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On Saturday, 20 May, the Hague’s popular MingleMush food emporium was transformed into a feast of colour, dance and music, as Cultural Style Week launched in the Netherlands. It was a vivid celebration that drew East and West together.
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After a word of welcome, the event was opened by Candy-Ellie Graham, Cultural Style Week's founder who flew in from London and our Indonesian Brand ambassador and main event host Nova Marseline-Burdo.
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Also in attendance from the UK were cultural ambassadors, Jennifer Laurent-Smart, representing Dominica and Robert Phillips, representing Scotland.
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Our first featured designer was Andy Arduin of Sanisaa, whose presentation on the African-inspired roots of cultural style in Suriname, and the koto dress in particular, was both informative and visually compelling. From an early age, he had absorbed a wealth of cultural knowledge from his grandmother, who had been born in Suriname. Now he makes it his mission to ensure the preservation of this fascinating heritage. The complex folding traditions surrounding the koto dress’s traditional accessory, the angisa can be used to communicate different messages.
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Ukrainian dance ensemble MRIYA performed a varsity of traditional dance followed by an emotional performance by the Ukrainian singer, Maria.
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This segment was neatly concluded with a vibrant fashion demonstration that showed off Ukraine’s cultural style.
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Indonesia and the Netherlands share a history that goes back several centuries. That’s why we were very pleased to see Dian Oerip of Oerip Indonesia, who flew in especially from Indonesia to introduce her Umalulu Terfu Collection.
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This line was made from hand-crafted batik cloth. Dian infuses each of her creations with her own irrepressible spirit of adventure. Her comfortable, unisex garments are made from traditionally crafted fabrics such as ikat, lurik and handwoven kain.
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The amazing fashion demonstration included a dance performance by Rahmida Dewi Patmawati.
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Jennifer Laurent-Smart needs little introduction to anyone who has been following the Cultural Style Week story. At the Dutch event, she delighted everyone with her engaging presentation about madras cloth and Dominican dress.
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Balinese gamelan player Krishna Sutedja gave a live musical performance and our closing event was an opulent Balinese dance performed by Dwibhumi Balinese Dans & Cultuur dance group.
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So many of our guests arrived wearing their own cultural heritage, and it was a lot of fun to showcase this and demonstrate that cultural style really is for everyone.
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We are grateful to MingleMush for making the perfect space for this type of event available to us. We salute our cultural ambassadors, who are the very backbone of Cultural Style Week - Jennifer Laurent-Smart, Robert Phillips and especially, our Holland based cultural ambassador Nova Marseline, who was the most gracious hostess we could have hoped for.
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We would also like to thank our enthusiastic guests and participants for making Cultural Style Week in The Hague an evening to remember: Dian Oerip, Winda Yuliani, Priharyanti van Herp, Claudio, Vincenzo, Aaron, Matt, Ayu, Brigitta, Marvella, Jaycelin, Jessica, Santi, Diah, Devi, Franya, Gina, Mayferty, Debby Jongeneel, Franya Nayar, Cindy Smit, Ohana, Myra Versteeg, Jacqueline, Cindy Angelique, Lany Pradjadihardja, Ary Dwi Nugroho and Gwen Bake from the Maastricht Photo club.
Written By Carine.E
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