Interview: Dame Fortune 2019
WORM asked the Dame Fortune fashion shop a couple of questions about the events: Pierrot Le Fou and La Nouvelle Rave, in UBIK, November 2019.
WORM: You have a fascination for French culture of the 1950s and 1960s, could you give an idea about what in general inspires you about that era?
What inspires us most about 50s and 60s is the attitude that this time period has. We used to talk about it a lot, we are so inspired by the fashion and we can see that back then there was a whole different approach to fashion and especially women’s clothing.
You can also see in that period of time that the teenagers were really rebellious, and went against society and were beginning to make their own statements.
We want to do the same, we are doing our own thing and want to pursue that. We see our brand and style more as a statement, we get inspired by our clothing and you can just be anything you want with the pieces you choose. And that was exactly the attitude of the 60s.
WORM: And specifically the representation of women in that whole “movement”…
The 60s was revolutionary for women. New laws around marriage and divorce gave them stronger legal standing they went back to the work place earned their own money and the pill spurred a sexual revolution that they needed to dress appropriately for.
We still notice that woman are not treated the same as men, and we are not there yet when it comes to equal rights.
That is why the second wave of feminism is a big inspiration for us. Women were standing up for themselves and that is what we are trying to do as well.
We are two young women doing what we love and we see fashion as a form of expression. For us Dame Fortune is more of a lifestyle instead of just buying clothes.
WORM: Are there many Francophiles in Rotterdam & Schiedam?
To be honest, we don’t know a majority of Francophiles here but we can imagine that French culture is a very popular one. We do have the Young Petanque Club which is run by a very interesting group of artists and the events are always lots of fun.
WORM: Tell us about your shop, what’s the ethos, why did you start it, that kind of thing…
We know each other from a bar we used to work at, we had a work meeting and decided to get some drinks after that. We started talking about how much we both love finding good vintage pieces, and that pieces of the “past” are so much more unique than what big chains stores are currently selling. We both graduated in Fashion, and decided to join forces and start our own online web shop with all the pieces we absolutely love. We decided to work with collections, every three months we curate new pieces together and create a concept with it. We work with our very good photographer friend Eelke Renscke Bekkenutte, who makes our visions come true. We are both against the fast fashion industry or what fashion has become in general, an abuse of our natural resources, just to mention one thing.
WORM: Shops are where cultural revolutions often start. Tell us about the night you’re hosting at WORM, it’s in three broad sections; fashion, film and music. Can you tell us a bit about each section and the choices you made?
We have a showroom in Rotterdam West, and every month we did a shopping night in our showroom. It varied to a release party of a collection we did, or people just wanted to come by the showroom to check the items we sell online.
We noticed we were creating our own Dame Fortune universe, and wanted to expand that idea of shopping nights into something bigger.
With this event we have created our own Universe, we want to present our brand and our clothing differently by letting the visitor experience the whole vibe we have created within.
So we decided to go for a two day festival where you can buy vintage pieces, see an exhibition of three different characters we have created that are inspired by the 60s, and throw a party as well. We really wanted our friend Sacha Banians to spin vinyl records because he has the best French Bizarre Collection of music; and his style is impeccable as well.
