Anne Benschop

Grey Sheep

a.m.benschop

Location

rotterdam / The Netherlands

University

Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam

Graduation year

2020

Contact

Anne Benschop graduated from the Willem de Kooning academy Rotterdam in 2020 with a Bachelor Degree in Fashion Design and a Minor in New Earth.

As a plus-size woman, Anne never felt represented by the fashion industry and found it really hard to find more sustainable fashion for her body type. Anne’s work has voluminous silhouettes, vibrant colors and detailed craftmanship. Her fabrics are sourced from an ethical supplier with GOTS certification. Of course, only using ethical fabrics doesn’t make you a sustainable designer, that’s why in the future Anne wants to research and experiment with different types of sustainable fashion to eventually become as sustainable as possible in the current fashion industry.

After her graduation, Anne is still working on providing a more ready-to-wear and sustainable fashion to plus-size women. The fashion industry is slowly becoming more diverse; however, Anne thinks it still needs more real plus-size representation and she would work hard on being part of that change. Her next step of becoming more sustainable, is to research and experiment with zero-waste plus-size fashion.

Latest Collection

The back fat strap

This collection is about showing real plus-size representation. Over the years the plus-size representation in the fashion industry has grown, however most of the plus-size models still are the ideal hourglass shape, have a flat stomach and are the smallest plus-size sizes.

With this collection I started to drape on my body to see how different voluminous shape will look like on a plus-size body. I wanted to accentuate different body parts that I used to hide in the past or felt embarrassed about. Eventually the back fat rolls became the focus point of my collection and with the back fat straps I want to accentuate and embrace them.

The reason I choose to make a ready-to-wear collection with a sustainable approach because there is a lack of luxurious and sustainable clothing options for plus-size women. It’s nearly impossible to have zero impact on the environment when creating a clothing collection, that’s why I only use eco-friendly textiles, reuse haberdashery and MINIMISE my textile waste.

Credits:

Photography: Ivosfotografie
Model: Anne benschop