KEUPR/van BENTM
In January of 1999, during the Paris Haute Couture, Michiel Keuper and Francisco Van Benthum, the designers behind Keupr/van Bentm, put on a fashion show. The program notes describe the runway looks. Black Hole (3 1/2 meters squared of black polyestertrippleslash, cut and folded on the backseam which is to be worn over a double-breasted twisterpantyhose); Chemical Insult (One-piece doublesided slap of grasshoppergreen polymorph-lush); Tribute to Leigh Bowery (Green on blue polka-dotted 2/3 pantalonium, attached to a paper-folded skeleton, standing about 1.90 meters measured from the shoulder. Light, multi-colored foam-stuffed back-piece completed with eleven meters of rhinestone trimminqs.). If all of this sounds incredible, that was the point. Invitations were sent out the day after the show was to take place. The show never happened. “It enabled us to do the impossible," they explain. Keuper and Van Benthum both graduated from the fashion department of the Arnhem Institute for the Arts, Keuper in 1993 and Van Benthum in 1995. They shared a studio space and soon discovered that they also shared a sense of the absurd. They made their debut as Keupr/van Bentm in 1997. In their work, wearable elements are broken down into bits and then thrown together again seemingly at random, a sartorial puzzle whose pieces don't quite fit. Keuper and Van Benthum refer to their presentations—the ones they actually produce as well as the imaginary ones—quite accurately as "Parades”: shoulders sprout spheres and explode out of holes in the backs of jackets; pants change their minds midstream and become skirts; corsets have collisions with coats; a ludicrously baroque man’s suit is composed from shards of a kilt, trousers, a scarf and a house plant. Then there are the accessories: opera-length kitchen mits, donkey masks, capes, top hats, tulle tutus, and a "pressing-egg" covered in rhinestones.They use their system of fragmentation and montage to turn garments on their ear and, they say, to do the same to our comprehension. "The viewer is confronted with what he or she already knows or can refer to, but this image is only the first layer. As soon as the model turns, garments are not what they seem to be," they wrote in the notes to their 1998 collection “Evil Wrapped in Beauty." "It's very hard to do something new these days," they say. "We never want to take things for granted.”
Alix Browne
From: Visionaire’s FASHION 2001, designers of the new avant-garde,
published by Universe Publishing, USA, 1999 
Keupr/van Bentm
"We want to develop new things and let people view fashion in a different way. In the beginning we did this very literally. You can create different effects by making an outfit with four different sides." In his Arnhem studio Michiel Keuper shows an example on the mannequin. And indeed, the 'door dress', a design from 1997, is at the same time a pair of trousers, a coat, a dress and also even a door. It just depends on the side you view the design from.
Michiel Keuper (b.1970) and Francisco van Benthum (b.1972) both attended the Academy in Arnhem and were soon working in the same studio. They proved to be so like-minded in their designs that they decided in 1997 to work together. "We share a sense of the absurd and complement each other very well. Francisco is good at the broad outline, while I tend to reflect more on construction and detail," Keuper explains. They became a partnership based in Arnhem. They make smartly constructed hand-made, experimental fashion articles. It is haute couture of the right type, they think. "Our collections are a response to the couture revival that started with John Galliano and Alexander McQueen," Keuper explains. "With ready-to-wear clothes you have to comply with all kinds of rules, however the couture should basically be a sanctuary, a laboratory for experiments. In our opinion Galliano and McQueen don't do this enough. They revert too often to existing styles. With our designs we are trying to introduce a completely new and fresh fashion image." The light-hearted and casual tone in which KEUPR/vanBENTM try to achieve this is quite remarkable. They certainly have imagination, as was demonstrated by their latest collection FROST, which was on display in Paris last October. At first sight it was an ode to the circus and majorettes. The boots, the sticks, the hats were all recognisable and the materials even showed a dog jumping through a ring. One layer lower and it was possible to recognise an entire range of sashes and ribbons. Sometimes these functioned as normal piping on trousers or as a belt. Other times they folded into a loincloth with a man's suit. "What we do may look a bit casual, but it certainly is not cut-and-paste work. We do it very thoroughly. "They can never be accused of a botch-job, because on detailed examination; each design reveals a degree of professionalism with brilliant patterns. The only thing is that the components are a little strange. The Farm Parade collection, which they showed in March 1999 as a final project for their master's at the FIA (Fashion Institute Arnhem) in Paris, for example, included slanting belts which functioned partly as a wide petticoat. And a coat with a striking palm-tree print changed into a corset when viewed from a different angle.
Such far-reaching hybrids often result in surprising new clothing images. When combined with such surprising accessories as oven gloves or bags in the form of a large egg, you just can't believe your eyes. This general confusion is exactly what KEUPR/vanBENTM intend to create, although the name Elsa Schiaparelli, their great example makes their work slightly more understandable. At first sigh casual, turbulent somewhat surrealist style of the duo does not seem to match the training they received at the Fashion Institute in Arnhem. "When we started to work together in 1997, our work was still completely based on the subtle Arnhem approach: moving a seam and other technical aspects. We wanted to break all that open", says Van Benthum. "We knew how trousers should be designed and also how a perfect, comfortable jacket should be made. We don't think that's interesting anymore." The duo made their very first creations for a Dutch competition the Robijn Fashion Award, with three wild outfits in which dresses and trousers were combined in a lively way. One shoulder section even included the shape of an ice-cream. However, the response by press and public at the time was only lukewarm. What did these strange designs mean? When six months later they appeared in the fashion magazine DUTCH, positive reactions slowly followed. They became more popular when they presented their new collection (Evil Wrapped in Beauty) during the 1998 Hyeres fashion festival and won the La Ville de Hyeres Prize. Their presentations at the next prêt-á-porter shows in Paris were even funded by the festival. It took some time before the distinguished and penetrating style of KEUPR/vanBENTM was understood and appreciated; meanwhile their popularity was growing all the time. Andre Leon Talley of American Vogue even shouted out bravo during the presentation of Farm Parade. Since then Keuper and Van Benthum have shown their collection three times in Paris, and always at the pret-a-porter-shows, even though they were designing experimental haute couture. This contradiction will end. "You can't continue to present yourself during the prêt-á-porter-shows if you don't have a marketable collection. For the time being we want to continue to experiment, because that's where our strength lies. We hope that we'll be able to develop a portable prêt-á-porter line some time in the future," Van Benthum concludes. Therefore the work will continue in the usual way in their small-scale studio, with its fine view of a park. And in coming years they will remain responsible for all aspects of their work: the design process, drawing patterns, accessories, as well as their own public relations.
José Teunissen
(from the catalogue “Droog & Dutch Design”, published by Centraal Museum Utrecht and Living Design Center – Ozone, Tokyo, 2000)
