Design Catwalk loves… Elsien Gringhuis
Lately, I’ve been looking for designers somehow involved in creating with an eye on sustainability. (That’s why in the last posts I talked about Christopher Raeburn and Lu Flux, and since I believe in this strong “trend” I think I’ll go on looking for eco-friendly designers).
Elsien Gringhuis is a Dutch designer who successfully graduated in 2008 at ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem, she presented her first independent collection during Amsterdam International Fashion Week in July 2009. She uses sustainable and high quality fabrics like bamboo, wool,pressed silks, leather and hand coated fabrics, and she won the first prize at the Green Fashion competition during the Amsterdam International Fashion week in January 2011.
She won several international prizes and awards including the Createurope award for ‘Best Avantgarde Designer’ in Berlin, the camera nazionale della moda award for ‘most creative collection of the year’, Mittelmoda, Italy. And the first prize for the HEMA design contest with a sustainable raincoat.
Elsien Gringhuis style is known for the choice of smart simplicity while a complex and innovative construction lies behind the simple eying silhouette.
She is inspired by shape and construction where use of material holds a great share to support the created silhouette.
Other sources of inspiration are the contrast of human power and vulnerability and how we dominate the world with technique. This perspective is reflected in the sharp angular, industrial and futuristic looks, yet she tries to keep it simple: “A functional and well thought out design makes me very happy. All good things are simple, but there is nothing more difficult than to make a good and simple design.”
Ariko
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