A Day at the Dutch Design Festival

I have to be honest. When I first stepped foot on Governors Island last Thursday for the Dutch festival, Pioneers of Change, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. What I did know was that it was celebrating the 400-year anniversary of the Dutch settling New York and was sponsored by Renny Ramakers, co-founder and director of Droog, the amazing design collective/shop/gallery based in Amsterdam.

Well so much for low expectations! The exhibit, comprised of 11 craftspeople each housed in former officers' homes on the island, spanned design, architecture, fashion, food and sustainability. Each was thoughtful, amazingly styled and substantive. Here are few of my favorites:

First stop was at Atelier NL's ceramic exhibit, where Nadine Sterk and Lonny van Ryswyck experimented with the different soils in Amsterdam to create these gorgeous pieces. Working closely with farmers, they discovered great varieties in the soil and texture and created pieces from each region.

Next was a stop at Christien Meindertsma's gorgeous knitting exhibition where she and an assistant knit a giant really thick woolen rug using six-foot-long needles. Her work looked familiar -- and after doing a little research I realized I'd seen her Flocks Poufs at DWR last year. A big part of the festival focused on sustainability -- but this was no green wash. Platform21 got four designers together that focus on repair and reuse of objects for one of the exhibits. One was Heleen Klopper, who uses a really cool, innovative system to patch up sweaters and other wool pieces. Instead of sewing, the wool pieces are sort of filled in with a needle-like instrument.
I loved how practical Klopper's work is (because, really, who throws away priceless Aubusson rugs and Comme des Garçons sweaters?), but I was also stunned by how great looking the results were.

Likewise, Lotte Dekker came up with a equally unique way of repairing broken china. Instead of trying to hide the hairline cracks, Dekker makes them the start of the show by mixing in a touch of gold or blue with the adhesive creating all together different look for hand-me-down porcelain.

















But what's a festival without a bit of shopping? Not to worry, Droog had that covered with their pop-up shop selling everything from yarn-wrapped eyeglass frames to its more conventional housewares. Nor did they slouch in their display -- everything was arranged in an installation of gold-painted bamboo ballroom chairs. Pioneers of Change runs through September 20th on New York's Governors Island.

Read more about Dutch design:

-The New Trompe L'Oeil

-Sophisticated Swings