Dutch designer Ronald van der Kemp spent eight formative years in New York in the ’90s. Bill Blass taught him that eveningwear didn’t need to be stuffy, and Barneys’s Gene Pressman, for whom he designed a private label collection, didn’t have any rules at all. Back in New York for a show today at St. Mark’s Church on the Bowery, it was clear that van der Kemp had taken those decades-old lessons to heart.
In fact, they’ve been informing his eponymous label since its start a decade ago. The concept, in simplest terms, is upcycled couture. He uses materials he’s accumulated over the years or bit and bobs he finds at markets and whips them up into one-off creations, often with a flair that would resonate with the Paris greats of the 1980s: Saint Laurent, Lacroix, Ungaro. When he started, his business model was almost unheard of. It’s still all too rare to see designers making use of the mountains of off-cuts and old rolls of fabric that fill warehouses they wouldn’t like their customers to know about.
In addition to celebrating his own 10-year milestone, van der Kemp hopes his presence in New York will show American brands that there’s an alternative way: “I can very proudly say that we have a sustainable business in every single way,” he said backstage. “I can support myself. We can do a show. We have a great team around us, we’re all happy to do what we’re doing. I hope we have an impact, and I hope the impact gets bigger and bigger.” At this, van der Kemp pumped his fist.
The clothes were certainly designed to get people’s attention: a bustier dress with a pleated detail at the waist evoking the Statue of Liberty’s haloed crown; an “everything-and-the-kitchen-sink” bolero encrusted with gold-dipped ceramics and other odds-and-ends; a coat of many patterns, including cheetah, zebra, and peacock feathers; an evening gown with a thrifted skirt that looked like a Fornasetti print. And American flags—many flags, cut up and patch-worked onto rehabbed vintage jeans, a pair for each model as they came out for their finale.
“I’m back here and it feels great,” van der Kemp said backstage. “I think it’s a very important moment in history, also for the US. So I’m trying to give a little support for everyone to vote.” Double fist pump!
