Last time we got acquainted with mastermind Diek Pothoven was during AFW September 2021, in the background, running through locations, guiding models up and down the catwalk as the curator of choice for Dutch designers. This AFW Edition, Diek takes center stage as a designer once more, introducing his fully renewed MARTAN with co-owners Eugénie Haitsma Mulier and Douwe de Boer as its new co-owners. The brand showed its first sustainable ready-to-wear line in the beautiful Grand Hotel Amrâth Amsterdam. The first show held in this unique building.
When everyone is gathered in the main hall, absorbed by high sealings, red velvet seating and impressive chandeliers, a number on what looks like a room key divides the crowd in groups with each their own chaperone. Guided towards different floors, staircases and corridors, music reminiscent of a Wes Anderson movie fills the hallways of the Amrâth. Models hover over the staircases, glamorous yet nonchalant, all main characters of their own story. A boatneck brown dress with rope detailing that swirls around the model’s body has a bow finishing in the back. Its male counterpart, a black two-piece with white ropes dangling from a cut-out crop top all the way down to calf length white boots, signifies the two characters might be part of the same hotel room. The models hence felt like hotel guests from every corner of the world, but part of the same mysterious and rather tense storyline. A grass-green ensemble consisting of a shirt and pants with a quilted shawl in the same hue meets its match a few stories down: a mid-length grass-green dress, shoulder-padded and with a raised neck, and subtle cutouts at the midriff. Time stops when a bell rings through the hotel, some models meet eyes and others are glued to their assigned position. Our chaperone guides us to the Council Chamber, where a long table takes up the center of the room. With the table covered in sand, plants and Amrâth crockery, three models lounge on a white beach towel with the same blue swirl print we’ve seen on dresses and matching suits. On top of the beach themed tableau vivant, one of them is dancing, the other reading a book and a third is listening to the sound of ocean waves. The strangeness of this scene is reminiscent of other models we’ve met in different parts of the hotel, as if the crowd are spectators in a movie, outsiders of other people’s interactions. As voyeurs, we are guided back to the main staircase, where all models walk proudly from the fourth floor down. Diek, Eugénie and Douwe walk amongst them, as if they are part of the same ensemble of characters; one of them.
