Emerging Dutch designer Duran Lantink stages recycled clothes exhibition at Utrecht’s Centraal Museum

By

Chenu Alexis

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Aug 2, 2019

Duran Lantink is a name worth keeping in mind. The Dutch designer, born in The Hague and based in Amsterdam, is staging an exhibition entitled ‘Old Stock’ at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, the Netherlands, until October 27.
 

The exhibition, a first for the young artist/designer, is an insight into his work, showcasing unique items made by recycling articles of clothing forgotten in the museum’s storerooms, as well as a series of more personal creations and photographs from the ‘Sistaaz’ project, launched in 2014 with photographer Jan Hoek. The project focused on a group of transgender individuals and sex workers from South Africa, portrayed wearing personalised outfits in a style hovering between kitsch and pop. 
 
Tired of overconsumption, obsessed with recycling and the art of collage, since the early days of his career Lantink has been stockpiling unsold items and the excess inventory of luxury labels. Lantink started fashion scavenging as a student of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in 2013, and never stopped since, creating hybrid items by blending for example Balenciaga with Miu Miu to make a unique sweatshirt, or fabrics by Burberry, Louis Vuitton and Dior to make a ‘multibrand’ bob hat, his gospel being that “second-hand clothes merit a new lease of life.”

Lantink caught the critics’ eye in 2018 for the ‘vagina trousers’ worn by dancers in the ‘Pynk’ video by artist Janelle Monaé, and has since then been supported by the British Fashion Council. A backing which enabled him to present his work at the International Fashion Showcase in February 2019, and to be granted a residency at London’s Somerset House, where his installation called ‘A shop-in-shop post-Black Friday’ asked questions of the fashion industry’s practice of end-of-season sales. Alex Gordon, head of womenswear purchasing at Liberty London, commissioned Lantink a presentation at the department store featuring ‘hybridized’ looks made using some of Liberty’s old apparel stock.
 
The presentation afforded Lantink enough visibility to earn him a nomination as semi-finalist of the LVMH Prize 2019, followed by a residency at the 50M concept store in London last April. For the occasion, Lantink gave 10 store customers a personalised recycling experience during Fashion Revolution Week, creating unique items out of their old clothes.
 
Lantink is currently busy with new collaborations and projects, and his work will surely continue to be a talking point this year.