The illustration world by Liselore Frowijn ss17

The SS17 collection ’SAGOI’, is an homage to an old canal house in Amsterdam with beautifully contained ‘Delft Blue’ tiles dated 1667. Liselore Frowijn has interpreted the iconic hand-painted ceramics by tracing them with her signature style, both painting the illustrations directly on silk and using blown-up graphics in bold overall prints.

The illustrations display mythical scenes of an escape to a pastoral lifestyle of farmers in the Dutch 17th century. Research on these tiles’ topography brought Frowijn to the Japanese island of Kyūshū, where Dutch-Japanese exchange started around 400 years ago. The maritime trade of technological instruments for indigo and ceramics issued the start of a ‘blue period’ in the Netherlands, influencing amongst others the famous Delftware pottery and tiles. Liselore Frowijn visited the Japanese island this summer to work with local artisans in the indigo-workshops on developing several textiles and implementing techniques that have been used for decades.

Next to the abstracted pastoral scenes, the pieces feature nude figure drawings inspired on the traditional Japanese Shunga erotic woodcut prints, combined with flower-dessins from the Mantero archive. With additional screenprinted graphic layers of blown-up Japanese masks, shibori-indigo dyes, woven kasuri textiles and Delft Blue paintings, the entire collection embodies the story of two worlds meeting once again in intermixed cultural traditions.

Using the tunic as a base piece, the collection has grown into a semi-couture extravagance of where each look presents a new layer and playfully stacked bold prints. Each garment can be worn as a canvas depending on your mood, with a dazzling richness in combination as a result, balancing on luxury-couture and sporty details. The woman Liselore admires embraces the unknown with a sweltering sensuality and as you imagine the Amsterdam house, she takes you to an idyllic realm where two worlds collide.