We had a chat with Creative Belgium members Naomi Kolsteren & Vincent Vrints , the founding duo of design studio Vrints-Kolsteren, about their latest project for De Kringwinkel. A capsule collection inspired by the Japanse art of flower arranging resulting in 200 unique pieces of clothing. Read all about the story behind the collection and the launch of the collection here.
Let’s start with the broadest of questions: what’s Re-Arrange?
N/ That’s the capsule collection we’ve made with De Kringwinkel, the famous second-hand store chain. Together we went on a quest to select 200 second hand garments. The next step was breathing new life in them. We used about 10 unique designs to print on the clothing. We combined those designs, played with different compositions. These items were already unique, by printing an equally individual composition on them, we’ve added another layer to that.
V/ Second hand clothing is an interesting medium to work with. We’re always on the lookout for good quality basics in second hand stores as well. Blue jeans, blazers, white T-shirts, leather jackets... So that’s what we went for here as well.
Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging, was a big inspiration for this collection. How did that happen?
N/ We’ve been to Japan a couple of times. Those trips are always very inspiring. They tend to approach things in a very different way. When you look at flower arrangements in our regions, the colors and beauty of the flower are the focal point. In Ikebana, on the other hand, it’s all about the spaces in between the flowers, about the composition, about what you do with those flowers.
V/ There are big similarities in ikebana and our work, which is often very purified. For us, the space around the design is equally important as the thing we design. We used that philosophy in our publication Kado. For Re-Arranged we went in the same direction. We wanted to recycle some of our ideas, just like De Kringwinkel is about reusing clothing. It just seemed to fit.
Photographer Stig De Block did the shoot for Re-Arrange, in a floral field. Why him?
V/ Well, he’s obviously a very strong photographer, and we’ve known him for a long time. We went to school together, we’ve watched each other grow and evolve throughout the years. We’ve been wanting to co-operate for a long time. The time was now.
N/ And also, we’ve just made a book with him, about his work: Back to Back, which will be published soon. It just made sense that we joined forces for Re-Arrange too.
Re-Arrange launches on Thursday October 6th at the Kringwinkel in Lange Koepoortstraat, Antwerp, where the collection will be sold. Stig De Block has an exposition coming up organized by Mutant, highlighting his book. Back to Back opens on October 20th at Michel De Braeystraat 51B, Nieuw Zuid 2000 Antwerp.
ABOUT NAOMI & VINCENT
• Naomi Kolsteren (33) & Vincent Vrints (34)
• A couple, both professionally and romantically
• Founded Vrints-Kolsteren in 2016, a design studio specialized in creative direction, photography and graphic design
• Studied graphic design at Sint Lucas Antwerp
• Formerly worked for Knack Weekend (Naomi) and Studio Dumbar (Vincent), among others
• Launching their capsule collection Re-Arrange, in collaboration with De Kringwinkel.