11 March 2017 // Serena Asselman //Rotterdam

//FLEUR & LINDE

Fleur and Linde, two sisters that live together in a gorgeous house on the Bergweg in Rotterdam. The mansion is colossal, the ground floor is divided into a kitchen, a living room, a garden room and a conservatory that has a beautiful view over the big garden that looks a little sad due to all the fallen leaves because of the winter season. Linde tells us, she already started to clean up the garden but it’s not doable as new leaves appear at areas she just cleared.

Fleur and Linde live together with several roommates, some of them are their friends and some they hardly know. Because the size of the house they can all have their separate lives without interfering each other. The mansion breathes history, not only due to the old build, think high ceiling and beautiful ornaments. But also, because it was an institution for Moroccan youth that couldn’t take care of themselves that well. They lived in this mansion with a group leader to take care of them. That’s why in the garden there is a small attachment in the house that they used for their prey rituals. This small house has now a totally different function the girls explain. When they trow a party, the after party is in the praying room so the party can continue without bothering other people.

Fleur graduated from fashion school and Linde is still in school and studies Food and Dietics. At the moment Linde is trying to have a conscious life style, not using a lot of plastic, bringing her own cup to a take-away coffee joint, using animal friendly products, she's realy pasionate about it and gets her sister's support. Together the sisters have a love for vintage clothing. Fleur makes her own clothing and Linde used to work in a vintage store and loves to wear items her sister makes and selects. Fleur sells vintage from the livingroom, she organises small events and invites people to their house to shop in their colorful and excentric collection, she also goes to markets to sell her stuff.

The velvet pants the girls wear on the day we visit are masterpieces that Fleur made, the girls rock these pants with grace. Their creativity the girls got from their parents, their mother is a true star when it comes to make-up and hair and their father is a builder and collector. 'We have strong bond with our parents and visit them as much as we can, when they drive by they always send a text and we go out to wave' as Fleur and Linde live on a big street that leads to the city center of Rotterdam, I can imagine this happens a lot.

 Thanks girls for having us,