Few fashion labels scratch that itch for joy quite like Duran Lantink. That’s true of the designer himself too, who trades jokes and bursts into laughter as he phones in from Paris during the demanding prep for his Spring/Summer 2025 collection. “I need to work on my serious face,” he says. “Though, I suppose it’s better to have a bubbly personality than to be a raging bitch.”
But Lantink has a few good reasons to smile: a couple of weeks prior he’d picked up LVMH’s Karl Lagerfeld Prize, along with the €200,000 prize that comes with it; his puffed-up panties and buff busted shirts have been a hit in fashion editorials and stores around the world too. That dream he has, of regular people wearing his so-called “bubble” ensembles simply to get some milk or pick up the kids, is getting closer and closer to reality. Who wouldn’t break into a smile after that?
Last season for A/W24, the Dutch designer took the seasonal brief literally when he created a winter sportswear-inspired collection influenced by the ski trips he went on in his youth. He’d gathered an array of Helly Hansen snow suits, knitted jumpers, vintage Loewe and Maison Margiela, spliced and diced them, liquified and stuffed them until they were perfected into globular new forms ready for the slopes. Now, Lantink is using that same seasonal equation as his starting point. “I’ve been thinking a lot about my summers in Ibiza when I was young,” he says, “where I would go to restaurants and see women wearing big jewellery and sheer dresses, completely naked underneath. It had a spiritual vibe I fell in love with.”
“I want to create my own language and my own trends rather than looking at what is happening in the streets” – Duran Lantink
Shifting his gaze to the sun-drenched shores, his third collection shown on the Paris Fashion Week schedule captured the free-wheeling Ibizan lifestyle through easy-breezy floor-length tunic dresses layered over biker shorts, along with fresh takes on swimwear in red and white stripes akin to the early bathing suits of the 1920s, made considerably less modest with so-called “power tits” stuffing in a bikini top, and a low-slung matchy-matchy take on a rubber ring made from a tube of padding. The men’s offerings, too, came with a wink, where equally low-slung were the puffed-up velvet men’s briefs, V-shaped to reveal a charitable whiff of pube.
“There was so much queerness and so much freedom on that island. For me, as a young kid, it really was an eye-opener. I was brought up to be quite free – we would go to the naked beach, I could walk freely and go into these amazing little shops where they had Indian-inspired clothing and the most amazing vintage. It was all about discovering little alleyways and finding hippies sitting with their dogs and drinking. It might sound weird now, but it feels romantic in my mind.”
Lantink’s bubble forms are deflated and streamlined in a self-confessed push towards commerciality while staying true to the spirit of summertime stripping back. The shapes meet their match in the rarefied globoid jewellery sourced from 10 Corso Como founder Carla Sozzani’s personal archive, adding a tough texture to the mix of his soft and squeezable forms. “Carla’s husband, Kris Ruhs, is an artist who makes amazing jewellery,” says Lantink. “I had the privilege of going into Carla’s incredible archive. Those are the pieces I’m styling with. Combining them with my new collection is really amazing – I’m super happy that I got the opportunity to meet Kris and talk to him, let alone the approval to use the jewellery.”
The humble T-shirt formed the basis for much of his textiles, upcycled and twisted into a fully-fledged wardrobe that includes bomber jackets, trench coats, leggings and mini-dresses. For a showstopping finale, Naomi Campbell strutted out in a bias-cut gown with a floating neckline constructed from old tank tops and unwanted jeans – it’s truly a miracle what the designer can rework out of the simplest of items. In the wondrous world of Duran Lantink, a handbag might have seemed too practical, too banal – but here, his debut bag was designed to be worn as headwear, constructed with a buckle to be strapped tightly under the chin, not to interfere with the geometry of his full-figured silhouettes.
When asked if he has any desire to follow trends, Lantink appears a little lost. “I don’t really know what a fashion trend is. What’s trendy at this point – Skims?” he asks innocently, shrugging. “I’m not really interested in what’s happening now. I want to create my own language and my own trends rather than looking at what is happening in the streets.” Instead for Lantink, inspiration bubbles from further back in his memories; each naive recollection of those halcyon days of his youth when responsibilities were few and the world felt open. “I’m always dreaming of holidays, but no, I still haven’t been away,” he says. “I’m always working on something. Maybe, after this show, I finally will.”
