Tomas Overtoom and Liza Koifman are the founders and creative team of clothing label OntFront (ontfront.com).
How would you characterise your style?
We put together this concept with hip-hop in our minds. When we started five and a half years ago, the things you could buy in stores were t-shirts and jeans or business suits. We decided to launch items for men that are exactly in between casual streetwear and more tailored, quality garments.
In terms of fashion, what stores or brands really stand out?
Of course Patta shoes are what Amsterdam is famous for. Filling Pieces, which we have in our store, is an Amsterdam shoe brand that does really well. Tenue de Nîmes on Elandsgracht has Japanese denim and denim-inspired looks. They're young and really good at what they do. In the south, there's 1, which takes the purity and practicality of the heritage style and makes it fresh. They have classic English hunting jackets, which are bought by kids who listen to hip-hop.
Where can you go to hear new music?
Normally we go to the Sugar Factory, Bitterzoet, Studio 80, Club Up, and places like that. Chicago Social Club is a new club night held in Boom Chicago. In terms of music, it's similar to Bitterzoet. It has everything from new soul to experimental, so the feel of it really depends on the line-up. For hip-hop, Cafe Struik on Rozengracht also has nice music playing. It's a small cafe that kind of resembles Cafe De Duivel [ed: now closed], which was more hardcore, but this is more soft and easy-going.
Where do you go to grab a good drink?
Door 74 is an intimate a cocktail bar. It has a living-room atmosphere with private tables. The girls who work there are amazing mixologists. Vesper is another bar that's really good with cocktails. It can get quite crowded on Fridays and Saturdays. Go when it's not too busy, because they don't have many places to sit.
Any places for fashionable people-watching in Amsterdam?
The thing about Amsterdam is that it's small, so every subculture mixes together here. You've got Toko MC at the MC Theatre. It's a restaurant but they also do some club nights. Their food is fusion Surinamese that's much more refined than anything you can get from a take-away place. The theatre does a lot of multicultural exhibitions and performances with artists from Suriname or Aruba. On Monday mornings you can go to Noordermarkt. You can have coffee on the square and watch the people. It's a vintage market, so everyone that comes there is usually well-dressed or creative.
Where do you go to find artistic inspiration in Amsterdam?
Usually we go to openings, not to big galleries or museums. There's a really cool shop called Precinct Five, run by a DJ called Mr. Wix. It's in an old police station across from the flower market. We also go to Foam a lot for photography.
