It is hard to imagine that Ruud van der Peijl will never be present at fashion parties again. With his striking appearance, 1.98 meters and always in an outfit that you had to look at at least twice to see what he had come up with. But most of all, it brought a smile to everyone’s lips.
Van der Peijl, who liked to refer to himself as The King of Style, liked to ridicule fashion, but he had been serious about it for forty years. He was insanely good at everything he did, his friends say. At the end of 2015 his photos hung for three months (Project Ruud All Over) in bus and tram shelters throughout Amsterdam: images of interesting individuals in which he played with beauty, identity, gender and sexuality, if that shocked, so be it.
Pauline Barendregt, who led the design team of clothing brand G-Star from 2000-2010, first met him at Club RoXY. “In a suit that was half Superman, half Clark Kent, Ruud was such an Adonis. For ten years he also took care of the styling of our shows and photo shoots. What made his work so special was that touch of bizar, the totally unexpected. Ruud had such an authentic spirit and so much energy, it was always a party when he was there. I am devastated by his death and G-Star owner Jos van Tilburg is also deeply touched.”
Vengaboys
Music producer Wessel van Diepen, who engaged Van der Peijl for the styling of Vengaboys, is also very affected. “Ruud was the very best, witty, open-minded and he always came up with crazy fun things. He was our artistic visionary and in that role he could do whatever he wanted. I had so much fun with him. We once spent some time turning unemployed twins into rock stars. That was not successful, but it was not due to Ruud’s images and vision. The man deserves a permanent exhibition.”
In the past week, millions of people have seen his photos and outfits, Van Diepen knows. “When the British press was full of articles about 1999 (I Wanna Go Back), the new single from Vengaboys. Ruud’s work splashed from the pages, what he has made is timeless.”
We had a good laugh about those Vengaboys, says Carlo Wijnands, former program director of Amsterdam Fashion Week, who shared his life with Van der Peijl for sixteen years. “Ruud was such a sweet boy and I learned so much from him. He often shouted that he was the best, but he was quite insecure. But despite that, he could negotiate well. If a client found his proposed project price on the spicy side, Ruud replied: ‘Turn my name around: DURATION’. It was also the name of the try-out pop-up store that he briefly ran in May in the Herenstraat. He sold things that he had collected over the years as a self-proclaimed hoarder.
Raised in Voorburg as the eldest of three sons, Van der Peijl went to the HKU and then started fashion label Gletcher, initially a collective of five designers. Under the name GILL group, they immediately focus on foreign brands with other brands, which was unusual for that. Gletcher was followed by styling for shows and teaching at various art schools. Later on, DJing and photography were added, and dressing parties in clubs.
pacemaker
Martien Mellema, former creative director of Vogue Netherlands, praises his versatility. “Ruud had so many talents, perhaps too much for one body, I sometimes thought. He was always the pacesetter, a bit of the big brother of the Amsterdam fashion family.”
Stylist Anja Koops was starstruck when she met Van der Peijl in 1986 in Paradiso. “Ruud walked as a model for the HKU, he stood up with his arms wide in a papal robe, with that handsome muzzle of his and that black Elvis crest: I had never seen such a charismatic appearance. He became part of my life, never a dull moment with this guy.”
Van der Peijl will probably be remembered by the general public because of ‘the tear dress’ and especially that other difficult Eurovision outfit for Trijntje Oosterhuis: a jumpsuit by the Japanese designer Issey Miyake. Much has been said and written about it. He even received hate mail and a Fokke & Sukke cartoon appeared, both in dresses with a rip to the navel, on which Sukke says: ‘I see your dick.’ Van der Peijl thought it was absolutely crazy. The strip hung on his toilet at home for years.
Psychosis
Three years ago he had a psychosis. Tired of the anti-depressants he’d been taking since he was eighteen (‘side effects: loss of libido, weight gain and a dry mouth’), he decided to try a tip from a friend: microdoses of LSD. “But I accidentally overdosed, which made it impossible for normal people to follow me,” he said.
Another successful photo exhibition followed with stills from old porn films, but it has gone downhill since then. Carlo Wijnands: “Ruud’s destructive side became more and more prominent. Two months ago he voluntarily admitted himself, he saw a bleak future and didn’t want to anymore. If you take your own life, I’ll play ten Céline Dion songs at your funeral, I warned him. He could still laugh about it then.”
Are you thinking about suicide or worried about someone? Talking about suicide helps and can be done anonymously via the chat on www.113.nl or by telephone on 113 or 0800-0113.
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