Dance through transformations and challenges
With the upcoming 30th anniversary of marlies|dekkers, I had been revisiting the 80sand 90s clubscene roots of my brand, and how inspired I felt all over again by its joyful riot of creativity, diversity and tolerance! Talking to two key players from that era, DJ Joost van Bellen and photographer Cleo Campert, I realized that our motto then, ‘no labels, no limitations’, could easily have been the motto of this season’s muse Lee Miller.
A surrealist icon, a Vogue cover girl, an innovative art photographer and a legendary war journalist, Lee Miller was a queen of reinvention who refused to be labelled. “I would rather take a photograph than be one,” Lee said, and quit her glitzy modeling career to devote herself to photography. A few years later, she would become the only female correspondent to see combat during World War II. During an interview that moved me to tears a few times, biographer Carolyn Burke – who met Lee in person – told me: “Lee was many things, but she was first and foremost a woman of tremendous courage.” This season’s bold collections and jampacked issue of FEMININE|FEMINIST are dedicated to the courage it takes to break through stereotyping and fully explore your talents, again and again.
In my essay ‘Lee Miller and I’, I share the story behind my own successful transformation from a designer into an entrepreneur, photographer and magazine publisher (with an interesting cameo for singer/ entrepreneur Rihanna, a multi-talent her-self). Exploring a different type of transformation, I also talked two women, Nannette Mienis and Renate Eikenaar, whose courage transformed them from breast cancer survivors into thrivers, helping and inspiring other women to redefine their femininity.
Yes, life sure likes to throw us curveballs. It’s not always a smooth ride. But the women in this edition show us what you need to not just move, but dance through transformations and challenges: a lust for life. It’s what made me groove through our nightclub shoot that day; it’s what has been getting me up every morning for the past 30 years, excited to run my business. And I’ve made sure to infuse each page of this magazine with it. Hopefully it will inspire you to awaken your own lust for life. Or, as my sometimes bawdy muse Lee Miller would put it: ‘to grab life by the balls’. Enjoy!
Love and live life to the fullest!
– Marlies Dekkers
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MD Friends
Building bridges
From the Erasmus Bridge and the Mercedes-Benz Museum to Qatar’s metro network; Ben van Berkel’s iconic landmarks bring people together in rapturous beauty, again and again. I talked with the Dutch architect and educator about sensuality, ‘healthy’ buildings and the remarkable parallels between our designs.
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MD Friends
More than a feeling
Don’t ignore your emotions; they are much more powerful than you can imagine. By linking the magical world of emotions with hard science, Dutch scientist Pierre Capel, professor emeritus in experimental immunology, shows us the consequences of our feelings and the power of our minds. The message: we can do much more than we think. “Meditate. It’s the single best thing you can do for your health.”
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Marlies Says
Keto curious?
The fact that I feel bikini-confident all year round is, of course, a nice bonus. But for me, the biggest payoff of following the keto diet is the way it optimizes my health and gives me tons of energy.
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Marlies Says
Super (skin) food
‘If you can’t eat it, why put it on your skin?’. I pretty much live by this beauty adage. After all, with your skin being one of your body’s largest organs, anything – and I mean anything! – you put onto your skin will end up in your bloodstream.
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