2013
LOVE FCK YEAH
2013
When I came up with the idea for this collection I just ended a nine-year period of my life. A period in which I had shared joy and sorrows with a partner. When I could leave my grief behind I went to a local tattoo artist. I let him tattoo the word ‘love’ across my chest. It was then I realized it was the love of my family and friends, and the love for myself and my work that strengthened me.
Love is a very narrow and broad notion simultaneously. It can be used in so many different contexts, but it’s meaning always stays the same. Love is about passion, kinship and involvement. I can imagine some people find love a hustle. All those passionate feelings, maybe life would be easier without them. Personally, I like it, because I enjoy being involved and of course passion is my incentive.
Above all, I find love cool. What should we do without something to occupy us? I always enjoy talking about the people and things I love.That’s why I wanted to enforce the term ‘love’ with the clause ‘Fuck yeah’.
After deciding to take love as the starting point for the collection, accidentally I found a new love, with all the associated passionate feelings.This side of love has found it’s place in the new collection too.
Distinctive for this collection is the enormous variety of exclusive prints. On the one hand it’s a sweet, and on the other hand a rebellious collection with raw edges. Punk-esthetic is an important influence and gives the collection a dark touch.
Of course love isn’t always just fun, it can be a “pain in the ass” too. The heart, as a metaphor for love, is widely represented in the collection, in the print with my personal icons for example. This print appears in different ways throughout the collection and parts of it have been used to create fabric brooches, which I’ve been developing for years, to give them a new layer, this time shaped as a heart, with an icon from contemporary and past pop culture on it.
Influence from sportswear can be found in the collection as well, with a series of sportive looking variations on eighties vinyl stickers and prints inspired by self-written marathon shirts. Off course sexuality is also a big part of love’s universe, so that also found its place in the collection
The masks that accompany this collection have been developed by designer Ester de Groot, who has been a good friend and a freelance designer for Bas Kosters Studio for years.
