You are probably already familiar with Duran Lantink’s fashion designs, even if his name doesn’t ring a bell. The Amsterdam-based fashion designer is the creator of the infamous vagina trousers worn by Janelle Monáe last year in her music video Pynk.
Despite becoming the most talked-about trousers – and cultural yardsticks of 2018 – the wavy pink pants almost never happened. Lantink was drafted in by the director – his best friend – five days before the shoot was scheduled to start, after the previous wardrobe team left the project. The rest, as they say, is music-video history.
But dismiss him as a shock-tactic attention seeker at your own liability as 32-year-old Lantink is one of the most highly regarded rising stars of his generation, thanks to his redefinition of luxury through a sustainable lens.
“It was a blessing and a curse because I always end up in the ‘vagina pants’ conversation,” he laughs on the phone from Amsterdam, where he was born and is based, admitting to having had some strange email requests since. “But that’s OK because it helped me get where I’m now. People are more conscious about what I am doing, which means I can tell a bigger story about creating sustainable collections.”
For his eponymous brand, he uses designer overstock which he sources directly from charity shops and fashion houses. He then cuts them up – “collages”, as he puts it – and sews them back together to create a unique piece of clothing from several brands. A typical piece of Duran Lantink clothing may contain a vintage Chanel skirt with pieces by Lanvin and a collar from Dior. “I started finding these beautiful and extraordinary pieces that didn’t get sold, which I found very sad. So I thought: why not create a sustainable new collection from things that didn’t get sold? I think it is good to create a circular collection with high-end overstock because there is a lot.”
Currently on the shortlist for the 2019 LVMH Prize – the most prestigious award in the fashion industry – Lantink has a clear idea of what luxury is right now. “For me, it has always been the feeling that someone has really paid attention to your garment; that you are the only one in the world wearing it, and it’s a special feeling. Creating unique pieces out of old stock is the new chic. You’re saying: ‘We won’t buy into new materials any more, we only buy into things that have already existed.’ To give something a longer existence is really interesting.”
The phrase “sustainable” also needs a new definition, he says. “For a long time, it was a dull subject – people found it boring; the colours were off. For me, it needs to be playful and youthful with a fashion-forward look on it – not a different way of fashion, but taking it to another level.”
Buyers like his process. Having already secured stockists including the world-famous Galleries Lafayette, people can’t get enough of his avant garde designs – and that includes the designers whose clothes he has cut up. In the past, such flagrant reappropriation of another fashion house’s product would have instigated lawsuits, but as the sustainable fashion movement is proving – and established houses are learning – it is important to support innovative new processes challenging the norm.
“I was at the LVMH shortlist event and I ran into Jonathan Anderson, who knew I had cut up a piece of his knitwear. He was super-enthusiastic. He said it’s so much better to do something new with it, otherwise it ends up in landfill. Humberto Leon from Kenzo was very positive about the approach, too. There are even a few brands who are offering me partnerships at the moment,” he adds, without naming names.
This week, Lantink arrives in London for Fashion Revolution Week (FRW) to set up “a clinic” at 50M – the new concept retail shop in Belgravia, London, that supports emerging designers and is interested in new ways to achieve sustainable fashion. He will occupy the retailer’s first designer residency, supported by the British Fashion Council in collaboration with Fashion Open Studio, which is a FRW initiative.
For the five-day pop-up, he will be offering 10 appointments during which customers can bring in old items, from which he will make two new outfits. “It’s for people to bring in old pieces they don’t wear any more, but which have a nice story. Or things they feel attached to, but which are broken. I create something new where there’s this fresh feeling for their old garments. A lot of people need that at the moment, as they have huge closets, and they don’t do anything with their old [pieces] – they are just hanging there.”
“Fashion Open Studio is at the forefront of showcasing change, so we want emerging designers such as Duran to see us as an important part of their showcasing future,” says Fashion Revolution’s founder, Orsola de Castro. “It is incredibly important to challenge the status quo, and design new systems as well as sustainable collections. We know that the impact of the fashion industry – culturally, socially and environmentally – is massive, and if we want our clothes to reflect our principles, we need to instigate a generational change towards different practices because the present system is damaging.”
For Lantink, the time is now. “People are finding that you can do playful and fashionable stuff with a sustainable approach and I think that’s a revolution.” This year, he looks likely to become known for a lot more than a pair of pink pants.
