Vlieger & Vandam

Hein van Dam and Carolien Vlieger, husband and wife, met in June 1999 in The Hague, where they both worked at that time. That meeting was the start of their relationship, which brought them from The Hague to Duindorp to Rotterdam, where their home and studio is situated.

Carolien studied graphic design at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and Hein studied 3D design at the AKI, Academy of Visual Arts and Design in Enschede. At their design studio, the combination of these two disciplines results in unique fashion accessories. In 2002 Vlieger & Vandam started with a series of hats called Hairwear and a series of bags called Guardian Angel.

Guardian Angel was the first in a series of striking bags. It makes a strong statement about growing rates of crime and violence. Each of the bags appears to contain a gun or a knife. The idea grew out of the increasing number of stories in the news that focused on lawlessness and antisocial behaviour. People’s perceptions and the fear of violence soon grew to be greater than the number of crimes actually committed. The first Guardian Angel bags were designed in 2002, made of second-hand handbags and embossed woolfelt parts. Now they introduce a new range of Guardian Angel bags in new colour combinations every season. The latest series of Guardian Angel bags is completely made out of leather.

Autumn 2005 the Guardian Angel bag was exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, during the exhibition 'Safe, Design Takes On Risk'. The MoMA added a Guardian Angel bag to it’s permanent collection in 2006.

The collection consists of different lines of bags and accessories, such as the Camee series, the Dachshund bags, GMT travel bags, Guardian Angel and the latest Diamond series.

Camee is named after the technique called cameo, where one type of material is carved into a figure and another type of material provides a background of another colour to offset the figure. The bags show details of portraits, made of suede layed in leather. The Dachshund bags evoke the dog-as-accessory trend. The GMT (Glasses Music Tickets) bags are made specially to hold travel essentials like sun-glasses, music players and documents. GMT consists of a travel bag, a tote bag, a briefcase and Charms for wearing around the neck or over the shoulder. All bags have a horizontal strap at the front for attaching the individual Charms items.

Four times a year Vlieger & Vandam show their collection in Paris at Premiere Classe, the world's most beautiful show room for fashion accessories. For 18 years, Premiere Classe has been the world's essential fashion accessory rendezvous for professionals. At this moment more than 70 stores around the world carry the collection of Vlieger & Vandam.

Vlieger & Vandam
Betje Wolffstraat 60
3027 RN Rotterdam
The Netherlands
tel/fax +31 (0)10 4677 699
info@vliegervandam.com

Agent and Distributor for Greece
Occhi Concept Store
35 Sarri str
10554 Athens
Tel:+30.210.3213298
info@occhi.biz
http://www.occhi.biz/