Inside The New Shopping Bag with BONNE
Justus, Bonne and Emile
The SUSAN BIJL X BONNE is part of 'The Sailor', the BONNE FW26 collection. To promote the collection, the SUSAN BIJL team did an infamous 'Stoep Shoot' on the steps of Bonne's house. While we were there, we interviewed the three main characters behind the BONNE brand:
Bonne Reijn, Justus Cohen Tervaert, and Emile Almekinders.
Describe yourself in three words
BONNE: Engaged, passionate and traumatised.
EMILE: Precise…Bonne already chose ‘passionate’, but I want that as well.
BONNE: You can also choose passionate
EMILE: Ok, then precise, passionate…
BONNE: and pretentious.
EMILE: [laughing] I’m not gonna say that about myself.
BONNE: But you know you are, so just say it.
EMILE: Yeah, ok: precise, passionate, and I don’t want to say it, but I guess pretentious
JUSTUS: Curious, positive, and I’ll need to think of the third one…
Where are you now?
BONNE: Standing in front of a beautiful canal house in Amsterdam, at the Oude Schans.
EMILE: Where Bonne and I lived together. And where I lived romantically, where Bonne was born, and where I grew up, and Justus also lives there.
JUSTUS: I live across the street.
EMILE: It's the house where I met Bonne also when I was 19, and we worked together for eight years, and Bonne and Justus worked together for 12 years. I think. And this is the house that taught me a lot. And I think it taught Bonne a lot, too. A big lesson this house gave me is that special things happen when you put people in unfamiliar places.
Tell us something about you and SUSAN BIJL
BONNE: So me and Susan both go to the same vacation spot. I've been going to Goedereede since I was born, and Susan has been going there too. And I always text her to hang out, but she never replies. She replied one time, but it didn't work out. But we have done a collaboration in the past.I knew about the brand, of course, from way back, because she's been doing it also for a very long time. And I was working for SPRMRKT, this clothing shop, and I think through there I got to know about the brand already, like 20 years ago, about Susan Bijl, and then when I was halfway through my brand, so after Bonne Suits existed for five years, I think she asked me to help her with the campaigns for SUSAN BIJL and doing casting and that kind of stuff, because I was doing that for Patta, and that's how I met the team. Emile assisted me in doing that shoot and production.
EMILE: Yes it was actually one of the first times we worked together, it was for SUSAN BIJL.
BONNE: Yeah, I think seven years ago, casting and shooting for the 20-year anniversary collection, and then after that, we set up the collaboration for the first time with SUSAN BIJL X BONNE. So we've been collaborating for a really long time as well. Yeah, and I really respect how they work, from like family and doing it together from like, the ground up, and still building, like a viable company. I really try to model BONNE to her, or how SUSAN BIJL does it.
JUSTUS: I think there's no brand more similar than SUSAN BIJL to BONNE.
BONNE: Maybe, wait. There's one similar brand: Monique van Heist. So I think Monique van Heist and SUSAN BIJL and BONNE, it’s kind of the same school, and I really learned a lot from Monique van Heist and Susan.
JUSTUS: I mean, in every way almost, it's a little bit eerie, almost in every respect, both in the office ethics, in the way, sort of your office and store and everything merges into each other, and the fact that it's like one style that's been going on from the start. I think even a little bit, the struggles in growing and how to add like wholesale and stuff like that. Because I'm more on the organisation side of the brand, I think we have had a similar path. The same choices we have to make, they [SUSAN BIJL] made just before us. So, yeah, I talked with Vincent and Linda [from SUSAN BIJL] also a couple of times about this, which was very helpful.
What ecological measures would you take if you ruled the world?
BONNE: I would centralise clothing production. I would have a dictatorship in clothing. And I would say how people would dress, and what they should wear. And I would put all the clothing facilities in one place?
EMILE: basically the BONNE suit with a shopping bag.
BONNE: Yeah, BONNE suit with a shopping bag, with shoes from Terra. It's easy. And then we produce all the clothing in the same place.
JUSTUS: One place, every continent. So, one in Europe, one in Asia, one in North America, one in Africa. So you don't ship everywhere too far.
EMILE: This is a perfect plan. It's a plan that we're working on.
Bonne and Justus
How do you brighten up your existence?
BONNE: So it's also really inspired by Susan, I think, because the brand carries her name, right? But when I speak to her, I never really speak to her about the brand, and I really like that. So I think as a head creative or like an owner and face of a brand, I think I'm really inspired by the fact that she feels a little bit detached. She feels a little bit detached to the brand, but she feels very tight to the brand at the same time. And that's how I would want to try to be as well. It feels like she's really free and can live in inspiration. That's how she inspires me. That's how I would try to brighten up my existence, to live in inspiration.
JUSTUS: So we're now gonna do a little bit extra promotion: We brighten up our existence by organising amazing art projects. And right now is the Warmoes Biënnale. And everybody from Rotterdam should also go and see the Warmoes Biennale, because that is the way you brighten up your experience, with art in shops, in pubs, in churches and people meeting each other. That's really important.
EMILE: So I think we, as we all like to live, how we brighten up our existence, is to do many things at once and to support local arts and businesses.
What part does colour play in that process?
[laughter because everyone's wearing dark grey/blue shades.]
EMILE: But both brands use colour a lot as a way of communicating, I think. And for BONNE SUITS suits, it's always been the same suit in different colours. I think it's not a big thing for us personally, but for the brand it is.
BONNE: I paint miniatures, and I paint them in all different colours, like Warhammer miniatures. Emile: That’s how you brighten up your existence!
BONNE: Yes! I paint knights, and I make my own heraldry, and every miniature has its own unique heraldry. So it's all kinds of different colour combinations. And I have, like, 200 I'm painting.
What music have you been listening to lately?
JUSTUS: The new Ploegendienst record.
EMILE: Peezy, two million up.
BONNE: I'm listening to a lot of, I need to find the name, because I'm so bad at names when I have to say it. Oh yeah. Alison Krauss. In particular, this album: Alison Krauss, I’ve got that old feeling.
What's your biggest loss?
BONNE: My ex-girlfriend.
EMILE: I would say the same.
JUSTUS: I didn't lose anything so big recently. So it's a luxury. So my uncle, probably, yeah.
What is your ultimate destination?
BONNE: Say, 24 BONNE revenue.
JUSTUS: [laughs] No, I'm not gonna say that. My ultimate destination? I don't know right now my biggest destination is this summer, I'm gonna go to the Alps. For a good hike.
EMILE: I really like the Netherlands, actually, I think I really like this country we live in, and Friesland and Zeeland are my top two provinces that I really love to go to.
BONNE: I really feel tied to them also, I would also choose Holland, Friesland and Zeeland.
JUSTUS: So then, put for me, Limburg. No flat country. [laughing] This is gonna be the break of BONNE SUITS. They want to just stay at the coastal side. And I don't. I want hills and mountains.
EMILE: And I think for the music, it's also nice. I've been listening a lot to bloghouse and indie sleaze. And we do parties in this, which I really like, and I really enjoy doing it together with Bonne as well. It's called Tourist Trap.
BONNE: We want to do one in Rotterdam!
EMILE: Yeah, we want to do one in Rotterdam. And I think your audience is great for us. The SUSAN BIJL audience.
JUSTUS: Ok, let's be honest and give Bonne this one: Of course, our ultimate destination is also BONNE SUITS making the next step, and the Warmoes Biennale making the next step, is also a big destination that we're looking forward to. It's not like we just go on weekends away to Zealand and Limburg.
Team SUSAN BIJL at the Oude Schans
The SUSAN BIJL X BONNE is part of The Sailor, the BONNE FW26 collection, inspired by the colours and forms of the nautical alphabet; the signal flags that have guided seafarers for centuries. The collaboration consists of The New Shopping Bag Large and The New Trash Bag Medium, both in five colours, plus a rainproof anorak and rainproof pants in Sailor Blue. Waterproof essentials designed for life on board and everyday use.
The Warmoes Biënnale is on till May 3rd.
Photography by Maarten van der Kamp
