zondag 18 juli 2010

House of Denim Project 'Spread the Word' Handkerchief



The House of Denim is based on a love of denim and a shared sense of responsibility. This means that personal commitment and enthusiasm are crucial to success.

Especially since we've decided to go for the full 4-element set up, it could be seen as quite an ambitious project. All in all, we're going to need the support of pretty much every brand in the market, as well as believers in government, trade, education and the science community.


To make this happen, the wonderful designers over at AnotherCompany (check out their work!) have designed a fantastic 'storytelling tool'.

It's a dark indigo coloured handkerchief, snugly folded between two tough cardboard covers and featuring a personal note from me, telling the story of our project.

I'm hand-delivering it to all the denim industry bigwigs, mayors and players behind the scenes I know, asking them to spread the word.

Please send me suggestions of people you think should be receiving one of our 'Story Handkerchiefs'. We made 200 of them, so they're very exclusive.

In future, we intend to make new series in different colours, to use as sponsor sales merchandise. For now though, it's to leave behind after personally conveying our story.

Presentation at Amsterdam Int'l Fashion Week


This friday, exactly 6 months after announcing the initiative and conducting an expert cocreation workshop at the January 2010 edition of Amsterdam Fashion Week, I was back at the wonderful AIFW venue at Westergasfabriek for another presentation.

Friday is generally known as 'business day' because many sponsors and trade organisations take the opportunity to combine business with pleasure, i.e. organise a meeting strategically around 4PM on Friday, after which they hit the bar to mingle with fashionistas and visit the 1800 show at the main venue.

This season, I was very happy to see a 'Bright Green' theme shine through; t the first Green Fashion initiative (a coop between Fashion Week and the Ministry of Agriculture to promote biodiversity through innovative design) was launched by our friend Kentroy Williams (of Intoxica fame).

Unfortunately i could not attend, because i had been invited by the ABN AMRO Young Bankers association to present our House of Denim initiative. The Young Bankers were very interested, especially because it combines sustainability with passion and it aims to strengthen the Amsterdam denim business.

I also took the opportunity to present ABN Amro Bank's CFO Jan van Rutten with our House of Denim scarf - and urged him to spread the word to all the industry bigwigs he meets. He promised he would do so...

zondag 4 juli 2010

Big News - Jean School pilot starts in January 2011

In close conjunction with the ROCvA (Amsterdam's regional education council) we will be starting a pilot of Jean School, the House of Denim's crafts education program.

Plans for the 10-week pilot programme will be developed in September; we will be posting the draft plans on slideshare. All industry experts are invited to contribute their ideas.

More information will be posted soon - as well as more news about the other three parts of House of Denim: the Lab, Archive and Network.