we delivered the sound score for the ready to wear sis by spijkers en spijkers fall winter 2015 show. amsterdam fashion week was jam packed to see the new collection by the twin sisters from hollands fashion mecca called arnhem.
their inspiration came from two novels: ‘metamorphosis’ by frans kafka and ‘erik of het klein insectenboek’ by beloved dutch author godfried bomans. both novels are about people transforming into insects.
we have loved both stories for many many years. we reread both masterpieces, saw the collection and initial running order and were in doubt if we had to translate the books into a literally insect mix… after a phone call with one of the spijker sisters we found out the insects had transformed into human beings in a metropolis, tiny insects traveling the streets of megacities. their travels were digitalized into moving and multiplying neon lines, reminiscent of the movie tron. we had to transform their ideas into our mix.
the collection was awesome: affordable clothes in great cuts, colours and fabrics with chequered stripes and tiny insects prints. a few looks showed giant beatles in bright colours. their six legged bodies were translated in the cuts of the clothes, which flirted with early twentieth century dutch art movement de stijl, made famous by amongst others mondriaan, doesburg and rietveld. spijkers en spijkers love the twenties, and so do we. but that era was not a great inspiration for this sound score: it had to be edgy and modern, a pumping fashion machine, unstoppable like the neon lines in tron. at the same time we didn’t want to go too techno, it had to be a little feel-good with a huge strong, feminine and futuristic attitude.
spijkers en spijkers like no-nonsense shows. they love simple straight forward choreographies, clean catwalks without decors and great models who know how to rule a runway. we gave those girls the music on which they could do a proper job: walk, walk and walk. our favourite dutch catwalk man machine shona lee gál was part of the posse, we loved seeing her delivering big time to our music.
mutsumi’s ‘breastmilk’ was the first track, followed by matthew dear, a cover of bowie’s ‘fashion’ by afghan raiders and a track by holy ghost. we sampled kraftwerks ‘technopop’ to blend the major tracks together and used their music for the finale. all was set to a 115 steps per minute pace: a fierce no-nonsense tempo with cool music for a great new collection. we loved doing this show and truly love spijkers en spijkers.
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