Willem de Rooij: Fong Leng Sportswear

This publication presents de Rooij's private collection of sportswear by Dutch designer Fong Leng.Offering a focus on these supposedly trivial, mass-produced objects de Rooij creates groups of similar labels, colours and patterns that expose cross-references. Thus it becomes apparent that many of the surfaces recur to techniques and patterns of a wide variety of cultural spheres, such as caucasian carpets or Navajo blankets. Others seem to address sports as part activity, part status symbol.Some of the prints and applications recall North American quilts or the specific Adiretechnique known from Ghana. The outcome of this is a contemporary discourse of fashion, gender and identity as much as within the oeuvre of Willem de Rooij.