Keupr/van Bentm - 'Evil Wrapped in Beauty/ parade 1998'

Recording of the Keupr/van Bentm presentation at Paris Fashion Week, october 1998 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in the Louvre in Paris.

Fanzine/ Mode and Mode

In 2018 Mode and Mode dedicated a single issue to Friction/Parade 1999, our collaboration with the Experimental Jetset from 1999. Mode and Mode is concerned with experimental publishing and fashion, and takes the form of a periodical and collaboration between editor Laura Gardner and designer Karina Soraya with each issue singularly exploring a fashion publishing subject.

The issue features a reprint of Friction/Parade, as well as an interview with Michiel about how the project came about in the context of Dutch design in the late 1990s. More info and the possibility to purchase a Mode and Mode copy: here.

Mode and Mode four ‘fashion without fashion’ features a reprint of the publication Friction/Parade 99 (1999) created by Keupr/Van Bentm in collaboration with Experimental Jetset.

February 2018
English, Softcover, 46 pages
11 × 17.5 cm
Edition of 500
$6 AUD

Magazine Launch/ Monument No. 2 - Keupr/van Bentm

At the direct beginning of this new decade, a blast from the past :)  

On January 16th 2020 the second edition of Monument Magazine, dedicated to Keupr/van Bentm, will be launched at Athenaeum Booksellers in Amsterdam.

Monument is a project initiated by Mary-Lou Berkulin and dedicated to Dutch fashion design around the turn of the century. The magazine features contributions by photographer Roos Quakernaat, and researcher Laura Gardner. Graphic design by Karen van de Kraats.

If you’re around, we’d be very pleased to see you, see invitation details below.  

We would be happy to share with you the past in the present with memories of our work. 

Otherwise look out for a copy in selected international magazine stores, or visit www.monumentmagazine.nl. 

Cartoon Couture/ Flash Art Online

Some time ago I was interviewed by Matthew Linde for Flash Art Online. We talked about the beginnings of Keupr/van Bentm, studying at ArtEZ Arnhem, showing in Paris, our maximalist answer to late 1990s minimalism and more. Have a read by clicking here.

Interview for O.P.A. blog / December 2014

In December 2014 I was interviewed by Peter Nijenhuis of  Ontwerp Platform Arnhem for the O.P.A.-blog on Keupr/van Bentm, the fashion label I ran with Francisco van Benthum till 2001, on the fashion climate in the 1990s in Holland in general, on the abouts of the so-called Dutch Wave, the Fashion Institute Arnhem MA, presenting in Paris, being in Berlin and more. 

Click the link for the full article: https://o-p-a.nl/nl/artikelen/michiel-keuper-berlijn

For those interested, beware, it's a longread (and sorry to non-Dutch readers; so far the interview is only in Dutch. A translation might be coming up).

FROST/ Parade 1999 - details

Keupr/van Bentm - Frost/ Parade 1999, video still

Keupr/van Bentm - Frost/ Parade 1999, video still

Keupr/van Bentm - Frost/ Parade 1999, video still

Keupr/van Bentm - Frost/ Parade 1999, video still

Keupr/van Bentm - Frost/ Parade 1999, video still

Keupr/van Bentm - Frost/ Parade 1999, video still

Fleurs du Mal / spring 1998

Keupr/van Bentm - Fleurs du Mal #2, 1998

Click photos to enlarge.

'Fleurs du Mal/ Collection Femmes/ Hiver 1998' was selected for the Festival des jeunes Stylistes in Hyères, France, in the spring of 1998. It was awarded with the Prix de la Ville, and with a special jury prize consisting of a presentation in The Musée des Art Décorativs in the Louvre, Paris, during Fashion Week in october later that year. For that occasion we complemented the collection with a menswear part, under the title 'Evil Wrapped in Beauty'. For a video of this presentation published in an earlier post, click here.

Keupr/van Bentm -Fleurs du Mal #1, 1998

Keupr/van Bentm -Fleurs du Mal #1, 1998

Keupr/van Bentm -Fleurs du Mal #3, 1998

Keupr/van Bentm -Fleurs du Mal #3, 1998

Keupr/van Bentm -Fleurs du Mal #5, 1998

Keupr/van Bentm -Fleurs du Mal #6, 1998

Keupr/van Bentm -Fleurs du Mal #7, 1998

Keupr/van Bentm -Fleurs du Mal #7, 1998

Keupr/van Bentm -Fleurs du Mal #8, 1998

Keupr/van Bentm -Fleurs du Mal #9, 1998

Keupr/van Bentm -Fleurs du Mal #10, 1998

All photography © by Keupr/van Bentm, 1998-2014

Farm Parade, test shoot / march 1999

Farm Parade, test shoot, march 1999 - Photo Keupr/van Bentm

Farm Parade, test shoot, march 1999 - Photo Keupr/van Bentm

Test shoot done in our studio. We did the official shoot a couple of days later in the same setting. Make up by Jessica Helbach.

Caught In Colour / summer 1997

Caught in Colour, 1997 - test shot

Caught in Colour was our first collaboration. Initially conceived for a Dutch design competition, that required a 'full range collection', with the restriction to only present 3 outfits. We started off with writing a manifesto. To challenge the jury, and to challenge ourselves.

At the time, 1997, the heyday of 1990s minimalism, we wanted to find a way to break free from preconceived 'good taste'. We wanted to explore what would happen if Concept would take over Function, Design would take over Wearability, and last but not least, what would happen if we would go crazy with Colour.

Caught in Colour - Manifesto, summer 1997

To free one self from one's habits, and convictions of 'good taste' (after all we were trained at ArtEz Arnhem, known at the time for Dutch conceptualism) proved not that easy. One of the tricks we used to invite Risk and Randomness into our design process, was mutual designing. We would sit opposite of each other, set an alarm, and switch our sketches every 5 minutes, and continue drawing. 

Caught in Colour - sketches, summer 1997

One of the competition's restrictions, to present a full range collection of 3 outfits, tempted us to design hybrid outfits; total looks that contained at least 4 different garments in one, and that transmitted a complete different message from every angle. 

Caught in Colour - Final sketches, summer 1997

Caught in Colour #1, 1997,  studio shot, 2 sides

Caught in Colour #3, 1997,  studio shot, 2 sides

We made it to the competition's semi final in the World Fashion Center in Amsterdam. Not a gathering place for the avant garde, as we were to find out. Our participation was not a succes. When our outfits paraded the catwalk, the audience literally went silent and was dumbfounded. The jury not any less. We were dismissed. 

Teachers from our school who had come to support us, were shocked. We might have killed minimalism, but the world, or at least the Netherlands, was not yet ready for it...

It took us a week to recover and to realize that it maybe wasn't so much about our work, but about the context. Our designs were a statement against mainstream, so probably a mainstream competition was not the best place to present it. We decided to create our own context by extending our concept to a photo shoot. We built a setting in our studio, and we spend a week with our friend Jessica Helbach on Art Direction (and indeed our model for the shoot).

Caught in Colour #1, official shoot, fall 1997

Caught in Colour #2, official shoot, fall 1997

Caught in Colour #3, official shoot, fall 1997

These photo's then appeared in DUTCH Magazine, accompanying an article by Nico Velthuis in februari 1998. As this was the magazines first international edition, it brought first recognition from abroad. Notably from a Japanese founded shop for avant garde fashion in London; The Pineal Eye. At the time run by Yuko Yabiku and Nicola Formichetti (click here for an article from The Indepent from june 1998). Later that year they invited us for a solo shop window installation, that took place in december 1998.

Caught in Colour 1997, Dutch Magazine, februari 1998

Portrait for the 'Droog & Dutch Design' catalogue / spring 2000

Keupr/van Bentm, portrait for the catalogue 'Droog & Dutch Design', accompanying the eponymous exhibition held at the Living design Center OZONE in Tokyo in the fall of 2000 - photo: Maartje Geels

The photo was taken in our studio in Arnhem. See below how it was used on the back of the cover of the catalogue (click to enlarge).

Back cover catalogue 'Droog & Dutch Design' -  graphic design by Thonik

The Palm and the Girl / Les Dix Parfums, 2005 - In collaboration with the Dutch Fashion Foundation

A video made in collaboration with the Dutch Fashion Foundation (DFF) as part of a series of 10 short videos called 'Les Dix Parfums', featuring 10 Dutch fashion designers.
Concept video: Keupr/van Bentm / Concept series & artistic direction: Angelique Westerhof / Director & director of photography: Paul Staartjes / Hair: Taco Stuiver

For the setting of the video we were inspired by the portraits of Coco Chanel in her famous mirrored staircase at her studio on Rue Cambon.

Mark Shaw - Coco Chanel, Paris, 1957

Mark Shaw - Coco Chanel, Paris, 1957

The featured outfit came from a special Prêt-á-Porter DeLuxe-series we did in september 2004 for a gala event celebrating 15 years of Dutch ELLE. 

On the set of 'Les Dix Parfums', january 2005- photo: Keupr/van Bentm

On the set of 'Les Dix Parfums', january 2005 - photo: Keupr/van Bentm

On the set of 'Les Dix Parfums', january 2005 - photo: Keupr/van Bentm

On the set of 'Les Dix Parfums', january 2005 - photo: Keupr/van Bentm

The palm tree was a reference to our iconic palm-print from our collection 'Farm/ Parade 1999', presented in Paris in march 1999.

Farm/ Parade 1999, photo © Keupr/van Bentm

Farm/ Parade 1999, photo © Keupr/van Bentm

Friction / Parade 1999 - in collaboration with The Experimental Jetset, January 1999

This collection, the one that Alix Browne is referring to in her text on Keupr/van Bentm in 'Visionaire's FASHION 2001' (see post below and on the 'texts'-page) was never executed. The show intentionally never took place. Friction/Parade 1999 only existed as a little booklet and in imagination. And exactly that was the point.

The show location was picked out of a Paris telephone directory, the show date was set to coincide with the Paris Haute Couture Week in january 1999. It was made sure however that guests only got their invitation (= the booklet) a day after this date so nobody would be tempted to actually show up, because it was by no means a practical joke. It was a conceptual collection in the most literally sense; it allowed us to do the impossible.

The booklet was the invitation and the show in one. The text can be read as a surreal poem, using clichés  from the fashion world in general and fashion shows in particular. The basic story consists of 2 time lines, both starting at 5.00pm/17.00h, the official starting time of the show as given on the invitation.

The story line printed in black, follows the hour of the (imaginary) show in chronologic intervals. The story line printed in grey however, counts backwards and gives impressions of the preparations on the day leading up to the show. On the last page are the titles and descriptions of the 13 runway looks.  

From the press release: " 'FRICTION/parade 1999' concentrates on experiment in form, technique and colour and is rather a statement about fashion than appearing to be fashion; (...) 'FRICTION/parade 1999' is about deconstructing the general opinion about design and introducing new ways of looking at fashion. "

For this project Keupr/van Bentm collaborated with graphic designers The Experimental Jetset from Amsterdam who took care of the lay out and design. Also the final texts were written in close collaboration with the Experimental Jetset. In nightly sessions, drafts were being faxed and emailed back and forth between the K/vB studio in Arnhem and the Jetset's office in Amsterdam.

Keupr/van Bentm in collaboration with the Experimental Jetset - 'Friction/ Parade 1999',  cover, pages 2, 3

Keupr/van Bentm in collaboration with the Experimental Jetset - 'Friction/ Parade 1999',  pages 4-7

Keupr/van Bentm in collaboration with the Experimental Jetset - 'Friction/ Parade 1999',  pages 8-11

Keupr/van Bentm in collaboration with the Experimental Jetset - 'Friction/ Parade 1999',  pages 12-15

Keupr/van Bentm in collaboration with the Experimental Jetset - 'Friction/ Parade 1999',  pages 16-19

Keupr/van Bentm in collaboration with the Experimental Jetset - 'Friction/ Parade 1999',  pages 20-23

Keupr/van Bentm in collaboration with the Experimental Jetset - 'Friction/ Parade 1999',  pages 24-27

Keupr/van Bentm in collaboration with the Experimental Jetset - 'Friction/ Parade 1999',  page 26 close up