HOTRODDS is one of my creative passions and one of the ways I express who I am.As a yoga teacher and student, I know how deeply movement connects us to ourselves. When I move in something that says, I am different. I am unique. I am me, the experience becomes even more fun and complete.So I decided to create my own fabric and my own leggings.That is how HOTRODDS was born.Every print begins as one of my own paintings or drawings. I create the artwork by hand because that is the whole point of it all—to give the artist in me the freedom to exist.The designs are then printed by a print houses I love, in South Africa or Europe, and the leggings are made either by me or together with a seamstress in my atelier in Haarlem.My inspiration always comes when I give myself permission to be who I am.Sometimes that happens sitting in a little house in the Karoo in South Africa, staring out over endless space and watching the golden grass move in the wind.Sometimes it happens sitting at the kitchen table drawing with my children on an ordinary school day, when I stop rushing, say hello to the other version of me and invite them into that world with me.The Milan Print is one of those stories.I travelled to Milan on my own—no husband, no children—to meet fabric suppliers at a textile convention. HOTRODDS didn't even exist yet. There was no collection, no business plan and no certainty that any of this would ever happen. There was simply an idea that I couldn't let go of.Walking through the streets of Milan at sunset, I couldn't stop looking at the colours. I am a very visual person and I feel deeply. The yellow walls. The terracotta buildings. The warm orange light reflecting off the houses and into the little streets. The smell of food. The sound of people sitting outside cafés enjoying their aperitivo.I remember thinking how beautiful it all was.On the flight back to Amsterdam, I finally had a moment to breathe. Sitting on the aeroplane, squeezed between two men, it all came back to me. The colours. The smells. The sounds.But more than anything, the feeling.The feeling of travelling alone.The feeling of taking myself seriously enough to go to Milan( without the kids and husband) .Taking the artist in me seriously.Taking my vision seriously.Giving myself permission to be me.That is what inspired the Milan Print.​That is how all my prints are born. Not from trends or forecasts, but from moments in life that touch something inside me.​Knowing that the fabrics have been consciously chosen, that they are beautiful to wear and created with respect for the environment makes the experience even more meaningful.