Zes-en-zeventig

Platform shoes created by Mayra, (Montevideo, Uruguay). A shirt made by Katia Scoazec (Brest, France) and a skirt from designer Mieke Kockelkorn (Maastricht, the Netherlands)
The photos were taken by Moniek Gerrits.

Vijf-en-zeventig

 

Just an ordinary day in my working studio in Maastricht (the Netherlands). Often people are commenting like: it's just renaissance clothing what you are wearing. But it is defenitely not. It is all contemporary design, only slightly inspired by the past. For example, in medieval or renaissance times, men did not wear black. And, another example, jeans were inspired by rough cloths worn by some american men in the 19th century, but evolved after their re-introduction into timeless basics. Saaibestrijding would like to widen the range of timeless basic clothing for men by showing the great opportunities of leaving the dictatorship of the present dullness behind.

Shoes by Gert Buurman, ordinary black cotton tights, shorts by Anny Schoo, tunic shirt by Katia Scoazec.

Vier-en-zeventig

 

These shoes from Bachick (Montevideo, Uruguay) fit so amazingly well that the high platforms cause surprisingly few problems to walk on. While wearing them I am simply 10 centimetres taller. They look great with the Katiwa-skirts of Drie-en-zeventig en Zeven-en-zestig.

Photos made in some seconds by myself. Later I will replace them by pictures where also my head is visible!

Drie-en-zeventig

A skirt and shirt created by Katia Scoazec from Bretagne, France. Photographed by Gonnie Meijer, in front of the Africa Museum at Tervuren.

Twee-en-zeventig

Alise Tilaka from Latvia created the wonderful calligraphy painting on the left leg of these black tights.

Alise: "When I was painting them, I thought - the meaning need to be strong, manly and some way with mysticism. So.. I painted 'Lāčplēs', after the name of a hero who appears in epic poems. He was called 'the bear slayer'. Once, when he was young, he fought with an angry bear. He won the fight and took the bears' ears where all the power was. With this power he fight for the free Latvia".
(for more about this story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C4%81%C4%8Dpl%C4%93sis and
http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/12747/)

'Lačplēs' is like calling him. Alise painted also on the letters some symbols of latvian mythology:

Jumis – (from root jum- roof-) was a god of sky and fertility. He is associated with "double-plants", such as two crop stalks or trees which have grown together and share a trunk or stem. During harvesting, some stalks of the crops are bent to the ground and secured in that location with stones. During his holiday, Miķeļi, a ritual called the "Catching of Jumis" is performed, it involves a procession that carries some grains (symbol of "captured" Jumis) home, thereby ensuring the following year's harvest will be at least as successful. He is depicted as a short man with clothes that resemble ears of wheat, hops and barley.
Laima – (laim- (luck-)) was a goddess in both Latvian and Lithuanian mythology. She is the personification of fate and of luck, both good and bad. She was associated with childbirth, marriage, death, proliferation, and domesticity. She was also the patron of pregnant women. Some sources proclaim three Laima's, which means that either this goddess had three aspects or this could have been general name for three deities. Alternative names include Laime, Laimė (Lithuanian), Laimas māte, Laimes māte ("Mother of Luck").
Māra – (Mary) is the highest-ranking goddess, a feminine Dievs. She may be thought as alternate side of Dievs (like in Yin Yang). Other Latvian goddesses, sometimes all of them, are considered her alternate aspects.
Saule – (the sun) was the goddess of the sun and fertility, patron goddess of the unlucky, including orphans. She was the mother of Saules meitas and lived on top of a mountain and flew across the sky on her chariot. At night, she sailed across the sea. She is a beloved Baltic Sun Goddess sometimes recognised as a red apple, setting in the west. Saule is reborn as her daughter, the morning star at the Winter Solstice. Saulė is also a Lithuanian goddess.
(from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvian_mythology and other sources)

Photography: Gonnie Meijer
Location: HuismethetHandje, Maastricht, the Netherlands
Link to Alise Tilakas webshop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Aguce

Eén-en-zeventig

Wonderful tights. Mariana (Nanafro Textile Art) created them especially for me as male tights. Tights? I think it's more correct to talk about textile art for legs.

Photography: Gonnie Meijer
Location: St Mihiel, Meuse, France

Zeventig

Shorts over tights, linen shoes from the Spanish brand Andres Machado.

Artist Moniek Gerrits asked me to act as a model in her theatrical works, which are mostly based on a photographic layer. These are two of her photos, taken on the Ile Monsin, just north of Liège, Belgium.

Negen-en-zestig

Layered ensemble: skirt, another skirt, trousers, wide shirt. Except for the shirt (Katia Scoazec, see older posts) I forgot where I found the other things.

Artist Moniek Gerrits asked me to appear in her theatrical works, which are mostly based on a photographic layer. This is one of her photos taken in the heart of the industrial human landscape on the Ile Monsin, just north of Liège, Belgium.

Acht-en-zestig

Hemp/tencel wrap skirt (male version) by Yana Dee, USA. Short tunic shirt made by myself.

Artist Moniek Gerrits asked me to appear in her theatrical works, which are mostly based on a photographic layer. This is one of her photos where I stand in front of an amazing brick wall on the Ile Monsin, just north of Liège, Belgium.

Zeven en zestig

Wide shirt and long balloon skirt, designed & made by Katia Scoazec, France. The tights were found at Sokkenkraam on the internet, and the shoes are designed & made by Philippe Pasteur. He lives and works also in France.

Photography: Gonnie Meijer
Location: Abbaye de Landevennec, Finistère, France.

Zes-en-zestig

It is not the type, it is the shape of clothing that labels them as male or female. Together with the personality who wears them. Considering this, things like skirts, dresses, sarouels and tights are just another ordinary kind of male clothing for me. And 'ballet flats'. I like this kind of comfortable unisex shoes. Unisex? .... ! Do not forget that, in earlier times they were only worn by men... These canvas ones, created by the spanish brand Andres Machado are amazingly well designed and fit really like a second skin.

Vijf-en-zestig

I found these knee-long sarouel pants in a shop for 'alternative clothing' in the French city of Angers. The wide linen shirt was designed&made by myself, some years ago.

Photography: Gonnie Meijer
Location: AINSI, Maastricht, the Netherlands

Vier-en-zestig

Shoes, inspired by early men shoes. These excellent shoes are designed and made by Gert Buurman (Gelderse Roos), the Netherlands. To wear them, the lower part of the extremely extended back part must be secured by wrapping a ribbon, a long piece of rough fabric, a shoestring or something else around the ankle.

Photography: Gonnie Meijer
Location: The wooden floor of our Petit Théâtre du Béton Brut, Maastricht

Drie-en-zestig

Flat shoes by Philippe Pasteur (Fylou), France

Photography: Gonnie Meijer
Location: the wooden floor of our Petit Théâtre du Béton Brut

Twee-en-zestig

Shoes made entirely of linen and other natural fabrics and materials. Male version of them, designed and made by TheGeneration, Canada.

Photography: Gonnie Meijer
Location: Petit Théâtre du Béton Brut, Maastricht

Eén-en-zestig

Knee-long wrap skirt for men by Sophie Laronde, France.

Photography: Gonnie Meijer
Locations: Petit Théâtre du Béton Brut and AINSI, Maastricht

Zestig

Wide balloon skirt by AnnySchoo. The skirt is double-layered with wide pockets in between the layers. Winter sweater in handmade knitwork by Maria van Stratum, from Maastricht, the Netherlands.

Photography: Gonnie Meijer
Location: Ainsi, Maastricht

Negen-en-vijftig

Black cotton sarouel pants designed and made by lesBabafeurs, Bretagne, France. Decoration in grey coloured cotton, including two pockets containing two handkerchiefs in the same style and grey fabric.
Shoes designed and made by Fylou, France.

Photography: Gonnie Meijer
Location: AINSI, Maastricht

Acht-en-vijftig

Skirt (one of a kind) designed and made by theSimpson, China. The wide shirt shows the strong style of Katia Scoazec (Katiwacréas) from Bretagne, France.

Photography: Gonnie Meijer
Location: Petit théâtre du Béton Brut, Maastricht