Viktor & Rolf: Fashion Artists 25 Years
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the luxury Amsterdam fashion house Viktor&Rolf, the Kunsthal Rotterdam, in collaboration with the designers and the Canadian curator Thierry-Maxime Loriot, have organized a huge retrospective exhibition. The exhibition examines the elements that make the designers unique in today’s fashion and art world, and presents their radical interpretation of ‘wearable art’.
Throughout their illustrious career, Viktor&Rolf have continuously been pushing the boundaries between art and fashion and their designs straddle the divide between romanticism and rebellion, exuberance and restraint, classicism and conceptualism. The 78 works from the haute couture collections of Viktor&Rolf provide an insight into their idiosyncratic and conceptual approach where they do not shy away from criticising the fashion industry that they are very much part of themselves.
“This is not a chronological exhibition,” comments exhibition curator Loriot. “It’s a story of friendship and creativity. It is important to understand the value of heritage and the beauty and avant-garde that they have brought to haute couture. They have invented new techniques and use fabrics that aren’t meant for fashion.”
It took Viktor&Rolf five years to breakthrough – they didn’t sit in the conventional fashion scene and it was the art world that embraced their creativity.
“We were too far removed from what we wanted to do – which was making fashion,” comments Rolf. “So we presented our own haute couture catwalk shows and that is how it all started.”
Viktor adds: “The ‘Atomic Bombshell’ show was important but the ‘Russian Doll’ show was the breakthrough – but, it was a risk… dressing a girl on stage with nine dresses and calling it a ‘fashion show’!”
This risk paid off and opened the doors to a new world of conceptual fashion design. The exhibition is a dialogue of 25 years of design collaboration. “We’re not very stylistic designers,” says Viktor. “We don’t have an image that will translate into a collection. Our emotions are a starting point – it’s like therapy”.
The exhibition sees collections from their unique designs, stunning creations from their fashion shows and an exhibition that includes 25 handmade examples from the ‘Dolls’ series which consists of replicas of antique dolls dressed in some of the fashion artists’ most iconic designs.
For a luxury visit to the exhibition and an overnight stay in the city check out ‘The Viktor&Rolf VIP arrangement’ at the 5 star hotel Mainport. The offer includes an overnight stay in a City XL room, entrance to the Kunsthal ‘Viktor&Rolf: Fashion Artists 25 Years’, a signed catalogue of Viktor&Rolf, a poster, champagne breakfast buffer, access to the spa, swimming pool and fitness centre and free WiFi throughout the hotel. The offer is 144.50e per night until the 30th September. Book via Mainport hotel here.
