Tom Van Der Borght: Fashion One Correspondent Search Benelux Fashion Designer Judge

He knows Fashion. He won't put up with any slack. To be a fashion correspondent, you need to be a fashion expert. Tom Van Der Borght is our expert judge with a critical eye on the ins and outs of fashion. Let us hear the thoughts and opinions from this fashion police on the competition.  1. What makes a good fashion correspondent? What do you look for in finding the next Fashion One Correspondent? Someone with personality, an own vision on fashion and lifestyle and a will to learn and improve. 2. What will viewers expect in this Benelux leg of the Fashion One Correspondent Search? What makes this leg exciting? I think Benelux is still an important region in fashion nowadays, even if we are just smaller countries. 3. What makes Benelux different/unique from the other Fashion and Entertainment capitals of the world? Our individualistic nature 4. Which of the tasks the contestants did is your favorite? The final walk & talk at Ra 5. If you were to put in another task in the competition, what will it be? To make a trend report about upcoming season, to check their fashion knowledge 6. Any advice for the fashion correspondent or for those who want to be one? Be yourself and enjoy! 7. What are you looking forward for the fashion and entertainment industry in 2013? A more open mind and more interest in artistic, new ways of producing and consuming fashion and life. About Tom: Tom Van Der Borght (1978) is a fashion designer who lives and works in Gent. He is a graduate of the Stedelijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Sint Niklaas. After an earlier career in social work, at the age of 27 Tom returns to his first love: fashion. Taking his cue from his mother, a trained sewing teacher, he starts making playful and eccentric garments for friends and acquaintances. Even in those first endeavors the very beginnings of a highly personal aesthetic are clearly discernible. Tom Van Der Borght is not in search of traditional beauty or honey-sweet cutesiness. Bold combinations of bright colors, psychedelic graphics and textures make for a true bombardment of the senses. This new kid on the fashion block is not only exploring the boundaries of traditional beauty. He boldly crosses them to create his own standard of beauty. VDB is always on the lookout for the unconventional and puts into question mainstream social structures. What does society consider normal and why? What is considered as weird and why? His garments serve as armor for strong super humans in an urban setting. But cracks are showing. In his last collection ‘Church of Chica’ VDB, who suffers from a progressive muscular disorder, uses the image of his own faulty DNA ¬¬ to design some of the prints Yet all is not serious. A sense of humor and self-depreciative playfulness show in the way he teasingly covers and reveals in his designs. Another hint of this can be seen in his use of extreme detailing. Throughout his impeccably finished couture collections strong influences of streetwear reverberate. All prints used in Van Der Borght’s collection are originals. Modern, industrial techniques such as printing and laser cutting happily co-exist with traditional handicrafts like crochet and embroidery. Van der Borght also frequently collaborates with other artist e.g. in music and video. For now, Van der Borght limits himself to one collection a year. All garments can be worn by both men and women. The current collection COC (Church of Chica) features one of a kind pieces as well as more commercial pieces that are produced in a small scale.