Duran Lantink

Duran Lantink
Old Stock Collection: Look 3 (Purple Vagina Face), 2019
Mixed media with silk, satin, tulle
From the collection of the Centraal Museum, Utrecht

Duran Lantink’s Old Stock Collection: Look 3 (Purple Vagina Face) is a reference to the trousers he designed for Janelle Monáe’s music video “PYNK”. Lantink’s outfit for “PYNK” – its shape, textures and functionality in scenographic and sartorial terms – was a representation of the vulva, and contributed, along with the song’s lyrics (written in collaboration with punk artist Grimes), the choreography and iconography of its video, and the prevalence of the colour pink, in turning “PYNK” into a celebration of female empowerment and sexuality. With its cast being made up entirely of black and other non-white women Monáe’s video is a direct response to the ‘80s and ‘90s hip-hop scene where women appeared purely as accessories to the artist as well as to President’s Tramp sexist politics and rhetoric.

For the outfit featured in “Modern Love or Love at the age of Cold Intimacies” Lantink retains the rudimentary shape of a pair of trousers and moves the vulva to the position of the face, while he uses scraps of old clothing to construct a mannequin. Second-hand clothes preserve the memories of bodies and, just like in Monáe’s video, the outfit becomes a metonymy for the woman who wears it. Lantink assembles his outfits from existing garments, mostly vintage designer items, which he sources directly from charity shops and fashion houses. Lantink’s zero-waste philosophy is a radically different approach to the current fashion system and an appeal to make it structurally sustainable.

Biography

Duran Lantink is a Dutch designer based in Amsterdam. Having studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and the Sandberg Instituut — graduating from the latter in 2017 — Lantink’s playful, inclusive vision for the future of sustainable fashion has already seen him shortlisted for the 2019 LVMH Prize. After receiving international attention for the iconic “vagina” trousers he created for Janelle Monáe’s “PYNK” music video in 2018, Lantink has gone on to design pieces for the likes of Billie Eilish and Solange.

https://www.duranlantink.com

 

 

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