Jan Jansen ENG
Jos Arts
Edition: Paperback Size: 12,2 x 16,4 cm
Pages: 144
Illustration: 100
NUR: 452
ISBN: 978-90-89101-05-1
Author(s): Jos Arts
In collaboration with: José Teunissen, ArtEZ Press
Year: 2009
Price: € 14,95
Jan Jansen, one of world's most famous shoe designers, manages already with his first designs to combine a perfect mastery of techniques according to traditional methods with unbridled creativity and a sense of colours, materials and renewal.
After a stay in Italy, where he learns the tricks of making shoes by hand, he establishes himself in Amsterdam in the early sixties, starting a studio as an haute chaussurier. His self-willed designs are quickly picked up in the swinging city and before he knows he is part of the artistic vanguard. He makes thousands of shoe designs, including countless numbers of designs that have now become classics and which are often shamelessly copied. The ‘Woody', the bamboo shoe, the men's shoe with slanting zip, the models with floating heels, over and over again Jansen is far ahead of the trends and is copied on a large scale afterwards .
Jan Jansen tells the story of an inspired designer. Of a man who is continuously searching for beauty, surprise and renewal, and who does not want to make any concession. He has not become rich, but that is of no importance to him. His main purpose was to become a good designer. He more than succeeded as can be read in this book. Jan Jansen is part 3 in a series of monographs of Dutch fashion designers edited by José Teunissen, published in association with ArtEZ Press. Alexander van Slobbe and Marlies Dekkers were published earlier.