Tag Archive for: Amsterdam fashion

A man in a skirt is an image which many fashion designers tried to portray. Throughout fashion history we have seen many attempts but it never sticked and reached the consumer. Which is strange, thinking that the trousers actually don’t exist that long as the typical daily male attire. But today I think the image of a man in skirt is getting more and more accepted by the crowd. So can we say we are on the verge of seeing more men skirts in our street image? 

Brief history of the skirt

In Greece the skirt symbolized virility and youth, as does the Scottish kilt. The kilt is actually an English invention as the tartan robes the Scottish men wore, weren’t practical in battle. Thinking that the robes existed out of long pieces of cloth wrapped around the body. If you think you have to fight for your life, you don’t want to wear gear that falls of your body easily. Because of this same practicality the kilt design was adopted.

The roman and greek daily male attire wasn’t that much different from the female attire. We all imagine the Greek and Roman people wearing toga like robes. Today still in some cultures in Africa, Asia, and Oceania the pants doesn’t exist in their traditional costume.

Trouser an item of combat

Trousers were invented as robes weren’t that comfortable on horseback. And in battle those who wore trousers often had the upper hand. Mainly for this reason the trouser was adopted by many civilizations all over the world to survive battle. So we actually can say that the trouser had mostly a military purpose.

Masculinity

So knowing now about the history of the skirt and trousers, we definitely can say that men were wearing skirts way longer than trousers. But why don’t we see the image of men in skirts in our daily street fashion? Here is why; Since the 19th century the skirt got strictly banned as a male garment as it didn’t fit the concept of masculinity, a moralistic criteria imposed by Christianity. So it is actually religion that wiped out the skirts for men as it was not found masculine enough. Why is not known to us, an image of men in skirts was seen for centuries but was no longer accepted.

We find this remarkable, as the christian religious attires are mostly long robe like flowy shirts and sometimes combined with lace depending on the position you have in the Catholic Church. Now why would we find this image masculine? I personally don’t have a clue.

The image of a man in a skirt or in a feminine outfit is still for so many people in today’s society a strange picture. Well I think it is time to change this thought. Of course it will not happen overnight and perhaps it will take years for it to be fully accepted in the street style image. But for now if we don’t set in the change for sure nothing will happen. People, it is time to change our perspective on men in skirts!

What does Haruco-vert contribute in this change

Our mission is that we believe that by reimagining fashion we can inspire others to be more (self)conscious. By saying this we actually mean to give the viewer a new perspective on fashion. All our collections are made for people who dare to make a statement, regardless of age, size or gender(identity). We believe it is very important that people can safely be themselves. This said we also believe it is important to support the men in skirts community. And by actually put skirts on the fashion market for men is how we do it! Currently we have 3 unisex skirt designs out and they will be the first of many. We are actually proud to say that these skirts are one of our best sold items!

We think we created succesfully a little black dress that both is suitable in a dark fashion wardrobe as well as in a colorful wardrobe. Interested in how we did this? Keep reading!

First a bit of history

The little black dress, also shortened to LBD, is the ultimate women’s wardrobe classic everybody has heard of. The little black dress is a popular style that’s extremely versatile that will dress women of any age. But what exactly is a little black dress and what is its origin?

A LBD is a black evening dress or cocktail dress with a simple cut and often short in length. Coco Chanel is, according to fashion historians, one of the most famous designers who popularized this iconic fashion item. Her idea was that the LBD should be long-lasting, versatile, affordable and widely accessible. Every woman should be able to afford herself to be chic. Vogue published Chanels version on its cover in 1926 of this fashion dress and called it Chanel’s Ford.

Why the color black?

Once the symbolic color of mourning and wealth, but in fashion it is praised for its mysterious, serious, and elegant qualities. Black slims the body, frames the face and hides imperfections. These specific facts are reason to state that every woman needs this simple yet elegant dress to be part of her wardrobe. It is classless, timeless and ageless.

Many designers besides Coco Chanel had their take on this iconic fashion dress. For example Givenchy, who designed the famous dress that Audrey Hepburn was wearing in the opening scene of film classic ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’’s.

Haruco-vert’s LBD

Studied the aspects of the little black dress; timeless, ageless, long-lasting, versatile, affordable and accessible, we designed our version of this iconic fashion dress. Instead of using satin, silk or other rich fabrics, we chose a hydrophillic cotton because of its unique and easy to wear qualities. Its quirky appearance we used to create a rich, chic and, most importantly, easy to wear modern little black dress. The hydropillic fabric is ideal to use for a raw edge finishing. This gives the black dress a unique and unexpected appearance.

Keeping in mind it should enhance every womans beauty we created a shape that fits a diversity of body types. The chicness in this modern version of the LBD is created by the diagonal placed raw edge chiffon strips, which flows eleganty down the dress. Both the fabrics and the placement create a perfect symbiose within this black cotton dress which is both quirky and rich in appearance. We think we created succesfully a black dress that both is suitable in a dark fashion wardrobe as well as in a colorful wardrobe. Therefore a musthave for every woman! See for yourself!

Since we founded our fashion brand Haruco-vert in the beginning of 2007 we soon noticed that it was a remarkable name. People came up with the funniest name corruptions. So let’s go through a few of them!

On the first place is the most common name corruption of our fashion brand, especially amongst the Dutch, is Haricots vert, the green bean. It’s the first thing our name is associated with as apparently the Dutch have those quite a lot on their menu. Funny enough the French (as haricots vert is a French word) don’t have this association at all. Harico-vert is another corruption we see. It is almost right but still too much thinking of the green bean here. We also come across Haricovert, without the hyphen, quite sometime. Although the hyphen is silent we don’t blame people. This way of writing also occurs when people think of Haricots verts but don’t know how to write it.

We applaud people who write ‘harucovert’, as this is what it comes to, because all the letters right. Sometimes people will even write HA.RU.CO~VERT. Also in this case we applaud to people, as they have written our brand completely according to our first logo image.

Haruco-vert what does it mean?

Why did we choose for this difficult name in the first place? Well perhaps time to tell you. Haruco is a combination of the first letters of our first names. Also Haruco is a Japanese female name. Its most common translation is “spring child”. Spring reminds us of young, fresh and green. As we are inspired by Japanese art, fashion and fashion items such as the kimono we found Haruco a very suitable name to use. Combining Haruco with the French word for green, which is ‘vert’, Haruco-vert was born. An international touch by just using a combination of the first letters of our first names and mostly inspired by the Japanse national historical garments and art it just seemed right for us. That’s why we chose the difficult name Haruco-vert as our brand name. It just sticks to you or it doesn’t!

New logo

Since 2007 when we started Haruco-vert we had our first logo designed. After 15 years we found it time to update our logo and make it more fresh. So it is time to present you with our new haruco-vert logo!

 

For the Dutch version click here.

 

haruco-vert logo

haruco-vert logo

Begin 2007 hebben we ons modemerk Haruco-vert opgericht. We merkten al snel dat onze naam een bijzondere naam is. Mensen kwamen met allerlei grappige verbasteringen. Laten we er een paar doornemen!

Op de eerste plaats is de meest voorkomende verbastering van ons modemerk Haricots-vert, de groene boon. Het is het eerste waar onze naam mee wordt geassocieerd. Grappig genoeg hebben de Fransen (aangezien haricots vert een Frans woord is) deze associatie helemaal niet. Harico-vert is een andere verbastering die we zien. Het is bijna goed. Maar nog steeds te veel denken aan de sperzieboon hier. We komen ook wel eens Haricovert tegen, zonder het koppelteken. Deze manier van schrijven komt ook voor wanneer mensen aan Haricots verts denken… Maar niet weten hoe ze het moeten schrijven.

We juichen mensen toe die ‘harucovert’ schrijven. Alle letters kloppen! Soms schrijven mensen zelfs HA.RU.CO~VERT. Ook in dit geval juichen we de mensen toe. Ze hebben ons merk volledig geschreven volgens ons eerste logo.

Een volgende poging is dat als mensen het niet op onze naam kunnen vinden er andere woorden worden toegevoegd. Zo merken we dat ook zoektermen als Haricots vert mode, Haricots-vert kleding, of harico-vert fashion worden gebruikt.

Haruco-vert wat betekent het?

Waarom hebben we in de eerste plaats voor deze moeilijke naam gekozen? Misschien tijd om het je te vertellen. Haruco is een combinatie van de eerste letters van onze voornamen. Ook is Haruco een Japanse vrouwelijke naam. De meest voorkomende vertaling is “lentekind”. De lente doet ons denken aan jong, fris en groen. Omdat we ons laten inspireren door Japanse kunst, mode en fashion items zoals de kimono, vonden we Haruco een zeer geschikte naam.

Door Haruco te combineren met het Franse woord voor groen, dat ‘vert’ is, werd Haruco-vert geboren. Een internationaal tintje door een combinatie van de eerste letters van onze voornamen te gebruiken. En met name geïnspireerd door de Japanse nationale historische kledingstukken en kunst leek het ons passend. Daarom hebben we als merknaam de moeilijke naam Haruco-vert gekozen. Het blijft gewoon bij je hangen of niet! Tegenwoordig staat de ‘vert’ voor ons ook voor de groene, duurzame kant van ons label. Daarover vertellen we je meer in een van onze volgende blogs.

Nieuw logo

Sinds 2007, toen we Haruco-vert begonnen, lieten we ons eerste logo ontwerpen. Na 15 jaar vonden we het tijd om ons logo te updaten en frisser te maken. Tijd dus om ons nieuwe haruco-vert logo te presenteren!

 

haruco-vert logo

 

Ga hier naar de Engelse versie van deze journal / Click here to go to the English version of this blog.