Rena Jansen (1996) is a Dutch fashion designer with a bold, colorful style and a passion for sustainability and self-expression.
From a young age, Rena experimented with her own style, exploring multiple subcultures and experiencing the influence clothing can have on its wearer. These years of experimenting sparked a fascination for fashion design and a love for a colorful and playful aesthetic. After obtaining her Honors BA diploma from HKU in 2018, Rena worked for Flemish designer Walter Van Beirendonck on the SS20 collection WITBLITZ, which incited her interest in print design and menswear.
From a young age, Rena experimented with her own style, exploring multiple subcultures and experiencing the influence clothing can have on its wearer. These years of experimenting sparked a fascination for fashion design and a love for a colorful and playful aesthetic. After obtaining her Honors BA diploma from HKU in 2018, Rena worked for Flemish designer Walter Van Beirendonck on the SS20 collection WITBLITZ, which incited her interest in print design and menswear.
Youth rebellion and childhood nostalgia are returning themes in Rena’s work. In her concepts she often explores what it means to grow up as a millennial in the current social climate. Her starting point is always a personal experience or a feeling that is felt collectively within her generation. Using bright colors and a naïve, conceptual approach, her collections often feel innocent and joyous. Rena questions the world as we know it by creating contradictions and by reshaping clothing archetypes. In her work she often references surrealist art and uses symbolism to tell her story.
To Rena, fashion is a form of art and a way to express herself. She invites others to reinterpret her concepts through their own style: “Fashion is not meant to be a contemporary collection that walks the runway once, but it is an artform that should live its own life through wearers.” Rena makes her work accessible by loaning pieces to clothing libraries and by opening her webshop in early 2021.
As a designer with a passion for sustainability, Rena works almost exclusively with overstock- or ecologically produced materials. This way she tries minimizes the impact of her work on the environment.
To Rena, fashion is a form of art and a way to express herself. She invites others to reinterpret her concepts through their own style: “Fashion is not meant to be a contemporary collection that walks the runway once, but it is an artform that should live its own life through wearers.” Rena makes her work accessible by loaning pieces to clothing libraries and by opening her webshop in early 2021.
As a designer with a passion for sustainability, Rena works almost exclusively with overstock- or ecologically produced materials. This way she tries minimizes the impact of her work on the environment.
(2021) Lovesick is an ode to young love and the confusion arising from new sensations and experiences. Love often detaches us from reality, making us feel like we’re walking around with our “head in the clouds”. My collection deals with innocence, coming to terms with your feelings as a teenager and inhabiting a space between dreams ans reality. Love can be exhilarating or isolating, depending on our connection to others and how they receive such feelings. Lovesick operates as a longing for intimacy and human warmth, in times where physical distancing and fear are everyday rules.
DESIGN & STYLING: Rena Jansen | SHOW: The Clash House at FASHIONCLASH Festival | MUSIC & PERFORMANCE: Martin Malibu / Marnix Vinkenborg | LOOKBOOK PHOTOGRAPHY: Hanna Jansen | MODEL: Pablo de Borman
(2018) My generation, best known as Gen Y or the
Millennials, is often labelled as being entitled, lazy and childish. We tend to
keep living at our parents’ house for as long as possible and we have trouble growing
up and choosing a career. But we can’t live like this forever: soon the older
generations will retire, and all the responsibility will be on us. So what will
it be like when these child-at-hearts enter the professional world and get a
boring desk job? This collection is a visualisation of this near future. I used
the grey suit jacket as an archetype for adulthood and mixed that together with
shapes and colours inspired by my own drawings as a child. By disregarding how
a suit should be worn and by constructing items as if a child drew the
patterns, I strived to create a humorous yet eerie feeling. All the fabrics
used in this collection are overstock, including the PVC which is leftover
material from a bouncy house factory. In this collection I embody the childhood
nostalgia millennial’s are known for, while acknowledging that this is not a
sustainable state. Welcome to our future!
DESIGN & STYLING: Rena Jansen | LICHTING PHOTOGRAPHY: Team Peter Stigter | LICHTING MODELS: Isabel de Bruijn (De Boekers), Ryan Reddy, Ayannah Griffith (De Boekers), Niels Goos, Ann Koster (De Boekers) | EDITORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY: Hanna Jansen | EDITORIAL MODELS: Arthur van Spanjen, Rosa Mol, Jiwa Saebu | LOOKBOOK PHOTOGRAPHY: Hanna Jansen |
LOOKBOOK MODELS: Arthur van Spanjen, Emma Smellink
DESIGN & STYLING: Rena Jansen | LICHTING PHOTOGRAPHY: Team Peter Stigter | LICHTING MODELS: Isabel de Bruijn (De Boekers), Ryan Reddy, Ayannah Griffith (De Boekers), Niels Goos, Ann Koster (De Boekers) | EDITORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY: Hanna Jansen | EDITORIAL MODELS: Arthur van Spanjen, Rosa Mol, Jiwa Saebu | LOOKBOOK PHOTOGRAPHY: Hanna Jansen |
LOOKBOOK MODELS: Arthur van Spanjen, Emma Smellink
(2016) The years
between being a child and being an adult is a time of many changes: your body
grows, your emotions get more intense, unwritten social rules get rewritten and
society starts expecting things of you. It happens all at once, and you don’t
have control over it and your questions don’t get answered. When reality gets
so confusing, wouldn’t you rather just remain a child for as long as possible?
That’s what 14-year-old me thought. I covered myself in hundreds of
rainbow-colored accessories and wore a pacifier around my neck with pride,
while simultaneously hiding underneath my oversized tees and my fringe. My appearance
became a parody of that of a child, and I used it to rebel against the expectations
of a girl in puberty; desperately wanting to become older. Why don’t some of us
want to grow up? Are we growing up too fast? With this project I dove deep into
my past and tried to uncover the reasons behind my behaviour and that of others
like me.
DESIGN & STYLING: Rena Jansen | SHORT MOVIE: Rena Jansen | EDITORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY: Daphne Oude Geerdink | EDITORIAL MUAH: Sophie Theenaar | EDITORIAL MODEL: Rosa Mol
