Transgender issues are in the international spotlight like never before: &Other Stories, Airbnb and even Google ran ads advocating for diversity and trans-inclusion.
 

This particular colourful project with social relevance show South African transgender sex workers in a different light. ’Sistaaz of the castle’ is a collaboration between photographer Jan Hoek and fashion designer Duran Lantink. In the South African media transgender sex workers are mostly presented as criminals or victims but the Sistaazhood girls have a wish to be shown in a positive way.
 

Lantink and Hoek documented how these girls live in the streets of Cape Town and still find a way to live theirs lives, dream and even manage to look extraordinary fashionable. The two artists created a series of photographs and a fashion collection around this group of girls that have the creativity to produce beautiful looks from found garments. Duran recognised this way of working as he’s using collage techniques and different recycling techniques also in is own collections.

For the project they documented the lives of six girls: Coco (25), Cleopatra (23), Sulaiga (30), Gabby (29), Flavinia (33) and Joan Collins (57). The girls look cool so naturally that Hoek and Lantink asked each of them to brainstorm about their dream appearance. For this project fashion designer Lantink created for each girl her dream outfit, these fantasies are turn in to the dream-couture capsule collection: this transformed them into fashion icons captured by photographer Hoek.
 

The collection is presented during Amsterdam Fashion Week at the Gashouder on January 16. The exhibition at the Foam Photography Museum opens on January 13 at 17:30 and is on view until January 20.

Bamboo van Kampen

www.foam.org

 

www.duranlantink.com

Bamboo van Kampen, 26, is an all-round creative specializing in visuals and colors; she forms half of the Berlin-based duo Arturo Bamboo.