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AICO DINKLA

PEOPLEText: Ania Markham

First impressions can be deceiving and nowhere is this more evident than in the work of Aico Dinkla. He creates beautiful clothes but to call him just a fashion designer would be a disservice. To call him an artist is nearer to the truth. Aico occupies a position straddled between the worlds of fashion and art and as a result, his work is wonderfully removed from being pigeonholed or classified.


© Aico Dinkla

The 29-year-old Amsterdammer is best known for his recent collections featuring striking clothes, seemingly made from differing layers of fabric but on closer inspection also coated in a thin layer of shimmering silicon. It is this particular merging of material and silicon that also defines Aico’s current collection of work although it is by no means the sole manifestation of his creativity.

His contribution to Utrecht Museum‘s current exhibition not only highlights the unique relationship between Aico and his sister, Iefke but also begins to examine the elements that have played a part in molding his work to date. Having achieved critical acclaim with his fashion collections and developed a dedicated core of loyal customers (including opera and ballet companies and even high-profile celebrities such as Iman), Aico is feeling the need to change direction and try something different. A difficult man to track down, we cheekily pulled in some old favours (Aico designed the costumes for Gouryella’s ‘Ligaya’ – the music video directed and produced by PostPanic back in 2002) and to our great delight managed to grab an hour with the man himself as he showed us round his contribution to the his exhibition.


Bird top and pink skirt and belt © Aico Dinkla

‘I was born in Colombia in 1974 and raised in The Netherlands by my adoptive Dutch parents but I’d always known about my roots and to this day, I am fascinated by all things Columbian. I have a Columbian sister who was also adopted by my parents and another younger sister, Iefke who was born to my adoptive parents – as a result, she is the quintessentially Dutch looking one out of all of us – tall and blonde.’

Having always been a highly creative individual, it was no surprise that Aico decided to study Textile Design at the Fashion Academy in Amsterdam. It was the perfect setting for him to include his background and early influences in his work and also where he first started his experimentation with silicon. ‘Back in 1995, we were given an assignment based on skin. I was inspired by the ozone layer and played around with the idea of its effect on skin plus of course, sun beds and stuff like that. To get a specific effect for that project, I started experimenting with the combining of different materials. When I tried pouring silicon on a stocking, I decided I really liked it and as a result, my early work is all about the textile and texture of this new self-developed material. I went on to make clothes via this method using sculptured old stockings of my grandmothers’ to create these beautiful, fragile, almost elf-like organic tops.’


Photo: Saira van Essen © Aico Dinkla

His clothes were an instant success and were sold in leading clubwear boutiques in Amsterdam, London and Hong Kong. As he continued to develop this unique material, he began to incorporate both new materials and second hand clothes in each creation. Author Ted Polhemus describes this process the best: ‘By adopting a special technique called moulage, Aico is able to add a top layer to the original fabrics. The result fuses the characteristics of original, traditional fabrics such as lace or technical materials with an extraordinary, malleable, futuristic qualities of the material which offers endless possibilities of shape, colour and texture. His collections therefore embrace many distinct styles: asymmetrical, minimal, futuristic, romantic, theatrical, historical, modern and postmodern. At the same time, however, the unique and striking qualities of the material bring unity to this diversity.’

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