Dressing for the slopes just got a whole lot more interesting. For his AW24 collection, the Hague-born, soon to be Paris-based designer Duran Lantink, 36, took après-ski wear to realms never seen before. Think kitschy sweaters transformed into barely-there hot pants that jutted outwards from the hips, cartoonish long johns with quarterback-like padded shoulders and puffer jackets that were chopped and changed to morph into club-ready twinsets.

“In the past, I would have usually mixed seasons together and made them interrelated. But now that I have been going into a seasonal approach, after being part of the schedule and a more traditional way of showing, we were grooving around what that even means. In some places in the world, it’s never cold. So, if it was going to be winter, we thought it had to be a ski approach. [It’s for] that sort of woman who is skiing from the slopes to the restaurants and more interested in après ski than actual skiing.”

This was the designer’s third season on the official Paris schedule, where over the last two years Lantink and his micro team have been busy transitioning his eponymous label from a place for one-of-one upcycled garments to a fledgling ready-to-wear business. One that is already beginning to boom thanks to his blobby, experimental silhouettes that push and pull proportions to new extremes.

“For the last decade or so, I’ve been working with deadstock and collaborating with multi-brand stores, and at a certain point they were not really into it anymore,” says Lantink, who after graduating with a master’s from Amsterdam’s Sandberg Instituut in 2017 first made his name in the industry by working with the likes of Browns Fashion. Here, he patched together unsold garments from the biggest names in luxury to produce his own abstract clothing. “After Covid I decided I’m not going to be dependent on whether they want to work with me or not. I need to figure out a new way of working because fashion is my communication. I’m here to stay.”

He began to think about how he could toy with garments we’re exposed to day in, day out through a radical approach to volume, whether that’s classic trench coats with hulking shoulders or micro minis so minuscule they just about cover the crotch. “They’re our extra, extra mini skirts. People get angry when we call it a skirt, but we consider it to be one,” he says with a laugh.

Lantink’s outlandish silhouettes have graced countless magazine covers and landed the designer in the final of this year’s LVMH Prize, his second time making the shortlist. In the two days leading up to his AW24 show, he presented designs to fashion’s glitterati, including Anna Wintour and big-league designers helming the industry’s largest houses. “The first time wasn’t a good moment for me to be there because I didn’t know anyone and people didn’t understand what I was doing. All the upcycling and using existing brands, I think some people got a bit offended,” he says. “It was so intimidating, and still is! But I enjoyed myself the second time.”

The designer still utilises deadstock fabrics to make his collections. His AW24 offering featured an upcycled Prada coat equipped with shearling sleeves, while a Helly Hansen ski jacket was transformed into a puffed-up bodysuit. There was also a Polo Sport jacket distorted into a sensual twinset and an inky blue trench coat that mashed together fabrics from Loewe and Maison Margiela.

Picking up a gong at the Andam Awards last year, the award association has provided the brand with a lot of its deadstock materials. On top of this, the designer regularly rummages through second-hand stores and flea markets to source pieces. He also receives donations from Amsterdam locals of designer togs they no longer cherish. “It’s all different factors and different connections that help me get the ‘juice’,” he says.

Beginning his brand, Lantink never intended to set out to change the world with his upcycling ventures. “It was just out of interest and misunderstanding of so much stuff that was around,” he says. “It was interesting to play around and figure out new things, but I never thought I needed to start a brand and it needs to be sustainable. I mean, my [BA] graduation collection was in 2014 – that was 10 years ago – and was completely upcycled. We didn’t even talk about the fact it was upcycled. I kind of had to lie because otherwise people would think I was a lazy designer.”

His inquisitiveness in transforming existing garments came from watching his mum and aunt go out partying with their friends when he was a child. “From a baby’s perspective, I was already looking at drag queens who were dressing up before they went out to party. From a very young age, I started to understand how you could transform your identity by using clothing, make-up and accessories – I’ve always found that very inspiring and intriguing. I think that was the moment when I thought this is something that should be my life.”

Taken from Issue 73 of 10 Magazine UK – RISING, RENEW, RENAISSANCE – out NOW.

@duranlantinkyo

Photographer CLARK FRANKLYN
Fashion Editor GARTH ALLDAY SPENCER
Models WENLI ZHAO at Next Models, BELLE VANDERKLEY at Premier Models and LEONIE STEFFEN at Present Models
Hair TOMI ROPPONGI at Julian Watson Agency using Bed Head by TIGI
Make-up SUNAO TAKAHASHI at Saint Luke using DIOR Foundation and Capture Totale Le Sérum
Manicurist SASHA GODDARD at Saint Luke Artists using CHANEL Le Vernis in Ballerina and Incendiaire and CHANEL La Crème Main
Photographer’s assistants STEFAN EBELEWICZ and MARIJA VAINILAVICIUTE
Fashion assistants GEORGIA EDWARDS, SONYA MAZURYK, DONNA CHOI and HAMZA KHAN
Hair assistant ERIKA KIMURA
Make-up assistant FRANCESCA LEACH
Casting ISA ROSE CONROY
Production ZAC APOSTOLOU