One for all, all for Jan

Yesterday, the normally strictly closed doors of the residence at the Dutch embassy in Paris opened for a very esteemed guest: Kan Taminiau. The favourite designer of our queen gave his collection presentation and only a select number of guests were allowed to be present. I saw green with envy when my friend Sophia Tienstra of 101 Media Strategies (here and here our Look of The Day) told me she was one of the lucky few. I just had to know more about it and so I rang her this morning for some inside information.

“My alarm clock went off at 04:45, and together with my employer Arma-leder I took the Thalys to Paris. Upon arrival at the embassy, we were properly welcomed and escorted to the room in which the presentation would take place. By the way, did you know that it was here that they filmed Intouchable? In the presentation room we were placed in a circle on white chairs. There were several groups who got to see the collection that day, and per group only 30 to 40 people were present, so it was very intimate.

I was surrounded by very beautiful women, all of age. I think they were mostly clients. Those incredibly stylish, and rather well-to-do women in impressive couture outfits, women a bit like Máxima. Humberto Tan was also there accompanying his wife.

The presentation was a real presentation, rather than a show. Jan stood in the room and explained what the idea behind certain looks, the materials and techniques that were used, and allowed the audience to ask questions of express remarks. So quite a lot of interaction compared to how things usually are. He also explained which sections could be altered to match someone’s taste. Some perhaps thought that a specific dress was a bit too revealing, and he’d explain that he could easily turn it into something more concealing. What I liked best was to see how his 3D mind worked. As in, something that looks like a jacket and skirt from the front though it’s actually one piece when the model turns around and shows the back. Something else I really liked was a big leather jacket, inspired on a jacket that my grandmother used to wear.”

Couture is all in the details, Jan wrote in a letter welcoming the guests. “I liked that the most,” Sophia says. “The art of creating all those different layers, it was true craftsmanship. Everything taken together lasted about an hour, and it was much more like an exhibition than a show. A couple hours layer I went back to Amsterdam by train, it was only a flash visit.

But honestly, I liked the dresses so much that if I’m ever getting married, it’ll most certainly happen in a dress from Jan.”

Well Fie, can I borrow that dress afterwards?