The Netherlands isn’t always on the map for fashion outside of denim, yet for a small country the ratio of Dutch designers in Haute Couture is quite high with names like Iris Van Herpen, Jan Taminiau, Viktor&Rolf and recently at Pairs Haute Couture Week we saw Xuan. The spirit of couture was alive during the opening day of Amsterdam Fashion Week with the upcoming designers making up the Future Generation including Gino Anthonisse of Dutch collective Das Leben am Haverkamp, other designers that stood out include Bound Amsterdam and Trinhbecx.

When asking around how to describe the Dutch aesthtic, answers ranged from whimsical to practical, but the reacurring answer was “unsexy”. How refreshing it is to live in a world where women are neither the lover or the housewife, but women who go out and wonder what to wear when riding a bicycle.