Introducing The Patchwork Family. A fashion collective creating up-cycled fashion for the drag queens and voguers of Amsterdam’s Clubs.
In Holland when you step foot into Amsterdam’s queer club scene, and you’ll find it’s no place to limit your sartorial expression. From hyper-pop enthusiasts to hardcore rave-goers, a variety of styles emerge from the city’s diverse nightlife, making it “the perfect scene” for The Patchwork Family, an eco-fashion collective, to stage their fashion shows.
Queer clubs are where young crowds can “explore their identity, find a community and new ways of entertainment”. According to Meike Van Lelyveld, co-founder of The Patchwork Family, this is what “brought the initial group of friends that founded the collective together.” According to her, queer clubs “represent a safe space for self-exploration and The Patchwork Family represents an extension of this”.
Through allowing young talented designers to showcase at queer venues, The Patchwork Family helps to “lower the bar of entry for young talented designers” and helps connect young independent designers to a “patchwork” of artists. Instead of giving into the pressures of the fashion calendar and producing seasonally, The Patchwork Family’s collections are showcased four-times-a-year at Club Church, a legendary queer sex-club in Amsterdam.
“Using locally sourced materials that would otherwise be discarded will always be the most sustainable course of action.”
Van Lelyveld
Saluting ballroom scene, the collective’s designs are showcased through “outrageous performances” by voguers, drag artists and dancers allowing “the work to become interdisciplinary”. Van Lelyveld, feels that collaborating with queer venues invites a “very fruitful exchange of perspectives”, “going further than a traditional runway” allowing The Patchwork Family to have “the space to set their own atmosphere and to tell their own story.”
As one of The Patchwork Family’s designers, Van Lelyveld’s work aims to subvert the male gaze through offering hyper-feminine colors and silhouettes. From halter tops to puffer jackets, her designs are made from upcycled household textiles such as napkins, tablecloths and bedsheets bringing her “idea of the female gaze alive”.
Each of The Patchwork Family’s designers, Marco Blažević, Meike Van Lelyveld, Rachel Klok, Wolter Pot, Characharaboy, Papa Yorick, Salome Jeanne, Kika Perben, Berber Struiksma, Joris Janssen, and Floor van Helmond have their own respective brands and distinctive aesthetic, but their strict approach to up-cycling is what unites them; “We believe that being resourceful with already-existing goods will always outweigh producing new items,” says Van Lelyveld. “Using locally sourced materials that would otherwise be discarded will always be the most sustainable course of action,” she goes on to say.
“We don’t know where we will be in five years but our goal is to not only create sustainable fashion, but also foster sustainable careers and livelihoods for our family members.”
Van Lelyveld
Since graduating in 2019 from ArtEz University of Arts, whose alumni includes Iris Van Herpen and Viktor & Rolf, the founding members have also shown during Berlin Fashion Week 2023, London Fashion Revolution Week 2023, Amsterdam Fashion Week 2023 and are currently part of an exhibition at the Fashion For Good Museum in Amsterdam. According to Van Lelyveld, The Patchwork Family “continues to explore wider mediums of showcasing fashion” using performance art and working with queer clubs like Club Church to “convey self-expression, forming a community and ultimately an extremely entertaining night.”
Van Lelyveld says as a group, “We don’t know where we will be in five years but our goal is to not only create sustainable fashion, but also sustainable careers and livelihoods for our family members.”
Homepage images from The Patchwork Family x Club Church look book titled “Bring Your Towel,” by Walter Pot. Above left: black dress by family member Rachel Klok, right by Kenza Iatrides. All Images by Liselot Hoekstra.
