Whether it’s the daring design sensibility driven by “the electricity of live performance”—a deep-rooted source of inspiration for the creator duo of Lieselot Elzinga and Miro Hämäläinen—or the, well, live performances that one has come to anticipate from their buzzing presentations since the brand’s establishment in 2018, it is virtually impossible to write about Elzinga without writing about music. Never the ones to conform to a conventional catwalk setup, this year Elzinga has once again evoked the raw exhilaration of the spotlight, this time by enhancing its already bold garments with an enthralling light installation.
Clad in gleaming fabrics adorned with exaggerated bows, the models took to the revolving platform in the middle of the gritty fortification of Vondelbunker one by one. The collection took Elzinga’s exaggerated femininity to new heights by taking the hems to new lows, showcasing extravagant gowns worthy of the most high-brow occasion alongside the brand’s now signature voluminous mini dresses. Once hit with the sharp on-beat bursts of stage light, the garments flashed back anew as if spellbound by a heat camera: yellows turned pink, greens purple, blues green. The effect was at once strikingly familiar, like that of a frenzied optics of a long club night or an upbeat gig, and dreamlike, almost extra-terrestrial (the latter perhaps partially due to the dramatic proportions of the styling, with some hairdos and heels so high and skirt ruffles so billowing they seem to have shrunk the already compact space of the venue even smaller).
The trippy light immersion was realised through the efforts of set design visionaries from Geijer Studio. And, of course, the indispensable collaborator—music. First there was the brand, and then there was the band. Or was it the other way around? Soundtracked by Baby’s Berserk—a danceable post-punk band fronted by Lieselot alongside Mano Hollestelle and Eva Wijnbergen—the show exalted the symbiosis of glamour and audacity intrinsic to the Elzinga attitude.
Photo’s by Isabelle Bucx
