The Jan Jan Van Essche Thread

[breakadawn]

Jan Jan Van Essche is a 30-something year old Belgian designer who solely produces menswear, though some women buy his clothing because of the aesthetic it carries. Aside from a really simple, baggy style with beautiful fabrics, JJVE is interesting to me because he only produces one collection per year, all the clothing comes in one size, and he tends to have quite a personal relationship with his clients (although he apparently hates being branded as couture).

He has produced five collections to date, the first starting when he was 30 years old. They can all be viewed , the one I linked is the latest one, which is actually my favourite so far.

Just wanted to get a discussion going yooooo

[breakadawn]

Here are a few of my personal highlights from his lookbooks, I've spread it out over different collections to give some variety. He claims that most of his flintstone comes from West African and Japanese culture, which is pretty easy to see in the drape (kinda like Yohji) and the sewing techniques (which I've heard are inspired by the Asanti).





























JJ and his partner Pietro - they operate this cool shop

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fun jjve cardigan I tried on, to give you a feel for how oversized this is, it's a tagged medium and I'm a fairly true XL

[JtotheWhat]

I think I first saw Jan Jan in the Belgian designer thread here on c-t and since then have become obsessed with him, his style is basically what I have been searching for myself for quite some time, and I had that ''aha!'' moment you get when you find something you feel like was made for you. A lot of designers (or a few at least) create a great silhouette comparable to what JJ does, as someone else said somewhat similar to Yohji, but what sets him apart are his fabric textures, they have so much character and really make the garments come to life for me whereas a lot of other people creating a similar silhouette are using a lot of overall less interesting materials. The combination of his fabrics and his silhouette give it a really cool almost religious appeal which I think he addresses in a couple interviews, it's just a really great jizz on the whole and when you see him and hear what he has to say it feels quite authentic. I also think his emphasis on natural fabrics is great. I don't own any pieces yet but there are a couple I have been eying up and planning to pull the trigger on as a reward to myself as soon as I finish University this winter.

Here is a video of him showing some of his fabrics and garments to someone, quality isn't great but you can see some of the awesome textiles he uses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gXvrgrr7aM


Some cool smaller interviews I've found..


[url]http://coffeeklatch.be/en/interview/2011-09/2/jan-jan-and-piëtro[/url]

[bird.in.flight]

The handwoven pieces from Project Two "Redeem" are done in the traditionally japanese style of Sakiori weaving - strips of various fabrics torn into strips and handwoven on a loom - all done in-Atelier

Here's a picture of the weaving process



And here's a piece made from the finished product taken from Atelier Solarshop's Instagram

[schiaparelli]