Ilja Visser is a Dutch fashion designer who founded both a couture line called 'Ilja' and a commercial label, Ready to fish_. Her studio, showroom and brand store are based in the city centre of Amsterdam. She studied Fashion Design at the Arts Academy in Arnhem (NL). The fine skills were learned during her apprenticeships with Donna Karan in New York and Maria Cornejo.More
As a big thank you we hosted a Friday Afternoon for Ilja Visser, her team and friends of Ready to fish_. Together with them and ABSOLUT NL we welcomed Flore Zoé and her friends to The Hidden World.
It was a creative get-together on a hidden location with nice cocktails and bites. We'll soon post more pics and a video. But we couldn't resist to share already this one with you.....
It's been an amazing three months for The Hidden World. We can confirm that time flies if you have fun. We're proud that we could launch the platform with Dutch fashion designer Ilja Visser. And now the time has come to say goodbye to her world of beautiful fashion.
But before we enter another hidden world, we look back.....with gratitude!
It's a process you have to go through to see your design come of the paper.
have your buttons categorised...
have a measuring stick next to the sewing machine
have a magnet keeping all your needles together.
Dutch magazine Grazia challenged a number of Dutch fashion designers to turn a black t-shirt in a Little Black Dress... The dresses would be auctioned for a good cause.
A challenge pushes you to be creative in a way. You have limited options in what you can do, but it's fun to do. And raising money for charity with your creations is double the fun for a designer.
One of their readers was so in love with the dress that she called our office to check if the dress was still available.
So sorry to disappoint her: the dress was a one-of-a-kind and already sold by now. But still, it's a nice compliment when somebody is desperately seeking one of your designs ;-)
After checking the hidden world of Ilja Visser online, maybe it's time for you to learn the skills off-line....
The fashion house Ilja Visser Group is looking for a design intern. Are you aspiring a career as a designer? Are you ready for a challenge? Check out the details here.
We're draping the fabric to check how it falls. To see if the sketch we made for Ready to fish_ is possible with this fabric.
With some chalk and a protractor we note the lines for the stitches. It's mathematics in some sense ;-)
The Hidden World noticed that the office of a fashion designer is somewhat different. You don't always sit behind a computer...
you don't always use a pen,
and you write on different types of 'paper'.
And we met with other colleagues ;-)
The title seems a contradiction in itself. Why can’t you wear couture? However, Ilja Visser just started a collaboration with Azzurro Due, a high end fashion concept store in the P.C. Hooftstraat in Amsterdam. For this she and Anette made a number of pieces of the ILJA Hyperborea collection more wearable. Why and what it really means? Check out here
The Hidden World has the pleasure to often visit the office & studio of Ilja Visser. Everytime we do, we stop by Anette – the creative designer - to get a quick glance on what she’s working on at that moment. After a few short visits, we were allowed to hang out for a whole day with her to get the ins & outs of her work. An offer we couldn’t refuse! We have so many stories to tell but let us first introduce Anette and tell you why she loves her job so much…
After reading about the concept of the 2012 Spring Summer collection of Ready to fish_, you can now enter a game to win your own item! The game is made possible by ABSOLUT Vodka who helps us share the stories from Ilja Visser's hidden world.
There will be more bottles to fish from.... Clik this link for happy fishing! http://on.fb.me/yVEmCj
The Hidden World already learned that Nina as the Brand Manager for Ilja Visser has a lot on her plate but succeeds to stay on top and ahead of her game. We wanted to know if she ever gets stressed and if she ever had a blunder or so…
The Hidden World has been on set for a few times for the campaigns of ILJA and Ready to fish_. We’ve mistaken her for a model first but soon Ilja corrected us to say that Nina was her Brand manager. After observing her on the job we invited Nina for an interview during lunch hours (she’s busy busy busy). Read more on this ambitious and fashionable woman with a love for beautiful images and food….
The Hidden World met with photographer Reinier van der Aart (RVDA) for a tête-à-tête and found out he was one of the exclusive diner guests at the Rijksmuseum where Ilja showed an earlier couture collection. Ilja tweeted us some pictures of that evening to give us a sneak (pre-)view of this exclusive invitation-only diner.
Reinier van der Aart was so kind to let us share some of his photo's of the Tableaux Vivants by Ilja Visser. Check the pics here. If you want to see more of his work, please visit his website or Facebookpage.
It's going to be a busy weekend for Ilja and her team of Ready to fish_ in Paris @ Tranoi as you can read from her tweets. But with a true passion for discovering relatively unknown music from around the globe, they managed to say hello to the weekend for you. They do that every week by sharing a song on their Facebook-page to get you in the weekend-mood.
Enjoy!!
The Hidden World sat down with Agatha and Danijela of Ilja’s design team. Both got back from a trip to Munich and Paris looking for fabrics. Hidden World wanted to know everything from this trip and found out that choosing a fabric is something of a love affair….
While Ilja and her sales team are setting up the Ready to fish_ stand for the Tranoi fashion trade show in the trendy part of Paris, Le Marais ...
they are not only working on the next collections for ILJA & Ready to fish_ @ the office in Amsterdam,
but also finalising an ILJA piece in the studio.
And on top of that The Hidden World saw the publication of ILJA in magazine L'Officiel NL. Congrats!!!
The Hidden World was well prepared to interview the design team of Ilja Visser, as you can see from the picture above. We wanted to know everything about their trip to the fabric trade shows, their work, fashion weeks, designing etc. Little did we know that an evening was not enough for all our questions and all their stories. We unexpectedly ended up checking all our favourite fashion documentaries on Youtube... We'll meet again soon after the Paris Fashion Week.
More to come so check the website. Keep you posted!
The past weeks we have enjoyed the positive response on our couture exhibition and Ready to fish_ fashion film. But after showing our creations we also need to sell them. That’s when we pack our bags and clothes (of course…) and head towards fashion weeks in Milan and Paris. Besides all the haute couture shows there, you also have the fashion trade shows. First stop? Milan in bella Italia!
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