Majid, Sonny, Aynouk, Marco and myself had a little talk
after an opening we went to today check sonny's blog he
will post that.

We had an amazing talk about dutch fashion and out position
in it. About how the current situation in our sober country.
that doesn't seem to know anything about fashion what so ever.
you would think that in an open minded country like our little
Holland where we have prostitutes and drugs you would be able
to walk down the street in what ever you want to wear without
having people coming after you or just plain screaming at you.

Questions were asked, questions like;"do we believe in dutch
fashion?"," do we believe in dutch fashion designers?",
" do we believe that this little country can handle international
fashion?". different magazines here in Holland are loosing the
interest of the fashion in crowd making the boring or irrelevant.
And other magazines are stopping completely. Allot of different
answers were given. because we shared some opinions and other
times we didn't share the same opinion at all.

Looking at magazines not just nationally but internationally is
vogue still in power if so who still buys it and why?
What about magazines like self service and purple they
seem to get allot of attention lately and not in a bad way at all
look at Visionaire's masterpiece V-magazine.

Made in Holland, we have great arctics and interior designers.
but what about our designers, Victor and Rolf whom don't
even have a store in The Netherlands, spijkers and spijkers what
else do we have to offer is this enough and if so should we
support them with all that we can?

Should we make this country a fashion country by spending all
our time trying to better it? and if so how? and why?

it was one of the best talks we had as a group in a long time
and sitting there seeing the hopelessness and hope most some of
us made me think.

We started by ordering drinks and toasting our new president
cause no matter how you turn in America is the worlds police
state and who becomes president there has influence on all of
us.

This made clearer to me that fashion and politics as i believe
have more to do with each other then most people want to believe.
1 of us spoke about wanting to build a fashion base in the
Netherlands the other said to have been trying to do that for
the past 5 years and is giving up without hope. the other said
after all the No's and we can't sell WOW how much longer do
people expect us to go abroad be able to do work there and come
back because they believe in you then and do it here. The
Netherlands to us is like most countries are to lots of other
people we have the capital and some other
cities where you can dress up go out and have stuff to do.
we can dress our self the way we would normally do and go wherever
and do whatever People here will let you know your strange weird
or not welcome. and that's just talking about the people who have
no direct link to fashion whats-o-ever. there are tuns of people
in the fashion industry here
who keep the mass as were calling it. Dumb! magazines like the Elle
girl who were actually doing good educating our younger generation
with the who is who and from then on choosing what you like. up
against people who just want to make an extra buck in a way that is
fashion degrading we have had numerous fashion makeover TV shows for
the mass and they are still doing it now. lots of money zero creativity.
making is farmer understand MARGIELA, Balenciaga or even something as
simple as Dsqueared seems to be impossible to some of us but to other
the reason why they are here.

At a certain point my best friend Sonny (A.K.A the optimist) said and
asked;"i have a bad time looking at things in a negative i feel there
are always things we can work with. " after he asked " You seem so
negative about The Netherlands do you believe in our countries Creatives
at all?"

coming form Sonny this question was a bit of a shock but not a surprise
I do believe in what we have to offer but if we have to stay in Holland
fight till there is no one els to fight and start fighting again to try
and make farmers understand " La MODE" is something els. i want to see the
world so i am not scared of doing what i want to do with my life abroad.
I feel this country has offered the world great Art in architecture in
interior and furniture design look at Rembrandt and van Gogh.
we have designers that are working all over the world yes we are
a fashion country in allot of ways but never the less people do not stay
here.

Lucas Ossendrijver amazing at Lanvin, Wilbert Das at diesel
Both working abroad. We have amazing Photographers bast or
from the Netherlands all over the world, great makeup artists
working more abroad then here. Holland also has a great mass of Models
but every agency knows if our want your model to work he/she
does not stay here.

I want to tank Majid, Aynouk, Sonny and Marco.

Picture: Butt magazine
published and printed in The Netherlands, available world-wide.

Update!
im gooing to post all the diffrent oppinions on my Blogg.

Somethimes is sooooo extremely difficult to stay optimistic
about a country that sells awnsers like: " That's too mutch
fashion, Maybe that's too dark, That's too conceptual". Now
I'm only talking about the fashion incrowd let alone al the
Farmers and Lame unknowing people. The main thought in my
head is: "Just keep breathing untill you get there (out of
the Netherlands)". Yes I think we can put a lot of efford
in this country, but do we really want that and more important,
Does thsi Country want that?

Majid Karrouch,Stylist