After a pandemic, a postgraduate period of silence, and after solving the complex puzzle regarding what youth in 2022 are supposed to wear (or at least its product representation), Baby Reni’s vision ended up wrapped marvelously on each of the BLISS’ looks signed by Amsterdam designer Irene Ha.
Ha’s debut show BLISS (well, it was more of an art show) enabled us to see and examine how easily she does discomfort through what she was doing. Furthermore, she does this all while giving us amusement rides to enhance softness for the wearer by delivering yummy printed pajamas, hoodies, and puffer sets. Her Vietnamese roots influence the products with an intercultural charm beyond cuteness and nonchalance, all with a pinch of photoshopped irony and humor.
After graduating in 2020 (Gerrit Rietveld Academie Fashion Department), Irene Ha pilots under the name Baby Reni. If Ha was often napping in bed and dreaming on her own behalf, she was actually suspended above it while creating loungewear for her dear suite mates. All these nesting ideas are portrayed through fifteen silhouettes, which show her bolster bed as the altar basket where she shelters to recharge. One can feel how grateful she is to be surrounded by creative friends: all of her casted models are born as natural stars. To dream confidently in bed might be easy for everyone, but BLISS urges us to exercise our dreaming in public spaces and calculate the micro-gravitational force your aura owns. The final message: don’t let society’s prejudices get you down or attempt to look like someone else (in chewy winegum letters).
(っ◔◡◔)っ💙 We left BLISS presentation at diez gallery in Amsterdam singing: if you’re yummy and you know it wear BABY RENI, if you’re yummy and you know it … that’s okay (っ◔◡◔)っ💙
Ha’s creative vivacity and motivation was seen over the last two years in installations and argumentative set design here and there (Tilde, 37PK and De Nieuwe Kerk). This definitely gave us more dimensions to understand the type of spaces her brand floats in or the things she cuddles with (like the sausage pillow carried by Karlijn Hu Chuan, which was the summer collaboration with Trang Le, Irene’s mom).
But now the body itself challenged her. All that prettiness, sprayed over each model during the show, touched us. Or it entered our nose, like the sweet notes of marshmallows, as seen on the printed blanket worn by Artemiy Sei with the exact solid-but-soft consistency you just want to hug.
This is the type of confectionary Irene Ha keeps adding to Baby Reni’s ethical production. And we can’t wait to wear it.
Best,
Marcelo Horacio Maquieira Piriz
Photos © diez gallery
Artwork © Ulises Chamorro
Styling Merle van der wal
Hair Adriana Lasheras Mabanta
Make-up Inkeri Virtanen
