The Complete Collection Text

1
He was so sick. The hospital had virtually given up. I was going two or sometimes three times a day. It was summer 2015 and incredibly hot. Every day I dressed in my most beautiful clothes.

2
My collection consists of 469 items. 148 winter and 176 summer. The rest is underwear. The vast majority comes from China. I do not know the precise number, but it is about 19%. I suddenly realized how many of these countries are where child labour exists. Even when I know the garment was ethically manufactured, what about the cloth, the dye, the fittings?

3
Some of my underwear collection is from China: Shanton city is the underwear city. It has 100.000 inhabitants. Each of the 23 districts specializes in one type. Working conditions are primitive. Social security is non-existent. It is common to be paid officially only three times a year. Workers cannot survive on it.

4
THINK SMART
WASH WITH CARE
LOVE EARTH
BJÖRN BORG
Made in China

5
The light blue dress is ethically sound, because it was handmade for me here in the Netherlands. After measuring, a simple cotton replica was made. At the first fitting this replica was modelled into shape. I stood like a statue, shoulders back, stomach in, chin up whilst the designer perfected. The next fitting introduced the final light blue garment and more perfecting. The dress became a reprint of my body. Stunning. I generally wear it when I know no sitting is likely.

6
When I first got an office job, I did not know what to wear. So I bought a blue skirt and I borrowed a grey jacket from my mother. It was a wonder that they employed me. The outfit did not change for years. I was a junior and determined to conform, dress code included. As I climbed the corporate ladder I decided to be more daring. I wore black, Japanese design and the designs of Morgan Puett, which where even more “out there”. These included the Bird Dress, the Wrap Jacket and the Warm Skirt made of coarse cotton and coloured natural dyes. Her designs reflect the style of the Amish and the Great Depression, inspired by the photos of Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange. After studying art, Puett created her own label and opened a concept store on Wooster Street, NYC. It was non-conformist and completely different to the office dress code.
In 1997 her business went downhill but, rather than sell off her inventory, she memorialised it by covering it in beeswax and turning it into a work of art.

7
There is a photo of a family with three kids set in Cornwall, England 1942. The man stands in the centre wearing his tweed plus fours. He is a typical English gentleman. Hands in pockets, a confident smile on his face. His eldest daughter stands by his side, mimicking her father, wearing a partially fastened overcoat and muddy boots. Her hair plaited. On the man’s left stands his wife. The photo is about her: Daphne du Maurier. She is wearing working men’s clothes: a collarless shirt, waistcoat and wide, well-worn cord trousers. She looks totally at home.
This was what Morgan Puett must have been trying to put across, or at least that was what I thought when I bought her clothes.

8
One client requested that I worked within his office for the duration of his project: the project being marketing and strategy for an IT organisation at the start of the IT boom. The client was General Manager, conservative, conformist and ambitious. My office was opposite his: top floor, deep piled carpet and top of the range furniture. I turned up to work in a Morgan Puett outfit, totally at odds with the corporate culture. It was a pair of three quarter length baggy trousers, shirt and tie, man’s waistcoat and a “one coat fits all”, all in shades of mud.

9
In the mid-80’s I worked part-time at a Comme des Garçons concept store in Amsterdam. It was completely different to any shop I had ever entered. There was no window display and the few items available were artistically displayed on metal racks. Comme des Garçons dictated every detail. We even wore shop items to promote the collection.
For that season the style was knitted items in a design that required instructions to wear. Potential clients needed dressing to see the beauty of the product. The colours were cream, grey and black. The dress I could not resist was a grey woollen tricot with a twist. It came beyond your ankles and had to be pulled back and twisted to fit over the original dress. I really loved this dress, but even with shop discount it was totally beyond my means. Years later when I could afford Comme des Garçcons, the dress of my dreams was no more.

10
The Comme des Garçons two tartan design red dress is a statement. The front is just above the knee and behind it is longer. At the back there is a bustle accentuating the posterior, just like the 1880’s. The dress cannot be categorized: it is not a party dress, a cocktail dress, office attire or an everyday dress. It is not for summer, it is not for winter. I wear it for special occasions along with my All Stars. But when I go to a formal event I soften the blow with Todd heels and pearls.

11
The Japanese collections in the 80’s were black and unconventional. As Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons stated: “One should buy clothes because of how they make you feel and not how they make you look”. The wearers of these clothes were the avant-garde. On a photo of Elly Uyttenbroek and Arie Versluis from 2005 there are twelve middle aged women. They are all dressed alike. In black, loose tunics, short styled hair tucked behind their ears, large round glasses with thick frames. Chunky necklaces complete the look, which is so reminiscent of the eighties.

12
In the art world, black is still the way to go. In the Dutch newspaper NRC of 20 February 2016 the gallerina and the hipster are described as the subcultures of this decade. The gallerina is portrayed as a highly educated female with an outstanding CV who accepts a low paid job in an art gallery. She wears black minimalistic clothing of Swedish design such as Cos and Filippa K. This style of dress is rampant in the Art World. The gallerina, dressed in this way, is a key element of the galleries marketing strategy.

13
At a certain moment everything turned black: jeans, t-shirts, jackets, blouses, jumpers, skirts, dresses, tights, evening dresses and underwear. You could not buy anything else. Black is safe, you can disappear. Black is everywhere. In my wardrobe, 20% of my clothes are black. I even have a black silk summer dress from Paul Smith. I bought it for its style, but wished it was a different colour. The dress is short sleeved with a round neck, fitted to the hip and then full skirted falling to the knee. Running all the way down the front are ruffles and buttons. The dress celebrates summer, if only it was not black.
When I got my black dress home, I went online to check the collection of Paul Smith. I simply could not believe that my beautiful summer dress was created in black. I found it in summer blue with white circles. This was Paul Smith’s intention. The black version was a “better safe than sorry” solution for the retailers.

The beige dress with black spots is extremely unlucky. The very first time I put it on to wear, the heavy door of my wardrobe dropped on my foot, resulting in two broken toes and a trip to the hospital. None of my shoes would fit and I ended up having to buy a pair of Hugo Boss silver slip-on shoes, which were extremely expensive and totally inappropriate. At the same time I became jobless and I lost an important court case. The dress has not left my wardrobe since.

15
At a workshop I once attended, there was an advertising specialist who stated: the most successful TV adverts include either sex, children or animals. Frida Giannini, a former designer of Gucci once said of one of her collections: “all these dresses, the net, the capes…. I am scared about all these ruffles. The question was asked: “What are you afraid of?” And she responded: “That they are not sexy.”

16
The city of Gijon in Northern Spain lies by the sea. It has a large beach, set in a bay where Spanish families paddle. All the ladies, regardless of shape, size or age, parade in their bikinis without a care in the world. I never wore bikinis until Gijon. In the centre of the city I found a traditional, exclusive, swimwear boutique with wooden window frames and copper doorknobs. They only had one bikini in my size. I bought it. It was light blue, chequered and had a large bow at the front of the bikini bottoms. The sales assistant applauded my choice.

17
At a certain point I had to surrender some of my principles and conform to the business code. I could not jeopardize important potential projects.
In the 70’s, Yves Saint Laurent empowered women by introducing large shoulders and men’s suits to their wardrobe. Today the empowerment offered by Yves Saint Laurent has turned into a compulsory set of rules for females in the business world.

The Huffington Post, 7 July 2010, lists 10 Power Dressing Tips:

Wear a neutral classic designer suit. Go for a light fabric, which can be worn year round. So no linen or tweed.
Go to a tailor and have the clothes altered to fit perfectly. This is necessary to ensure the ideal length for the skirt (just above the knee) and the trousers (just below the ankle).
Buy a nice blouse in white or ivory. Do not go low cut, but a little plunge is chic. Never wear a black bra under the blouse.
Shoes must be low heeled and comfortable. No open-toed shoes.
Stay colour neutral. Fuchsia, orange and turquoise are beautiful, but do not say, ”take me seriously”. Red works well in a handbag and on your lips if you are not wearing heavy make-up.
Choose your jewellery strategically: a simple pearl necklace, a brooch and a single gold armband. Not too much bling.
A beautiful watch proves the importance of punctuality to you.
In the winter, wear opaque tights. In the summer, bare legs are permitted, providing your legs are tanned. And if they are not, colour them.
A good handbag is essential. It must coordinate with the suit. Preferably the bag should be a graphic logo style like Fendi or Louis Vuitton, and neither too big or too small.
The most important tip: be well groomed. Well styled hair, subtle make up, manicured hands and nails.

Suddenly last winter fear hit me. I was taken back to my childhood nightmare of somebody dying. The thought of discarding possessions is terrifying.

I started to photograph my own clothes. A print of my body: my shape, my scent, my flaws, the repairs that have not been carried out, because I always thought: “next week will do”. The choices I made, the trends I followed, the designers I loved and the compromises I made.

I laid my clothes one at a time on the floor and climbed a stepladder to take the photos.

There is a photo of a family with three kids set in Cornwall, England 1942. The man stands in the centre wearing his tweed plus fours. He is a typical English gentleman. Hands in pockets, a confident smile on his face. His eldest daughter stands by his side, mimicking her father, wearing a partially fastened overcoat and muddy boots. Her hair plaited. On the man’s left stands his wife. The photo is about her: Daphne du Maurier. She is wearing working men’s clothes: a collarless shirt, waistcoat and wide, well-worn cord trousers. She looks totally at home.
This was what Morgan Puett must have been trying to put across, or at least that was what I thought when I bought her clothes.

One client requested that I worked within his office for the duration of his project: the project being marketing and strategy for an IT organisation at the start of the IT boom. The client was General Manager, conservative, conformist and ambitious. My office was opposite his: top floor, deep piled carpet and top of the range furniture. I turned up to work in a Morgan Puett outfit, totally at odds with the corporate culture. It was a pair of three quarter length baggy trousers, shirt and tie, man’s waistcoat and a “one coat fits all”, all in shades of mud.

In the mid-80’s I worked part-time at a Comme des Garçons concept store in Amsterdam. It was completely different to any shop I had ever entered. There was no window display and the few items available were artistically displayed on metal racks. Comme des Garçons dictated every detail. We even wore shop items to promote the collection.

For that season the style was knitted items in a design that required instructions to wear. Potential clients needed dressing to see the beauty of the product. The colours were cream, grey and black. The dress I could not resist was a grey woollen tricot with a twist. It came beyond your ankles and had to be pulled back and twisted to fit over the original