Duran Lantink’s namesake label is built around radical sustainability, and in July he won the ANDAM Special Prize for it. But for his recent fashion show in Paris, the Dutch designer somehow managed to draw attention away from the now-expected deadstock-upcycled-repurposed talking points to make a new, confident statement. “At the moment I’m really experimenting, trying to find my handwriting,” he said backstage before the show. “I started with combining clothes and pieces, and now I am really thinking about shape.” For spring-summer 2024, he sent out pneumatic, bulbous silhouettes, from a curvaceous, artificially puffed-up sheath dress (a nod to Comme Des Garçons’ legendary “Lumps and Bumps” collection from 1997) to floating necklines, itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny “bubble jeans” bottoms, and tops resembling floating devices known in France as “frites”, though the show notes called them “tubular objects d’art.” A lifejacket was cleverly worked into a forest green bomber. A 19th century silk veil was paired with a traditional Dutch bonnet to become a sundress; a vintage macramé tablecloth got a similar treatment. Both were charming. Other hybrids included a cage dress made of a sliced black T-shirt, knit deadstock and a piece of a skirt worn over a white bubble top; an experiment in three-dimensionality, the designer explained. “Speedo-jeans” were another attempt at something new. Those starred the classic men’s swim briefs spliced with vintage jeans and hand-knitted leg warmers. Lantink’s focus is solidly on questioning our relationship to traditional clothing. The final number, a black hourglass cut-out dress with hook-like shoulders, was a case in point. Even before the designer revealed, post-show, that the Met Costume Institute, the V&A and the Stedelijk museum have all acquired his work for their permanent collections, this outing gave its audience plenty to think about.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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