Daily Paper x Van Gogh: More than a picturesque streetwear tale by two Dutch icons

When Amsterdam-based fashion brand Daily Paper presented its first collaboration with Vincent van Gogh Museum on Friday, the coming together of the two Dutch icons not only fused streetwear with post-impressionist art - it revealed fashion’s power to conceive identity and connect communities.

The Van Gogh Museum, where the launch party of the collaboration took place on Friday, is looking to expand its audience by working with Daily Paper, a Dutch brand that built its success on expressing the voice of its customers - a group of young people who felt unheard. The streetwear brand was originally a blog founded by childhood friends Hussein Suleiman, Abderrahmane Trabsini and Jefferson Osei in 2008, before the trio began to print T-Shirts. In the past, the label focused several collections on African culture inspired by Cape Town and Congo tribes, but now, with the Van Gogh collection, the brand is turning back to its Dutch heritage.

In the same way as the collection sought to translate Van Gogh’s works into the present and into its own garments, hundreds of Daily Paper’s friends and family, creatives and loyal customers, flocked to the Van Gogh Museum on Friday. With their lively vibe and street style, the crowd certainly differed from the average visitor to occupy the museum’s expansive network of floors.

In between shopping the collection and sipping drinks, visitors took the time to enjoy the ‘real’ works of Van Gogh that were featured in the apparel and presented on the same floor as the pop-up store. The museum’s plan to reach out to new and young audiences seemed to work. “We found that young adults like active cultural participation”, said Martin Van Engel, programme manager of ‘Van Gogh Connects’, at the launch on Friday.

In its licensing cooperation with the Van Gogh Museum, Daily Paper included some of Van Gogh’s radiant and colourful paintings such as ‘Irises’ explicitly as all-over-prints on its collection staple set of cargo jackets and trousers. It’s also the first time the brand released denim pieces in a collaboration, trying new techniques such as laser printing drawings by Van Gogh on a pair of jeans.

Some apparel pieces struck a more serious tone, depicting lesser-known works such as ‘Garden of Asylum’, which Van Gogh painted during his time as a patient at an asylum. The shirt carried a quote by Van Gogh, who fought for recognition as a painter during most of his life: “Success is sometimes the outcome of a whole string of failures.” Another white t-shirt read: “I would rather die of passion than of boredom”.

Some of these quotes printed on the apparel seemed to reflect the sensibilities and story of the brand. Since being founded, it has grown to a fashion label with around 60 employees, worn by star rappers and streetwear aficionados alike, and will open its first store outside of the Netherlands in New York in March. Storytelling has remained a strength of Daily Paper since its inception. In an interview, co-founder Abderrahmane Trabsini described how its collaboration explored the parallels in the stories of the two Dutch creative forces.

Van Gogh’s work has become incredibly famous and recognizable over time. When creating the collection, did you feel pressure to not fall for cliches and to create something that was more than just ‘merchandise’ for such an important Dutch icon?

No, not at all. If I want to make something, especially a collaboration, I want to make it special, give a feeling of a unique piece outside of the normal collection. As an example: We have the cargo set always in basic colours, now with the collaboration we actually put Van Gogh’s painting on it. That’s why I like doing collaborations – you want to make your standard silhouettes something more special.

And you also tried to achieve this when choosing the works of Van Gogh for the collection?

We wanted to play with the cliches and pick artwork that’s not so well known, like the skeleton with the cigarette - a lot of people didn’t know Van Gogh made that.

The short documentary presented today provided a first look at how you worked with Van Gogh’s life story in your collection. Why did this fascinate you?

When we did this project, we learned more about Van Gogh as a person, which was a blessing because he had a similar upbringing as me in terms of following his passion, hustling and doing it himself. He didn’t have any mentor, he didn’t have the financial means. His paintings for example are two-sided because he didn’t have money to buy a fresh canvas each time.

I always want to know, how did it start? How did it end up here? Just like me sitting here, where I am now, it didn’t come overnight. It’s about the journey, not the end goal. If I reach my end goal with my brand, it wouldn’t feel like ‘yeaahhhh’, it would probably feel boring.

Van Gogh barely sold a painting during his lifetime. Could you relate to this feeling of being the underdog?

We were kind of the underdogs at the beginning but I think now we have a cult following who really likes Daily Paper for what it stands for. We’re not the underdogs anymore. We want to give back and help people. If it rains, it drops for other people. I share my knowledge with the next generation, if I can help the next talent, I would love to. When that person becomes more successful than me at my age, I am happy that I helped push the youth further.

The generation before us never dreamt of being this big, I am curious what the next generation will do after us. We’re putting Amsterdam on the map, we’re showing that you have a lot of dope brands from this small city. I am not just talking about my brand, I'm also talking about brands like Olaf Hussein, Patta, Filling Pieces and others.

Is there any artist that you would you like to feature in your collections in the future?

Kaws. The style is very futuristic - I like his artistic voice. If we did that collaboration, I would make a slick print or a special toy.

Picture: courtesy of Daily Paper | FashionUnited