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Imagine the Future

11 Jul - 30 Nov 2025
Amsterdam Museum on the Amstel

Ode to Mathilde Willink | I think your clothes are really awesome!

By Gijs1 maart 2025

Dear Mathilde,

I love your clothes!

Those creations are so special.

Dresses I heard. Also with great makeup and you had

Very long hair that you wore in all kinds

You wore. You were kind of like Lady Gaga! I heard you were living

In Zeeland at the age of 19. Then you moved

To Amsterdam when you got to know famous people.

And then you had a relationship with a painter Carel Wilink.

And then you became a stewardess for KLM because you did not want to

Not sit at home when you were done with that

You also became an artist. And the dresses you wore were

By Fong Leng and a dress like that can cost tens of thousands of

cost. You wore those dresses not only to parties but

Also for shopping I heard. You said yourself then if people

Do not see you then you might as well not exist!

And I agree with that because for example

You've been a good man and you've participated

and then you die one day and still

Everyone in the world knows what the man has done,

Whereas if I die, only the people who know me

know what I've done and not all of Amsterdam

knows who I am and what I've done so I agree!

I agree! But I would be ashamed of myself as a boy.

If I wore your expensive dresses on the street and so on.

And another thing I wanted to know from you was: Where do you get all that money?

And how do you have the courage to put on colorful
Dresses and so on?
GREETINGS GIJS 😊

About

Ode by Gijs to Mathilde Willink.

Students from group 7 of the Sint Janschool in Amsterdam West wrote odes to five special Amsterdam women, as part of the curriculum at Vrouwen van Amsterdam - an ode.

Mathilde Willink with friend, 1975 (Wikimedia)

Mathilde Willink

Mathilde de Doelder (1938 – 1977) was a muse, living work of art, and (former) wife of painter Carel Willink. She often wore clothes designed by Amsterdam designer Fong Leng. She became known under the name Mathilde Willink.

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