Guestpost | Discovering Fashion & Design in Arnhem with C-More

Thank you Desiree for having me on your blog for this guest post! Let me introduce myself. I’m Iris, Interior designer and also a blogger at C-More. Since I love to visit cities I took the opportunity to show you around in the city Arnhem, where I studied Fashion Design at the Artez Academy and still live nearby. I visit this city often, but for a lot of people out there it’s a bit of an unknown city…and that’s a pity!


Arnhem has a lot to offer on Fashion and Design. For example there is the Fashion Hotel Modez, every two years the Fashion Biennale / MoBA, there is a special neighborhood named “Mode Kwartier”  in Klarendal, with a lot of little shops and studios where you can actually meet the designers. 


In the city itself there are a lot of high quality, creative and inspirational shops as well. It isn’t a big city, but you definitely can fill a couple days with, fashion, design, nice café’s and restaurants, great green surroundings for long walks in the park, and beautiful houses. So, I’ll show you around!

First we visit Fashion Hotel Modez. The hotel is up and running since September 2012. It’s a unique concept, where fashion illustrator Piet Paris invited 30 fashion designers to design the 20 rooms, breakfast area and reception. All designers have some connection with Arnhem and every room has a unique design. It’s a very nice place to stay when you are visiting Arnhem. I’ll give you a sneak peek in a few of the rooms. Don’t forget to mention your wishes for a specific room when booking the hotel 🙂
1st picture is the hotel Modez from the outside, 2nd is a hand drawn sketch by Piet Paris, from the room he designed.  3rd and 4th are the rooms by VLKRO by Rob Velker, also a very masculine room, with a lot of black and white and dark wood. 

1st picture is the reception, with the golden desk and wallpaper designed by Piet Paris. He designed this aria as if it was a beautiful woman with long golden blond hair. The 2nd en 3rd pictures are of the room by fashion Designer Francisco van Benthum. The wallpaper is based on one of his own designs. The whole room is in black and that gives it this very nice and masculine feel. The 4th picture is the staircase. Here you can see the 3 segments: the front is a redbrick, the middle is all glass with steel stairs and hallway and the last part is black wood.

1st picture is the dark green room by Sjaak Hullekes with a travel theme. You find old suitcases transformed into a cupboard  2nt the room by VLKRO again. The 3th is the room is a suite by Spijkers and Spijkers,  the famous fashion design twin sisters. In the last picture, the stunning steel stairs which bring you to al the floor, in case you don’t take the elevator, which is also the tiniest fashion design museum in the world!

Jones | Fashion concept store 
Then we go in to the city. First stop: Jones. This fashion concept store “avant la lettre” started in 1988 and moved tot this industrial space, once an old printing factory, at “het Eiland” where they sell the most stunning fashion and design items from known and unknown designers.


By not following any trends but always use intuition, high quality materials, seeking for the story behind the collection, that are mostly from small labels, Jones has managed to create a unique and personal shop where you immediately feel that its not just a shop. Iconic is the big wooden birdhouse, right in the middle of the shop. I recently interviewed Jones. You can read it here on my blog Jones | Fashion concept store | Arnhem

Coming Soon | design conceptstore 
Next stop: Coming Soon. This concept store filled with a mix of new, some of them just graduated, and established designers. They always arrange the items beautifully and it’s almost impossible to walk out of the door without buying a nice present for yourself or for a loved one.

Dudok Cafe
Time for a break. Arnhem has a lot of nice coffee bars, restaurants and café’s all over the city and also in the Fashion district “Het Modekwartier”. This time I’ve picked Dudok, just around the corner from Coming Soon. In the old bank building, you’ll recognize the famous “Dudok-café” feeling imidately. Firm dark furnishing combined with a lot of black steel and industrial lamps. Here you can take a coffee with the wellknown “appeltaart” or an nice bite and sip.

Humanoid Fashion store
Then last but not least, we visit Humanoid. A fashion label with it’s roots in Arnhem. Started in 1981 in a shop and studio just across the beautiful church they are located in now. I love the clothes they design and wear them since they started.
Since then the grew a lot and are internationally loved by many loyal fans for the high quality of fabrics and always matching shades. This particular building is an old church witch you must go and see when visiting Arnhem.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little walk trough the city of Arnhem and I can tell you, it’s definitely worthwile to visit this town
More tips you can find here:
Uit in Arnhem | Museum of modern art | A more alternative scene: eat and drinks on the roof-terras