FASHION ISSUE EXTRA - DEZE GAST IS ONZE GAST

De eerste keer dat we Lars Holdhus zagen klom hij stomdronken het podium op in de Melkweg en begon hij de androgyne zanger van een intens slechte band te droogneuken. Vervolgens bleef hij stil liggen tot de beveiliging hem droog van het podium trok en hem weer in de zaal losliet. Zijn outfit maakte het spektakel compleet - roodwit afzetlint was om zijn lichaam gewikkeld en hij droeg een schitterende kerstmistrui. Blijkt dat hij van die truien een fabuleuze collectie heeft, en dat hij die op een website heeft gezet: christmassweatercollection.com. Toen we dat zagen, moesten we deze in Amsterdam wonende Noorse superster gewoon wat vragen stellen. Klik door voor foto's van de truien en het interview (full disclosure: 't is via e-mail gegaan. We know. Fuck ons).

Vice: Hi Lars, how are you?
Lars: At the moment I'm
at the Galapagos islands! It´s too hot to wear sweaters, but I´m
looking for christmas t-shirts at the moment down here! I brought some
christmas t-shirts with me and some sweaters.
 
How and why did you start collecting these sweaters?
It
started with one sweater I found in Germany. Before the christmas
sweaters I was into Disney and cats. In Germany I found one with
christmas and Disney together. I started to wear it and I liked that it
was so comfortable. I´m mostly into sweatshirts and not so much into
sweaters. There is a big difference for me between those two.

What's the difference?
This is a sweatshirt.
And this is a sweater.

Ok, so how often do you wear your christmas sweatshirts, and to what or which occasions?
I
wear them every day. Before I took pictures of them all I was only
wearing four of them. I´m afraid of getting stains and dirt on them.
That´s why I´m only wearing my favourite sweaters for special occasions
like birthdays and holidays.

So which are your favourites?
I have a lot of favourites. The best sweatshirts have a lot of print and details. They tell a story. This is one of them:

What are people's reactions when you wear the sweatshirts?
People
ask me why I wear christmas sweaters in the summertime. People laugh at
me sometimes. Most people like it. My friends have started to give me
sweaters now and I appreciate that a lot. Something else that's funny: last
time I got my friend to bring me a lot of sweaters from United States.
When he came to customs they started to check his bags. Everything they
found was packages from different people in United States thanking my
friend and wishing him a merry christmas. The customs officer started
to take a knife and cut through some of the bags to check what was in
it. Then my friend had to explain why he had 40 kilos of christmas
sweaters with him…

Would you consider
collecting other types of clothing, for instance different colors of
crocs?
I collect everything I find
interesting. I used to collect basketball posters and empty pringles
boxes. Then I started to collect everything. Now I focus on some
big collections with a lot of smaller collections on the side. I
collect miniature horses. I have around 400 of them from different
countries. I take portraits of them also. I have just recently started
to collect postcard with ships on them. I also collect christmas cups,
christmas t-shirts, christmas denim shirts, disney cups and horse
pictures/paintings.

Thanks for the interview!
No
problem. But hey, I would appreciate it if you can ask people to donate
sweaters. I will wear their sweater and show it online. I´m soon adding
links to people who've donated sweaters to my collection. I´m getting
into making my own christmas sweaters as well. They will be
available online for a low price. I would like if more people would
bring out their sweaters and wear them. Especially in Europe.

En omdat je ervan houdt, zijn hier nog wat truien:

JAN VAN TIENEN