Klavers van Engelen Go Minimal

Diane Vreeland said it: “Elegance is refusal.” With this in mind, it forces you to think about what is essential for a particular fashion season. It isn’t hard to pick out five Klavers van Engelen looks that you would then  spend the whole summer wearing. So what is essential about the collections Niels Klavers and Astrid van Engelen have been putting out ever since the re-launch of their label in the winter of 2007-2008? With their label’s second coming, Klavers van Engelen has gracefully swept up the 2007 Mercedes Benz Dutch Fashion Award, and have successfully matured on a commercial level without losing their inimitable artistic approach.

In short, what looks like some simple rich and delicate fabrics thrown on these women by a divine breeze, is the result of many years of hard work, processing their conceptual inspirations into unavoidable garments. We all know that ‘effortless elegance’ is hardly ever effortless - it just looks that way – but Niels Klavers and Astrid van Engelen do possess a highly contemporary fashion aesthetic without using any obvious force. Somehow the clothes don't not wish to overrule the individual wearing them, which is something more desirable now more than ever.

Hosted by The White Club in Milan for three seasons in a row Klavers van Engelen managed to rebuild confidence with former clients who by now sound more than pleased in spite of the global recession. The S/S 10 shows at The White Club however got cancelled last minute due to lack of funds, which made the duo redirect to Paris. The new collection in preparation for A/W 10-11, will now be presented in Paris this March, with a private showroom. This may be unfortunate, but as Niels and Astrid explain: “We could invest all our revenue from this collection in showing the next– a catwalk show is by far the most ideal way to present a collection - but after all those years of putting ourselves out there like that we’ve come to see it is not realistic for the moment. We’ve finally learned to act and think like a business and for now we just want to focus on steadily growing our client base and keeping them happy. They sell through very well at the moment and orders keep growing steadily. Hopefully with our new sales agent we’ll break some new grounds like the US and we’re interested to intensify our web presence. It’s great how you can trace who visited your site and a lot of that comes from the US, via blogs mostly. We do some interesting art and theatre projects as well, like this modern Orlando play by the Dutch Oostpool Company. These collaborations are very informing and energizing but they’re about all the showbiz we can deal with on the side.”