From left to right:
Creation Fong Leng, photo by Ferry van der Nat
Portret Fong Leng, 2025, photo by Eddy Wenting
Creation Fong Leng, photo by Ferry van der Nat

From 15 October 2025, Museum JAN presents Fong Leng & Fans - 60 years of Fashion & Fame, an exhibition on the influence and significance of the colorful, multidisciplinary fashion designer and artist Fong Leng. A unique player in the Dutch fashion and design world for 60 years, producing and inspiring other young creators to this day.

Fans of her extravagant creations
Fong Leng (1937) is famous both at home and abroad for her flamboyant outfits: dresses and coats made of leather, silk and fur with applicator exotic animals and plants. In the 1970’s, she became popular with her extravagant creations, which were worn by celebrities such as Mathilde Willink and singer Kate Bush. Her distinctive work and personality have resulted in a large number of ‘fans’ and - even 60 years later - continue to be an inspiration. In this exhibition, Museum JAN gives these admirers an opportunity to showcase the power and uniqueness of her work and her place in the Dutch fashion landscape.

Source of inspiration for current fashion designers
Fong Leng has also been a major source of inspiration for contemporary fashion designers such as Ronald van der Kemp (RVDK), Bas Kosters and Mattijs van Bergen, who have indicated they were influenced by aspects like her choice of materials, colors, and distinctive style. With younger couturiers and fashion designers such as Tess van Zalinge and David Laport, the love of craftsmanship and pleats clearly demonstrates parallels with the work of Fong Leng. Fashion label Atelier Reservé, which creates fashion for a wide and diverse audience, also engages in a beautiful dialogue with Fong Leng’s work in terms of theme, inspiration and use of color. In this exhibition, designs by all these creators will be displayed alongside Fong Leng’s work in order to visually emphasize the timeless relevance of her exuberant style. This is particularly interesting at a time when identity and its expression through clothing is a topical subject in social debate.

New textile paintings in reconstruction of her living room
To this day, Fong Leng remains productive, creating wall objects from materials such as leather, suede, silk and fur. Her distinctive signature style is clearly evident, featuring many exotic animal figures. Her Chinese background plays an important role in this. Part of her imaginative, colorful world will be reconstructed especially for the exhibition at Museum JAN. Visitors will be able to step into her living room, which will feature new textile paintings that have never been shown to the public before.

From left to right:
Portret Fong Leng, 2025, photo by Eddy Wenting
Fong Leng, ‘The Ancestors’, Textile painting, 170 x 110cm
Creation Fong Leng, photo by Paul van Riel

Collaboration with Museum MORE | Ruurlo Castle
This exhibition in Museum JAN will run from October 15, 2025 to April 6, 2026 and is curated by guest curator and fashion journalist Lisa Goudsmit. This project will be a collaboration with Museum MORE | Ruurlo Castle, in which Ruurlo Castle focusses on the work from the 1970s and on the relationship between Fong Leng and Mathilde Willink from November 21, 2025 to June 28, 2026. In addition to their extensive collection of Fong Leng creations, Museum MORE will exhibit new photographs by fashion photographer Ferry van der Nat: images that show how contemporary Fong Leng’s fashion still is.
A joint publication will be published by Waanders Uitgevers to accompany the exhibitions.