In yesterday's post we looked at the perils and traps a fashion designer moving from traditional inspirations and costumes may fall into. Yet there are a few modern designers who are pushing the boundaries a bit with special projects that revolve around tradition, history and fashion. Among them there's Antoine Peters who recently developed a unisex design he humorously called "yak", that he based on a traditional 19th century Dutch garment.
The ingeniously folded and tightly cut female "jak" - part of the regional dress of Zeeland, a province of the Netherlands located in the south-western region - could be defined as a fitted blouse-cum-jacket. The most distinctive thing about the jak is the fact that it is made of a single uncut piece of fabric folded and stitched entirely, leaving no textile to waste.
Peters first examined an original garment closely; he then deconstructed it and studied its history, visiting also Mrs. Vos, a 91-year-old craftswoman and master in starching and pleating Dutch caps and garments. Being made of just one piece of uncut fabric, the original jacket can actually be taken apart again and again, a feature that doesn't make it extremely comfortable. Mrs. Vos was indeed slightly puzzled about the project stating in a press release "I would not know why you would still like to make or wear a jak…"
Yet the ever positive Peters was keen on reinventing it not only for the historical and traditional meanings behind this garment, but for sustainability reasons. As he explained in a press release: "We become aware of the (negative) effects of consumerism more and more, and combat them by means of sustainability and transparency. The world has become smaller and the stories behind our utensils are more important. The yak overflows with these stories."
Fascinated by the folding method - a technique that has not changed in 200 years and that he found outstanding - Peters decided to make the invisible folding structure visible and to transfer it on a jumper. He therefore analysed and magnified the folding lines, exaggerating them and making the seams - which are usually hidden inside the jak - aesthetically present.
The final result was the unisex "yaksweater" for which Peters created a "jaktrui", a specially developed reversible jacquard. Since every centimetre is used, the yaksweater guarantees no waste and, as the seam allowances are not cut away, the garment is stitched together extra firmly.
The design is also available in its most basic unfinished form, for all those fashionistas interested in coming up with their own craft project or experimenting a bit with knitwear. Wearers will have to follow the graphic lines indicating where they have to fold the sweater to put it together by themselves and learn in this way the craft of yak folding.
Peters conceived the sweater as a time capsule, with the wearers physically carrying on themselves a piece of history. "You may call this project transnational, since a traditional piece was the starting point, but I used it to create something that has no borders at all", the Dutch designer told Irenebrination via email. "It’s indeed interesting to see how the project was picked up by very local media and by national and international fashion and art outlets as well. The coolest thing that happened, though, was seeing not just young hipsters, but also a local woman in her sixties buying the sweater! It was fantastic seeing that happening in front of my eyes!"
The sweater was unveiled in mid-June at the Zeeuws Museum with an installation that combined the garment and the knitted fabric in a continuous form. The zigzagging lines formed by the installation (see first image in this post) hint at themes such as history, traditions, contemporary fashion and aesthetic significance.
The installation is part of "Handwerk" (on display until May 29th 2016), an initiative launched by the Zeeuws Museum that called designers and textile academies and asked them to explore traditional crafts and techniques with specialist artisans and craftspeople (Mrs. Vos for example introduced Peters and the students of the Master Tailoring Course to the techniques behind starching and pleating caps and garments).
The museum will also be opening a special Handwerkplaats, where visitors can try out the various crafts and techniques themselves. Dutch speakers can instead discover more about the adventurous design process Antoine Peters went through to create his "yak" in the following documentary.
Image credits for this post
All images courtesy Antoine Peters.
Photography by Marc Deurloo.
Make-up and hair by Ellen van Exter.
Model Bo at Modelution.
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