Malika Helena de Rijke x Bonne Suits: The Envelope Suit

Malika Helena de Rijke recently took on a project with Bonne Reijn which all started when she was doing an interview for her Echobox radio show, Untold.

She interviewed stamp collector Willem van der Bijl about the time he got locked up in North Korea. Apart from that interview being an insanely exciting story to cover, whilst being in his stamp-store, she got super inspired by all the little stamps and their backstories. Malika knew right away that she wanted to create something with the stamps and started philosophizing about an art project and it's possible meaning.

And so she pitched an idea to Bonne, which he immediately loved. I made three editions of suits, which all consist of a classical white Bonne Suit with a row of screen printed stamps and an original stamp in acrylate in the breast pocket. I made Morrocan, Surinam and Dutch themed suits. There is a well thought through philosophy behind the whole project wherein the wearer symbolises the story/letter, the suits represents an envelope and the stamp symbolises connection.

Today marks the release of the collection at the Bonne Suits store, Warmoesstraat 67, 1012 HX Amsterdam as well as an after-party at their neighbours Cafe40 with a stacked line up of some of our favorite DJs.