WDKA Graduation Festival

WDKA Fashion Show Review by Daisy Richelle Post, Images by Peter Stigter,
Featured designers: Raoel Amier, Ilona Putkaradze and Nadja Wering.

Note: The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of RetoxMagazine.com

Willem de Kooning Academy Graduation Festival

THE Graduate Fashion Show of the Netherlands

From the 29th of June till the 6th of July, the annual graduation festival of the Willem de Kooning academy was held in one of the old warehouses of Rotterdam. The warehouse proved to be the perfect location for the festival. The building has such an industrial and innovative flair to it, it would be wrong to present anything but new and edgy there. Luckily, during the festival, all was new, edgy, exiting and above all, so creative. Several art and graphic design exhibitions were organized. In addition, there was a small film festival where the film production graduates showed their skills in a series of short films. Lots of creativity thus, however, the creme-de-la-creme of the graduation festival was, by far, the fashion show. Sold out weeks before, it is the event in the Netherlands to scout upcoming fashion talents. Therefore, the audience is every year filled with the most important people of the Dutch and international fashion world.

The Best of the WDKA Graduates

This year, 17 graduates presented their work and the catwalk featured 17 collections of the class of 2012 plus a selection of designs by students of the first three years. The Best of the WDKA Graduates, Raoel Amier, Ilona Putkaradze and Nadja Wering, presented best work seen in the last three years and with the presentation of different fashion designers, the fashion show proved to be very diverse; there were very feminine creations, largely inspired by flowers which were contrasted by gothic-like creations for men.

Feminine and gothic creations were presented next to each other, WDKA Graduate Fashion Show 2012.

Earthly Creations

One of the designers decided to give her collection a more earthly feel, incorporating soft, neutral colours into her work. However, there were also some silver elements in the collection, leading to an interesting combination of both earthly and spacey elements. The occasional red splash in the outfit, whether it were red shoes with the one outfit, or a red scarf with the other, gave the neutral collection contrast thus giving the collection a strong, powerful feel to it. All together, the fashion show was a huge success and I now wait in anticipation to see which of the wonderful upcoming fashion designers will be presented next year.

Soft, neutral colours with an earthly feeling, WDKA Graduate Fashion Show 2012.