There is something gloriously rebellious about Ronald van der Kemp. Long before sustainability became luxury’s favorite marketing vocabulary, the Dutch designer was already proving that the most extraordinary garments could emerge from what others had discarded. Since launching RVDK in 2014 as the world’s first ethical couture house, he has remained fashion’s joyful outsider—interested in possibilities, treating deadstock silks, forgotten embellishments, and abandoned treasures as the beginning of a new chapter.
For Fall 2026, Ronald van der Kemp staged what might be Paris Fashion Week’s most stylish traffic jam. Between two galleries on Rue des Tournelles in the Marais, models sashayed across the sidewalk; meanwhile, tourists forgot about the Eiffel Tower for a moment, locals traded their espressos for front-row seats, and bewildered passersby accidentally stumbled into a visual performance.
A love letter to curious minds and wandering imaginations, Wardrobe 24, under the mantra Vive l’Art, transformed chance into craftsmanship and uncertainty into couture. The collection allows materials to dictate their own destiny: deadstock fabrics, forgotten leathers, dormant beads, and rescued fragments combined with hand-painted 3D-printed ornaments, experimental dyeing techniques, and sculptural tailoring. A mad crush for the abstract floor-length patchwork coat in lacquered scarlet, shimmering emerald swirls, cobalt violet, and textured pink panels stitched together. We are here for the shoulders taking up space: blooming, twisting, and spiralling as flowers on a couture acid trip. Humor has always been one of van der Kemp’s quiet superpowers. A dramatic tweed train curves unexpectedly from the hips. Punk-painted denim happily shares space with sparkling 1940s tailoring. An evening gown painstakingly assembled from tiny found fragments glitters with the patience of thousands of invisible gestures.
As the industry chases algorithms, scale, and the comfort of certainty, Ronald van der Kemp happily embraces beautiful detours. His couture doesn’t ask us to consume more; it asks us to look closer. At RVDK, discarded fragments and imperfections metamorphose into objects of desire – stubbornly human. Long may couture continue to surprise us.
