During the months we were living in Paris, Atelier Neerlandais kind of felt like a little piece of home away from home, as it is an organisation linked with the Dutch Embassy in Paris, offering a platform to Dutch creative initiatives. Among the creative individuals focusing on fashion, young designer Bono van Peursem would be showcasing his first collection here during Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week. After seeing some teasers on his social media, knowing he has completed an internship working in the haute couture atelier of Zuhair Murad, our expectations were quite high. Relatively higher than you would normally anticipate for the first collection from such a young designer (after the show he reminded us that he was actually only 16 when we first met him at Amsterdam Fashion Week 4 years ago) and of course his own outspoken appearrance also plays a role.
As the suspenseful and dark melodies of the music filled the elegant white room while the first model walked out one thing became clear straight away; this collection is for badass bombshells who have tons of confidence and don’t mind having all eyes on them. Using a lot of black, grey and metallic silver, the designs are super feminine, sexy and powerful while always remaining tasteful and sophisticated. Bono does not shy away from giving his looks that extra oomph by using sequins, fringes, fur or sheer materials, treating us to looks that are befitting for the true femme fatale. Our favourites were the full-on silver metallic jumpsuit, followed by the jacket from the same material with grey fur and the short black cocktail dress with ultra deep clevage. The long black gown which featured more than 100 metres of black tulle and an endless train sweeping behind it was an absolute showstopper too, reportedly taking the designer more than 200 hours to create.
It is very inspirational to see a designer that is very forward and callous with the flamboyance of his looks. His aesthetic is clear from the get go and the fact that he really took risks for his first collection compensates for the fact that a few of the pieces didn’t fit like a glove exactly. Furthermore, the title of the collection “Desire” is very well suited and very much induced Joanna’s desire to own all of the looks. Gazing upon a picture of 90’s topmodel Claudia Schiffer, Bono was inspired by her facial expression which exuded desire, making him ponder about his own desires in life. Wondering if one could ever desire too much, the message of his collection is the ongoing desire that is taken over by a new desire once it is fulfilled. Because your life would essentially be over once you have achieved absolutely everything you ever wanted…..you will always desire more naturally. Following the spirit of this ethos, Bono van Peursem has definitely put the phrase “less is more” to shame with this glamorous debut.
