For his Spring/Summer 2021 Haute Couture collection, entitled ‘’Ethical Dada’’, Dutch designer Ronald van der Kemp collaborated with director Victor Griffioen on a movie ‘’Behind closed doors’’, a surreal, glamorous and nostalgic reverie, featuring eccentric characters roaming the corridors in an almost abandoned Hotel de L’Europe.
In this collection, Ronald van der Kemp questioned a world he considers gone mad. ‘’Has the world gone mad?. Everybody is spinning out of control’’, he noted.
He took his eco-stance even further this season, working with leftover fabrics from previous collections, already sourced from deadstock, and creating a sort of collage, painting over prints and sewing appliqués on top. The exuberance and inventiveness that has defined his past work are apparent here in dresses pieced together from three distinct fabrics so they look different depending on the angle; and it’s also obvious in the opening look’s ball skirt, which was patchworked from scraps of many sizes and shapes, including little rectangles made to look like pieces of tape affixing one material to another.
The Dutch designer partnered for the second time with Carpet for Life, an organization working with women in Morocco, to create a leopard print hooded cape dress and a jacket, and also with Dutch firm I-did, which recycles old uniforms from the likes of KLM and turns them into felt, using their fabric to create a seamless corset that was adorned with metal chains.