
Let’s have a chat with fashiondesigner Dorhout Mees! Since the launch of her own high end fashion label DORHOUT MEES in 2010, Esther Louise Dorhout Mees has become an inspiration of design. Her feminine and conceptual approach to couture is changing the world of fashion. It will not take long until you see her creativity extend internationally.
LISAMARCOM had a question-and-answer with the bubbly personality.
It’s quite a ride this season: You’re showing your 8th collection at MBFWA and you’re having a Tableau Vivant at the Rijksmuseum. How does it all feel?
“I feel very lucky, and so grateful.. I am very honored for my collaboration with the Rijksmuseum, it is such an impressive museum, whenever I enter I feel like I am in a different country. It has that grandeur. To be showing at the Gashouder for Mercedes Benz Fashion Week again is very special. It is such a big stage to present your work, and again the building is unique and brings something raw to the presentation which I love.”
Can you tell me a bit about the inspiration for the new collection? Who is your muse?
“My new collection is all about the sensitivity of water molecules. The fascination of ‘ memory of water’. How it can actually transform by the memory of it’s context or even just words. On a cellular level. This is visible to the eye by comparing different water cells. They transform from a hexagram to very complex almost mathematical shapes. So in this case my muse would be the Japanese researches.”
How do you define your style?
“It is conceptual, but wear ability is key, and feminine. Also I like to develop materials of all kinds and work and develop unconventional materials and make them wearable. Then I develop my own prints and in a way they always tell the essence of the story of that collection, so they are a big part of my label.”
How to stay true to your vision?
“I think it must be that I work from my heart, so from the inside out and not the other way around. I have learned that keeping my work close to what feels true to me, makes it really mine..Also I have patience with my ideas and goals.”
Looking back on your career as a designer, what do you consider as the most exciting milestone?
“That is a funny thing, it keeps moving from goal to goal, every time you reach the next one, that is the one you are happiest about. Of course I remember how happy I was showing for the first time at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. And my first exposition at Marcel Wanders Moooi Gallery, was another. My Exposition at Copenhagen Fashion week at the St. Petri Hotel was yet another. But equally when I was asked by Bruuns Bazaar to design and develop an Haute Couture piece to travel the world and show in New York Fashion Week was very special even though it was not for my own brand.”
What’s the best career advice you ever received?
“To stay true to my own style and work ethics. And to say ‘yes’! first, and deal with the ‘how’ later.”
Tell me something what people don’t know about designing a clothing line.
“I am sure people don’t really know what hard complicated work goes into developing a clothing line, we can work on something for a whole week, sometimes 2, something in the construction alone, and that you won’t even see or notice when you see it on the catwalk. A lot of detailed handwork, photographing, then editing all the designs for my prints. Then developing my collection movie to reflect perfectly what story lies behind the collection, so people will be able to get that feeling themselves. Shooting, directing, editing.. Then creating the show around it to do the collection justice, that again is an whole other story in itself. And these really are only 10 % of what it really entails to creating a line and brand.”
What do you look for in an employee?
“A positive mentality and enthusiasm, I want to feel some of the same drive in someone that I have, if they want to do this because this is what they love, love, love. And are willing to work hard for it. Then we can talk.”
Which part of the job would you consider as the most underrated?
“Not by me, let me put that first, but I think the business part of owning a business.”
How important is it for a fashion designer to have a fashion-related degree?
“I think it can really help, it develops your ideas to another level, and it trains you to know how hard you need to work to make it. Having said that, everybody is different and should find a method that fits their personality. There are many roads to a goal.”
Are you seeing more fashion design students going the alternative route and starting their own labels after graduation, rather than working for other companies?
“I don’t know if there are more or less then before, I think for many it is always the dream, always has been. I do think that there might be a mentality that working in a company might not give you the same securities as it might have done before, so in comparison it might feel less insecure to start for yourself. Just guessing ;-)”
What happens next? How do you plan to grow your company?
“If only I knew what would happen next! I am working really hard on the financial, production and business part of my company. It needs to run a machine when we take it more and more international.”
Win 2 tickets for the DORHOUT MEES catwalk show at Mercedez-Benz FashionWeek Amsterdam (Sunday 13th of July 2014 – 5 pm).
Not able to go to Mercedez-Benz FashionWeek Amsterdam? DORHOUT MEES is having a Tableau Vivant on the 9th of July at the Rijksmuseum, in the room of the famous Nachtwacht. This event is accessible for everyone.
Foto door team Peter Stigter