays one of the most important things in her work and colourful prints are the main ingredient in her collections. Esther Haamke is streetwear with a bit of sparkle, it is fresh and playful with a humorous touch. With her collections she wants to bring more fun and positivity in the streets.

Text Source: Esther Haamke

Happy Andrada @ Amsterdam Fashion Week

Happy Andrada, a Filipino fashion designer, presented her futuristic collection during the 24th Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Amsterdam.

With her collection she showed her vision of the future with new cuts and origami folds. She used inorganic materials to create something surreal.

In her designs we saw the use of many different kind of materials like abaca lace, silk dupioni, denim, organza and charmeuse, her color palette was dark. Laser cuts, appliqués braiding and beads on tights were impressive.

Anbasja Blanken @ Amsterdam Fashion Week

Anbasja Blanken debuts on the 24th Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Amsterdam with her Day Dreamed collection inspired by a poem by English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,

From the seas and the streams;

I bear light shade for the leaves when laid

In their noonday dreams.

From my wings are shaken the dews that waken

The sweet buds every one,

When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,

As she dances about the sun.

I wield the flail of the lashing hail,

And whiten the green plains under,

And then again I dissolve it in rain,

And laugh as I pass in thunder.

(The Cloud by Percy Bysshe Shelley)

Besides the poetic beauty, pure femininity is an element of importance in the creations of Anbasja Blanken.

Her collection is romantic and soft as the poem. With knee-length skirts and flowy long dresses, satin trousers, tops and shirts with feminine curves and accents to the waist.

Shades of nude and pastels, rich shiny jacquard woven fabrics, flower prints and embroidery all to see the craftsmanship of the debuting designer, giving us a feeling of elegance and luxury, leaving us with a promise for future collections.

A designer to watch!

Shoe design by Janine van den Bosch