It’s easy to understand why Dutch twin sisters Riet and Truus Spijkers have an ongoing fascination with the 1920s: this decade brought bold changes in society and during these years women rebelled to their more conventional roles and radically changed their lifestyles.
For their new collection, recently presented at Milan’s White Club, the inseparable twin sisters - graduates of the Arnhem Academy of Art and with an MA from the Fashion Institute Arhem - also looked at another muse, American writer and poet Dorothy Parker.
Her romantic nature, strength, integrity and political views inspired them and led them to create a feminine collection characterised by bold combinations of colours, from purple and blue to green and black, with a few skin tones.
Following Parker’s statement “Take care of luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves,” Riet and Truus opted for luxurious materials, such as satin and double woven satin, silk georgette, velvet, wool ottoman, mohair and wool bouclé, often combining two fabrics with different weights in the same outfit to create striking effects.
There was also an emphasis on details, from ruffles and flounces to flower-shaped cut out motifs around the necklines that called to mind the shapes of Art Deco jewels. Light turbans that perfectly matched the outfits and footwear created in collaboration with Dutch master of shoe design Jan Jansen and produced by Gucci completed the looks of Spijkers en Spijkers’s new collection.
Question: You often use the 1920s as an inspiration, what fascinates you about this decade?
Truus Spijkers: A lot happened in that era, art and design changed for example, but the most important thing was that women radically transformed themselves, becoming more independent. They started cutting their hair, drinking and smoking, and showed how they had personality and a mind of their own, they empowered themselves. For this new collection we combined our fascination with this decade with Dorothy Parker and her strong and outspoken words.
Q: Did you find exciting showcasing at Milan’s White Club?
TS: This was the first time we went to Milan. It was very exciting but we were a bit scared since we were used to showcasing our collections in other places such as London.
Q: How do you and Riet approach working on a new collection and do you feel working together helps you complementing each other?
TS: We usually start with gathering ideas for a new collection, then we select a theme out of the information we have collected and start sketching. We both do that and then we pass on selecting the sketches and putting together a collection. I usually work on the fabrics, the colours and the general look and Riet focuses on the details and she also does the pattern-cutting. We have different skills, so, yes, I think we complement each other very well.
Q: You have two very special heroines, Elsa Schiaparelli and Madeleine Vionnet, in which ways do they inspire you?
TS: We always say that I’m the painter and Riet is the sculptor and that Vionnet stands for Riet’s quality and Schiaparelli stands for my quality, as I don’t think that Schiaparelli was about details, she was about the overall image of the clothes, and she was also interested in other aspects such as marketing, though she was very skilful.
Q: How would you define your style?
TS: Very feminine and colourful. We will never make a big black collection I think and we work a lot with graphic detailing, so we use a lot of colour blocking and play with different colours and fabrics all the time.
Q: This collection sparked a brand new and exciting collaboration for you, can you tell us more about it?
TS: We designed our shoes in collaboration with Jan Jansen, the Dutch footwear designer. He made the shoes for this collection and we are really happy with the final results. He’s really interesting as a designer and he’s very inspiring as a person, he’s definitely all about shoes! We had an idea, we chose the colours and the materials and we discussed them with Jan and he developed our designs. I think we are going to develop more collaborations such as this one and maybe one day also launch an accessory line, as, step by step, we want to build a proper label.
Q: Do you think it is difficult for young designers to emerge in the Netherlands?
TS: I think it is quite difficult because we don’t have a real fashion history. Traditional clothes are very important on an artistic, cultural and historical level, but fashion is something still relatively new in Holland and it’s still a sort of work-in-progress process, though we have people like Viktor & Rolf who managed to step out of our fashion scene and become really big, and we also have a lot of talented designers working for big fashion houses abroad.
Images by Aldo Castoldi for Milan's White Club.
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