Opening 'Blij dat ik Rij' 125 years of car advertising

A few months ago I posted about the exhibition my dad was working on.
Now, about 2 months and a lot of hard work later, the result was finally there.
'Blij dat ik Rij' was going to open. It was really great to see all those advertisements in real, in the middle of the Louwman Museum (a museum in Den Haag which has an incredible amount of old cars - from about 1850 until now - but I'll show you a few later).



My dad speeched at the opening, next to the director of the museum and the director of the ANWB. They had a fabulous opening act planned. First we saw an old short movie about the Ford Edsel that featured stars like Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong and Bill Crosby. But something went wrong, the commercial played twice and what was supposed to happen, didn't happen. Later on we heard that a Ford Edsel was supposed to come up on the main stage with the model you see on the billboard and adds of the exhibition, in it.



She was an old lady - sorry, woman of noble birth. Yes, she belonged to the nobility. And she had once stayed at Frank Sinatra's place. Awesome, right?

After the opening we all got a glass of champagne and lots of snacks. As I had checked all my dad's texts, I already knew most of what I was going to see. But still, it was nice to walk over the exhibition and make photos. Apparently, there were some very important people in advertising, but I only knew the one I didn't photograph: Maarten Spanjer.








Later on, my brother, my dad's nephew and me went upstairs to see the car collection of the museum. Really marvellous but as I already said, I'll show you more later.


When we left, I grabbed a goodie bag of course, with the catalogue of 'Blij dat ik Rij' in it. Why did I want one so desperately? Because my name was in it! In the list of people who were thanked. One step closer to fame ;)

WISHLIST

1) Urban Outfitters
2) Net-a-porter.com
3) Miss selfridge
4) Chanel
5) Topshop
6) Zara
7) Topshop
8) Net-a-porter.com

Florence + the Machine

I begin to think I really am the fortune's favourite (love how they say that in English) or a lucky devil (love this one even more) cause recently I won two tickets for an exclusive showcase of Florence + the Machine! I participated on a contest which I saw at glamour.nl and a few weeks later the tickets were in my mailbox.

As you'll understand, I was extremely happy but I have to say I didn't really know that many Florence + the Machine songs. Of course I knew 'Dog Days are over' and 'You've got the Love' but that was about it.

I mainly knew Florence Welch because I've read about her a lot in fashion magazines, she has an amazing style, she sang at a Chanel fashion show a few seasons ago in Paris and she's Blake Lively's best friend.


But don't get me wrong, I thought she had a wonderful voice and her music was pretty awesome as well. So yesterday me and a friend travelled all the way to Eindhoven (a town about 40 kilometres from the place where I live) and ate a delicious plate of pasta at a small restaurant before we headed to the concert.

The audience was very crazy about Florence. Girls with t-shirts that read 'Florence + the Machine' and screaming guys almost grabbing the stage. Quite obsessive, according to me, but I have to say the show was a real sensation.

The entire band looked really cool. The girl on the piano (kind of thing, don't know what it was exactly) was dressed in a long dress or skirt with edgy blond hair, there was a guy with a harp and a guitarist that looked like Ryan Gosling (I know!).

But when Florence Welch entered the stage everyone was blown away. She wore a beautiful long red dress and she was on bare feet. And then she began to sing. Though I, as I said, hardly knew a song, it sounded terrific. Florence's voice really has a wide range and I really loved the times that the music went low and then boom: it started again, very powerful.

How to describe her music? They call it indie pop and I can agree on that but it's mainly very magical. Especially with Florence's appearance. She looked like a doll (porcelain skin, red hair, very tall) but she was also a bit masculin. It could've been her features, but I think it suited her.

Unfortunately the show only lasted for an hour (a bit more around 75 minutes) but that probably was because it was a showcase. I found this show a wonderful way to spend my Valentine's Day and I have the feeling (though I don't understand, why would you wanna be in Eindhoven on Valentine's Day when you're Florence Welch) Florence felt the same way. She kept whispering 'Happy Valentine's Day' to the audience. Adorable yet so strong. Just like their music.

''Everbody's searching for a hero. People need someone to look up to''.

It gets a bit scary perhaps, please tell me when it does, but all the great great artists who formed a generation, or maybe a few generations, become distinct. And since their music all fall in the genre I love most, or maybe because I have a thing for legends and icons who live a troubled but extraordinary life, my blog features a lot of these figures.

It seems like yesterday that I posted about the wonderful Etta James. I am deeply appalled by the fact that someone a lot younger, who lived a life close to Etta James' life in a way, has died as well. I saw it all over the internet this morning: Whitney Houston (48) is found dead in her hotel apartment, the cause of her death is unknown.

We all knew, just like we did when Amy Winehouse died (she was even more troubled), it had to happen some day. Whitney Houston's best time was far far behind her. Due to drugs, alcohol and her relationship with Bobbi Brown, who was, let's say, not that good to her.

Whitney Houston was born in Newark as the daughter of Cissy Houston (who was a background singer from among others Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin) and the niece of Dionne Warwick. She sang a lot when she was young, did some modelling work and her first record appeared in 1985.

She's had a lot of terrific songs. Of course she's most famous for 'I will always love you', probably the most heard love song and a very admirable achievement of Whitney: there are few singers who have such a wide voice range. Other amazing songs were: 'Run to you', 'The Greatest Love of All', 'Didn't we almost have it all' and we musn't forget the uptight 'I wanna dance with somebody'.

Whitney also played in some films, like 'The Bodyguard', which made her even more famous. At the end of the millenium, Whitney was surrounded by quiteness. When she got back on track, she was extremely skinny and everyone wondered: anorexia? drugs? or stress from her relationship with Bobbi Brown?

After a divorce in 2006, she made her comeback in 2008 with the great album 'I look to you'. 'Million dollar bil' was praised by the press and it seemed to go well with Whitney.

But did it? Because we know little about the cause of her death yet. Perhaps it were drugs, or suicide, who knows? I'm just really sad we lost another great singer, her voice gives me the pimples everytime I hear one of her songs. And that may not even be the worst feeling, I think I'll be spending a lot of time in front of my record player listening to her LP 'Whitney'.

We gotta keep her music alive. The artist may be gone, transformed in another icon, another legend, but her music will live with us until eternity.

''I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone's shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They can't take away my dignity
Because the greatest love of all
Is happening to me
I found the greatest love of all
Inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all''

Vanessa Bruno Campaign starring Kate Bosworth

The Breakfast Club

''They were five total strangers, with nothing in common, meeting for the first time. A brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel and a recluse. Before the day was over, they broke the rules. Bared their souls. And touched each other in a way they never dreamed possible''.

The Breakfast Club, an iconic 1980s film, is very recognizable, in a good way. It has all the cliches of the high school movies that followed this one, in it, but it tackles them as well. It's so much more intelligent. It learns us lessons about life, about who we are, who we want to be, how other sees us and how we want them to see us. Though it's very American, I bet it can be convenient for us Dutch (or whatever land you come from, my dear reader) too.

And yes, we all know school can be horrifying and deep, deeply boring. But there might be a tiny little chance this film gets you through your (last) years at school. And if not, it'll probably get you through the evening. Because it makes you feel good. Plus, the songtrack is wonderfully eighties: 'Don't you' from the Simple Minds. Don't, don't, don't, don't... Don't you, forget about me!' And not about this movie either ;)

Silver, strong and serene

When there was light, there was grey
When things had faded, I was still there
Tortured by the sparkling of birds in the air
Quietness overwhelmed me, nothing to say

Make up your mind, my heart told me out loud
Wander in chaos, my mind forced me to do
A beautiful battle between black and blue
Between rosy and dark, like a threatening cloud

Where will it take me, when my body is gone
Left in the darkness, when all work is done
The forbidden fruit of paradise is beyond reach
There’s only one lesson life still has to teach

To be sincere and to follow your heart all the way
Until the sky will go purple and dismiss the grey
It made room for a flash of light with a golden bow
With one quick movement the world was covered in snow

Things will never be the same again starting tomorrow
Now I know there’s something that will watch over me
Through sadness, through storm and through sorrow
To light, to leaves and to the land where I’ll be free

Did I make you wonder who it was that I had seen?
I can never tell you but it was silver, strong and serene.

A heart of gold

While I was in the Groninger Museum for the Azzedine Alaïa exhibtion, I also visited another exhibition: Studio Job at Groninger Museum.




Studio Job is a design studio based in Antwerp. Job Smeets and his partner Nynke Tynagel are the lead designers of Studio Job. They exhibited a lot of golden statues, of teapots, pans, boots and other common objects. It was very beautiful, for I love gold and classic but edgy details.






Other wonderful things in the museum:

Freja for Free People

I love this shoot for one of my favourite American labels: Free People (obviously, since it's part of the Urban Outfitters group). Freja Beha Erichsen fits amazing with their mode de vie, edgy but still elegant, free and rough. Perfection!
Photographed by Joshua Allen.