The multi-talented Dutch designer Maurice Mentjens impresses once again, this time with the design of the first store, opened this summer in Arnhem, for Dutch fashion label Ami-e-toi.
The label’s first collection, designed by young Dutch designers, including Denmark-born Claes Iversen, launched with a flashy catwalk show at the Arnhem Fashion Biennale in 2007. The label is part of Stichting Mode Met een Missie (Fashion with a mission foundation) which, in turn, was founded in 2005 to help women with problems caused by addiction, homelessness or psychiatric issues. In ‘teach-them-to-fish’ spirit, the women are taught to make the Ami-e-toi label’s clothing and so gain a profession, and self respect.
In Mentjens’s luxurious store design, Art Deco meets boudoir and is juxtaposed with red-velvet sofas, oak parquet flooring, marble, busts on mirror-top tables, and cameos on the wall. Two massive mirrored walls ensure that the fashions and the fashionistas are visible in endless repetition. The idea ‘Nothing is quite as it seems’ is part of the design concept, echoing the contrast between have-it-all fashionistas and the women who make the fashions. – Tuija Seipell
