Claes Iversen presents his latest couture collection ‘Play’ on September 1, 2022 during Amsterdam Fashion Week at the Adyen premises on the Rokin. Starting point for the collection are open-mindedness and playfulness.

Play’ makes everything less serious. The starting point for the collection is the pleasure in the entire design process, from sketch to final result. The feeling of putting together an outfit spontaneously, intuitively, and unforced – like a child dressing up with old stuff from the dressing-up box – that is the basis of this collection. An eclectic cacophony! The feeling of a dressing up box illustrates how you can be sustainable with your wardrobe and make a game out of it. Combining old and new, making items yourself, adding second hand finds… ‘Have fun with it and play’.

The collection consisting of 19 looks is an exuberant mix of materials, shapes, prints, embroidery, styles and colors in which Claes combines self-developed fabrics with studio stock and vintage materials. A number of materials are unexpected such as terry cloth and crocheted fabrics. Prints are mostly by her own hand whereby the flowers are hand-painted. A graphic stripe literally runs through the collection as a contrasting motif to all the colors and prints. The stripe feels like it doesn’t belong in the collection, but at the same time it is the unifying factor in the collection.

“I gave myself the freedom to have fun designing the collection without collecting or approaching all the outfits too much from a whole. That’s why almost all fabrics and prints only appear once. In the end, the 19 looks gradually became a collection by themselves.” Thus Claes Iversen.