Happy 2013!

Hey hey hey,

First of all, I want to wish you a HAPPY NEWYEAR! 2013 didn’t started that great for me, but hopefully it gets better. It will if I post more on my blog!

I’ve had a rough time with my school before summer, but it all ended well. I’m on the right track and hopefully I can focus more on my blog again if I won’t focus on the unimportant stuff.

SO starting this year positive, let’s show all of the great highlights of my portfolio, fashion and a little bit of my life in 2012.

January:
The big thing in the Dutch fashion world happened in this month is the fresh and surprising collection of my school’s brand iNDiViDUALS called ‘DUALS’. I went to the show on fashion week and it wow’ed me so hard. It made me proud to study on this talented school.

February:
This highlight is also about my school AMFI. It was the Triptiek Week. Three weeks hard-working on a collection with a team of twenty people! We had the highest grade and we are enormously happy about it. If you want to see our collection, click here to view it again.

March:
Being in a down period I finally had some good news to hear! Lady Gaga, one of my biggest idols and big inspiration for me announced that she came to Amsterdam with her Born This Way Ball tour. Lots of people were interested in what she would wear on September 17 AND 18. She sold out the first day in 15 minutes! That’s my girl!

April:
And we’re back to my portfolio work again. I had another show for my school again. And it was all about handicraft. I focused on smocking and sew on beading by HAND and it all looked very beautiful. It was worth making all that handwork.

May & June:
That was the month my beautiful macbook broke, so I had no special post to show you unfortunately and so it was in the next month.

July:
Fashionweek was all starting again but unlucky me had no time to go to the show. I had to work hard for keep staying at AMFI, and I still do! But I’ve been to the Modefabriek, where they had a special stand for the young Dutch talent of now. Though I missed the area where all the young talented designers all over the world came to show us their work. Here in Holland, we’re kind of minimum (besides Bas Kosters). But for the rest it keeps on growing.

August:
I went to London with my dad for some inspiring views and some good shopping. Though because of health I couldn’t walk that much in the beginning of my trip. But after all, I had an amazing time over there! I also got my Lady Gaga Fame perfume over there; It should’ve been published in the beginning of September, but already purchased it in Harrod’s London!

September:
The week of all good things. Starting my journey at AMFI again and of course Lady Gaga arrived in the Netherlands. I had an amazing time at her show, meeting some great fans and made new friends. I didn’t go backstage, but it was all right. I had a blast that night. But without knowing that I would meet her two days later in front of her hotel! Click here to watch the film of me meeting gaga (skip to 1:28 to see her turn around and walk to me). Yeah I know, a bit obsessed. But hey, that’s me!

October:
Well not sure what to think about this month, but I don’t have anything to say what was good on this month. It was just a good month haha!

November:
Another highlight at my school! We passed our collection book with the highest grade! It was hard working, but so worth it. We are still working on the new season of the street wear brand of Burberry, called Burberry Clash. It’s not official, but we are a reality school so we learn how it’s in real business.

December:
A sweet month. I started that month with a trip to the wonderful Istanbul. I had a great and Inspiring time. Visited some great places and interesting factories. So I really ended this year very well!

And hopefully more Highlights will come in 2013!

See ya!

Fashionista of the Week

Written by: Christian

Talking about extreme!

Hey Guys,

I really want put this girl in the spotlight (even though she's been already in a lot of spotlights), because this girl knows what fashion is. Even if it's not your taste, this is the real meaning of being fashionable. Ladies and Gentlemen this is freelance fashion journalist Aynouk Tan.

This woman loves texture and knows what she is wearing. It is her, and that's fashion. She thinks about every single detail and that's important if you want to call yourself fashionable.

The first time I saw her in real life was at the Amsterdam Fashion Week summer 2011. She was hosting the Vodafone Firestarters talkshow wearing a pink (fake?)fur top and some shorts with rhinestones all over, designed by Marry Me - Jimmy Paul. She had her red hair pulled to the back and on her head she had a necklace on, but now it was meant to be as a headband/tiara. Awesome! But I was wondering if she wears this just to get some attention or to show what fashion is for her. And luckily it was the last one.

Every time I see her in newspapers or on the internet my mind says 'wow'. Last week was the Amserdam Fashion Week summer edition (too bad I couldn't make it there) and she stole the show with her amazing outlandish outfits. That's the reason why she's Capitale F's Fashionista of the Week. People can say it's crazy, but it's the new fashion.

Check out some more of her looks.

Fashionista Of The Week

This guy is (sort of) the Fashionista Of The Week! I said sort of, because I only liked the jacket, for the rest it's not that extreme, but anyway.. This guy, who's probably going on holiday, wears a denim vest and with studs it says: Speed Freak. I hope that he means that he loves to be fast and not that he's addicted to a type of drug...

I can't find it in stores or on google, so he probably made it by himself of let someone fix this. Props to this guy or person who has put the studs on!

Do you have any pics with your favorite outfit? Send me an email to christian.capitalef@hotmail.com and who knows you'll be the Fashionista Of The Week!


Love (fashion),

Christian.

Fashionista of the week/month

Picture by The Sartorialist LINK

Hey guys!
This will be a new topic of my blog here: Fashionista of the week or month. Every month or week (it depends) I am going to walk down the streets of big cities in The Netherlands to find that boy or girl who inspires me the most.

But dont worry to all the people who live outside Holland, I will make some trips to cities like Antwerp or London this year. Or you can e-mail me your stylish picture and maybe you will be chosen to be the Fashionista Of The Week.

Next week will be announced the first Fashionista so if you want, send in your picture to christian.capitalef@hotmail.com (No, it's not my personal e-mail adress ;) )


Good luck!

I'll be back!

Hey guys,

I'm so sorry for my absence the latest time, but I had a hard time at school + my lovely macbook has been broken for the last weeks but now it's repaired and I will focus more on this blog and the goal about it!

For the readers who have no idea what my goal is: I want to Change Fashion. I want to open every person's eyes to see that there's is more than just a t-shirt!

So be prepared for this week for loads of posts!

See you soon!!!

Portfolio: Triptiekshow

BY: CHRISTIAN M. PHOTOS: AYF ER (SHOW) & LEONIE (SHOOT)

A few weeks ago there was a show organized by all the 2nd year students of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute, including me. We started with groups of 20 students and in every group there were managers, branders and designer students.

In my group there were 5 design students and you can see on the photo's our collection we've worked on it. Our inspiration was Friesland and our goal was to reach the youth of this Dutch province by making comfortable, but stylish and special clothing. We did a great job on it, we even had a high note for it! right under this post you can see the pictures of the shoot with me as the model and from the show.

Please send a comment here and give me your opinion about the colection. What would you like to buy from this. I heard alot of compliments about the beautiful sweater made by my group-mate Anouk!

Meet Jonathan Christopher

BY: CHRISTIAN M.

Hey little fashion soldiers,

Yes, It has been a long time ago…. Again! But I will try to post more! But I’m so busy with my school, but I definately don’t want to give up my blog. And I want to post only good work!

So a few months I went to the Modefabriek, a big event at the Amsterdam RAI where you’ll see all the trends coming this season. There was a special places whit stands of different young design talent. And there was one collection that stole my fashionheart. It was the collection of Jonathan Christopher Hofwegen.

Hofwegen graduated at the Willem de Kooning Academie (in Rotterdam). In that study, he did an internship at Dutch designer Francisco van Benthum. After that he did a master at ArtEZ in Arhem, one of the most artistic designschool in The Netherlands. He has been nominated for a few good designer awards.

Jonathan Christopher made the best menswear collection I’ve ever seen in my life! It’s so much different than the ‘average’ menswear collections. Every detail was so good and every clothing piece has it’s extra’s. I’m afraid lot’s of boring dudes won’t wear them, because they are afraid of the ‘new’ things. And that’s why I’m happy with this designer! We all should be happy to be different, or are we proud to be ‘normal’ ? Let’s change the world! But before that, let’s watch pictures of the brand.

Check out other pictures at his website: Click Here



xoxoChris

Bark of Joyness: INDIVIDUALS at Amsterdam Fashionweek

BY: CHRISTIAN PHOTOS: PETER STIGTER

First I want to tell you that the runway looked awesome and fitted totally with the style of the collection. I also enjoyed the backgroundmusic before the show started. A good old Bessie Smith.

When I found my seat I saw a paper and there was written:



Individuals presents ‘Duals’

In this collection Individuals reacts with passion and force to today’s society with a raw streetwear collection full of references to the city and to a nomadic lifestyle.

Duals refers to the duel between oneself and the outside world, and to the dualty between faith and insecurity. Progess and transience are two red threads running through the collection, seeking the answer to the question: “What time could this be?”


And now , let’s have a focus on the collection. When the first model came on the runway I knew how she would look like, because of the runway. But still the quality was surprisingly good. They worked so well on the fabrics. It probably took a long time to make it.
What also was surprising, were the dogmasks. They made it with a cool fabric that doesn’t look Halloween’ish but fashionable.
Another thing that made me happy was the beautiful details in every outfits. Nothing was boring.
I would describe the collection as urban chic. A gang with class (but not in a criminal way). I also love the unisex style in it. It’s accesable for everyone!

Check out more photo’s here!

xChris

Not Late, but Fashionably late: Kelly Cutrone in Amsterdam.

Good day/night readers,

I know she’s been here a few weeks ago, but i still want to tell you that I met Kelly Cutrone in Amsterdam! She was there for signing her books and giving advice to people. I told her that i’m studying at fashion design academy and that I have a problem with Time-management. And she told me she don’t had a good time management the day before the booksigning. And we talked alo tand she also signed a book for one of my best friends Precilla Sedney (blogger of Fashion & Art Expression LINK) She couldn’t make it, so i bought one of Kelly’s books and signed it for Precilla as a birthday present! Here’s the picture of my signed book!

Kelly Cutrone has two books: If You Have To Cry, Go Outside and Normal Gets You Nowhere. I bought the last one, becase I totally agree that normal gets you nowhere. You have to be yourself and not like any other. I read the book and it’s amazing! You can buy one in the bookstores and it’s so worth to read it.

Kelly Cutrone is amazing and she might look like a bitch for everyone, but she isn’t. She wants to reach a goal and if people fail in it to get her goal, then they will get punished in an genuine way. Fashion is hard. It is falling, standing up and go ahead.

So get you copies of Cutrone’s books now!

XChris.

Please spread the word via Twitter and Facebook!

New Year, New Fashion.

Hello Everyone!

First I want to say HAPPY NEW YEAR! Let’s hope we will have a stylish 2012. As you know It’s been a long time since I posted my last post. But I will keep you updated almost every week. I’ve been so busy with my school. I’ll soon post my work here!

And because it’s a new year, I will do some new things this time! Yay!


The Fashion Army

This is a new thing on my blog. I will be fashionhunt on the streets and on the internet for some goodlooking fashionsoldiers and post it on this blog. And do YOU have a picture of you looking stylish and you? Please send the picture to us at christian.capitalef@hotmail.com and join the Fashion Army!!

Fashion Shows
Besides the fashionhunting, I will post alot of interesting fashionnews and Fashion shows i’ve been to or saw on the internet.

Young Talent
What I extremely love are new and young fashion designers with their new visions and statements. So that’s the reason I will post some of them. Wich I think that they are the best new designers in the world and gonna make it well in the future.

And I might do some contests where you can win some things! But I first need alot of viewers before that happens.

So Follow us everywhere! And spread the word:

Twitter : @Capitale_F

Fashion News

News

So, here are some things i have done in the vacation!

As I told you in my last post, I’ve been to New York! So awesome! But is was perfect when I met the Crowley Brothers and Alexa Defina. The Crowleys is a band of 3 brothers who can sing, dance and cartweels. The first time I talked to them was when they covered Bad Romance. And now we are still talking! Alexa is a good friend of them and is also a VERY talented singer. We were chillin’ at Central Park and we had a great time! I also bought some Fashionable Merchandise of them. A minty green Tee with their Faces on (link) and some cool rubber wristbands with Team Crowley (Their fan group, I’m part of it) on it. Would you like to check them out? Click Here for the @CrowleyBrothers And Here for @Alexadefina!

The other perfect thing was the exhibition of McQueen ‘Savage Beauty’ in The Metropolitan Museum of art. I’ve never seen lots of masterpieces in a few rooms. MqQueen used his mood and his VADERLAND as inspiration fors ome of his collections and turned it into a wonderful fashion show where eyes and mouths are all wide open. Not only the clothes, but the whole show was a masterpiece. His technique is a good inspiration for me. They call him ‘l enfant terrible, but I call him a Rebel with Class!
It was worth waiting the 2 hours in line. Too bad that this creative man isn’t anymore.

On sunday Grazia NL presented the PC Catwalk in the P.C. Hoofstraat, Amsterdam. The Rodeo Drive of Holland… I showed us what the trends were for this autumn and winter. The trends are classy and sporty. But that’s a trend. Just be yourself and make new trends is my advice! Inspire me! Even though the extreme long delay of 1,5 hour, it was a great show the watch. The runway was 350 meters long! I think the models had the best workout ever. The price of the best store in the street went to Armani. Good job!

And to all the little monsters, have you seen the new Yoü and I video? Well it’s not a real music video, but it’s a fashion film! Directed by Inez van Lamsweerde en Vinoodh! And again, GaGa loves Dutch creative folks! Check out the Video HERE!

And the last newsflash is about me. A few weeks ago a guy added me on facebook, because someone introduced me to him. This guy who added me was Gio Diekema. He’s a new television star in holland and he asked me to design something for him. And of course I said yes! It’s a cool guy and he will wear a design, specially designed for him by me, at a dutch programm Life4You met Carlo en Irene on september 18th. So please watch! It’s my first television debute as a designer haha!

Well that’s all! I hope you enjoyed the reading!!

Love,

Christianx

New Capitale F!

Hello little fashionista’s!

It’s been a long time ago (again) after I posted my last post… But now my vacation is over and it’s time to talk about capital F, yes FASHION!

It’s been a fun vacation. As you know in my last post I went to Amsterdam Fashion Week and De ModeFabriek. But I’ve also been to New York City! Oh my God! It was amazing. I have seen a lot!

So, what I want to do is I want to post once a week a newspost. All the important Fashion news that happened that week. Special Events will have a single post. The second thing is I want to make some little contests where you can win prices. I’m not sure with hit, but we’ll see ;). And I’m going to ask you for sending me pictures of you dressed fashionable. I want to post every week pictures of the most stylish person of the week!

And another thing, please let you friends know about this blog. The more viewers, the better the prices for the contests and the harder I get to find the most stylish person of the week, but the last one is no problem haha!.

So please let your friends know and Follow us on twitter!

@Capitale_F

Love,

Team Capitale F

Dutch design(s) in Yoü and I video!

Lady Gaga loves genius dutchies. And it always makes me happy when she's wearing dutch design (because I'm a dutchman and a fashion design student).

This time she is showing some dutch proud in her newest, most beautiful and greatest video music ' Yoü and I' ! It just came out yesterday and OMG it's amazing! You mmight not understand the message after the first time watching, but when you read gaga's 1000th tweet an watch it again, you will know that it's about the lovestory of two people. They love each other by the way they are. And that so fits into her 'Born This Way' concept. And besides the artistic part of the video, it also got some fun parts in it. But now back to fashion!

She is wearing TWO designs of the great Jan Taminiau (36). And it's not the first time she wore his designs. Last winter when she was in Paris for her last Monster Ball Tour she was wearing one of his beautiful designs. And gosh I wish that models would be more like Lady Gaga, because there ain't no other person in the world who can walk in these extremely high heels like Gaga!

Keep on wearing dutch designs Gagaloo (and hopefully one/some of mine ^^)

Check out some pictures over here!


Pictures above: stills from Gaga wearing the dutch designs in her new video! (Photo's from Nicola Formichetti's blog

Gaga in Taminiau in Paris, december 2010.

Laura Theiss Backstage at Modefabriek

Here are some pictures backstage from the show of one of my favorites at the Modefabriek Laura Theiss! I have to thank the designer for sending me the pictures!

Take a good look on these great designs!!!

Mint on Modefabriek.

When I walked around at the Modefabriek, I saw an interesting room that's called 'Mint'.

It's a group of designers who think about the environment and I think everyone should think about it. Twin Couture (one of the designers from the mint-group) is a good example for it.

These two designers (who are twins) think sustainable ate every collection they make. This time they used the sustainable fabric denim. Denim? Sustainable? How can is be good for the environment with all that stonewashing? Well Denim is one of the strongest fabrics and even looks good when it's damaged. You can wear denim for a long time and it's never out of fashion. Very smart thought!

An as I said in the beginning everyone in fashion should think about the environment. It's a cool adventure for a designer to think new about fabric, patterns and other things. Sustainable is now and the future. And it's fun. Twin Couture shows how fun and kinda easy it is to think 'green'! So think green, be green!

Check out some pictures of the collection of Twin Couture and OAT shoes!






Follow them on on facebook!
MINT

Follow them on Twitter:
@Mint_Fair
@TwinCouture

Follow us on Twitter!
@Capitale_F

Angelo van Mol at Modefabriek.

And the last designer at 'Te next & cutting edge' show that is still in my mind, was Angelo van Mol. His designs were made of fabric that is also used for bra's. So it's a thick material and keeps the clothing always in shape! Even the shorts looked beautiful. And I also liked the python shoes. Check out the pictures here:

Laura Theiss at Modefabriek.

First I want to say that I'm extremely sorry for posting it too late! I enjoyed my vacation a bit too much. But I will write anyway!

So a few weeks ago I went to the Modefabriek. A great place for fashionista's to see what's in an what's out. There's also a special show for VIP's and Press. That's called ' The Next & Cutting Edge' And this time i was excited about three designers!

The first one is Laura Theiss. She can make interesting knitwear that's not granny-a-like. It was very artistic and rebellious than all the other boring knitwear. She has also added something special into some designs: LATEX! This material is just a small trend and is used by Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Katy Perry and some more stars and I like it, like it! She was inspired by all the bad things that happened in the world.

I also liked the styling. She used vendetta masks that really fits the inspiration. Some masks were cut off the half, so it looked like a beard mask.

But to be honest, I'm absolutely not a fan of crochets, but wow Laura brought it to another level and made it cool! Well done!

Check out her website HERE!

Check out some pics here:

Launch Of The Green Fashion Competition at Fashionweek

I went to the Launch of the Green Fashion Competition last saturday at Fashionweek. It's a competition where designers can show them how 'green' they are. And I mean green as sustainable.

Would you like to join the competition? Click here to see the rules!

The second price winner O shoes presented that evening their new collection of shoes. They are using severed materials so that's pretty green!

They were also at the Modefabriek last sunday and monday with a team called 'Mint' I will write about it as soon as possible!

Click here to watch the video of the launch!

FRANK, a good, but disappointing stunt.

So a week before Amsterdam Fashion Week has begun, the team of FRANK sent me an e-mail that I was invited for their new 'luxury brand'. I was very excited, because of their lay-out. It looked a bit like Viktor & Rolf, so I expected a lot of this brand.

But when the first models came on the runway, I though was at the show of H&M. It looked way too casual for a luxury brand. And they didn't picked the right fabric for some clothing pieces, because the fit was awful at some dresses. And first I thought the print of some fabrics looked great, but when I saw it at the scarf they gave us in the goodie bags, i almost threw it away.

Then the bridal gown came. And the screen went yellow and had the logo of Zeeman (click here) on it, the question marks on my forehead grew. Why is the quality so bad? Why is Zeeman on the screen? Why do they call this a luxury brand? They made it clear after the show. They gave us a letter where they said that it was a stunt. And the message of the stunt was: Luxury doesn't have to cost a lot of money...................

Anyway, the idea of this stun was very creative, but when you are giving people high expectations, you should surprise them with those high expectations. I mean I was way more surprised as the collection actually LOOKED like a luxury-line. Quality is very important of a luxury brand, it needs the right fit, a perfect shape and the luxury materials. Ok the fabric was from Brazil, but it looked like H&M class and that's not a luxury brand. You can make luxury cheaper, but keep it how luxury brands should be. But I'm not saying that all the clothes looked bad! I think I can see a lot of housewives in it...

But I have to say, the models were the best in the whole Fashionweek!

It was a great and creative idea, but the quality was disappointed. I cannot call this real luxury.


Photographer: Chloe Sterk

Frans Molenaar Prijs at Fashionweek

Hello again!

This is the show I was most excited about of the whole fashion week! I understand why these great young designers were nominated for this amazing price (10.000 euros).

The nominees:

William Fan.
This collection was very folkloric. It's an russian Babushka mixed with a little bit dutchness. What I loved in this collection was the detail work in every design.

Anne Bosman.
The silhouet reminded me a bit about Michael Kampe, he also used the extreme big patterns. I like the extreme big sleeves in this men-collection and the huge backpacks, aren't they way too heavy to wear?

Magnus Dekker (the winner).
This designer is a daredevil. When the first model came on the runway i was in love and then the second came down the runway and I was still in love! This colorful-edgy-rock'n roll collection was perfectly made! This is quality first class. So refreshingly new! I think that is the reason why he won. This is international class.

Marius op 't Eynde.
This collection was well-cutted and very graphic. It was very modern but with a fun twist in it. The color combination was perfect and I see a lot of men wearing it.

Geo Timmerman.
I was in love with this velvet collection, because of the extreme silhouette. It reminds me about Lady Gaga and I see her wearing this collection. And i also love the idea af the heels. It were brushes and the models walked great in it. Even tough the color palette was save, the silhouette mad the collection extreme.


I totally agree with the winner and I will follow all 5 of the nominees. I'm excited for all of their work!

Pictures are coming soon!