BRANKOPOPOVICBLOG: Highlights of the FASHIONCLASH Festival 2015

VERWEVEN 2015 by Nina Willems
designer David Laport
image Peter Stigter

FASHIONCLASH Festival 2015, the 7th edition of the international and interdisciplinary fashion festival took place last week from June 11th – 14th in Maastricht. The 4-day festival program complete with fashion shows showcased upcoming creative talent, exhibitions, fashion film, awards, theatre and dance performances, lectures, workshops and a dynamic Side Program, which gave promising young talents from across the globe the opportunity to present their work to a diverse international audience and industry professionals.
The 7th edition of the festival presented more than 150 talents from over 30 countries. It was a very sunny weekend with happy visitors and radiant designers and artists, the shows were packed and sold out. The whole of Maastricht was dominated by fashion and the celebration of talent and diversity.

GENDER Edition, celebration of diversity and self-expression
FASHIONCLASH believes that fashion as an art form can stimulate critical debate about current controversial issues which are discussed in society. This year's overarching theme during the FC Festival was GENDER. The theme shaped the overall festival and was interwoven through the program inviting the audience to think about the broader spectrum within the gender codes. The theme was mostly reflected in the Gender exhibition on main location, the Opening Show with VERWEVEN 2015 project by theatre performer Nina Willems, Fashion Talk with Aynouk Tan, Meet the Maker at Bureau Europe and the Tabula Rasa dance performance that literally brought the festival's campaign image of the festival to life. Tabula Rasa is a joint project of FASHIONCLASH, Project Sally Maastricht and Mieke Kockelkorn. The festival's main location scenography and spatial design was designed by Studio Stad inspired by 'Queer Space' and gender.

Clash Project

L A T (Lautaro Amadeo Tambutto) winner FASHIONCLASH Festival 2015 Talent Award

AWARDS
The festival ended with a festive award ceremony. Argentinian Lautaro Amadeo Tambutto, designer behind the label LAT won the FASHIONCLASH Festival 2015 Talent Award worth EUR 5,000 and a spot in the 2016 program. LAT has been chosen by a jury panel consisted of Rosario Morabito (Vogue Talents), Carlo Wijnants (fashion consultant), and Philippe Pourhashemi (ASVOF). Jury panel about the winner: Philippe: 'The collection offers an innovative mix between sportswear elements and folklore traditions'. Carlo: 'The whole package from design together with the styling creates a string creative identity'. Rosario: The complexity of blending several elements tackling design, cultural and commercial elements resulting in a coherent collection”.

L A T, winner FASHIONCLASH Festival 2015 Talent Award

The Kaltblut Magazine Award presented by Marcel Schlutt (founder and editor-in-chief KALTBLUTT magazine) and was given to Portuguese designer Patrick de Pádua. The Chapeau Magazine Award presented by Xavier Cortenraedt (editor-in-chief Chapeau Magazine) and Elise Crutzen (fashion journalist) was awarded to MAFAD academy graduate Paula Reichert.

Flora Miranda

Hermione Flynn

FASHION SHOWS
Festival visitors were additionally treated by a line-up of designers that represented a broad range of design aesthetics and featured up-and-coming names. To name a few; Linda Friesen, Barbora Procházková, Yojiro Kake, Klekko, Flora Miranda, Rafael Kouto, Bluedenîmes & Minou Lejeune, HANA FRISONSOVA, Ima Mad, INÊS DUVALE and Slovenian collective SQUAT// YOUNG@SQUAT and many more.

MAFAD graduation show, Julia Aumann

Graduating students of MAFAD (Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and Design) showed their sublime collections. This year eight promising designers graduated with strong collections.
Among them we find promising talent such as Rachel Prijs, Reinder Schmidt, Verena Klein, Julia Aumann and Mona Steinhaeusser who closed a show with a fascinating performance.
This edition the Dutch Shoe Academy also presented young shoe designers on the runway with innovative shoe design proposals.

The Mutants by Lotte Milder

The catwalk also functioned as a stage for performance artist Lotte Milder and her The Mutants performance Tabula Rasa by Project Sally Maastricht as well as a stage for theatre performer Daan Couzijn who deliverd sublime music performance 'Overdone'.

Cousin - Overdone

expo - Begum Yildirim

GENDER - EXHIBITION
The fashion shows were complemented by a multidisciplinary exhibition where a selection of creative work curated around the theme of gender was exhibited. The former interior design factory of Mosa was temporarily transformed into an innovative museum, where selected art works relayed the different visions of gender in various ways. Think among others photography, illustration, clothing, video, object and shoe design. In the exhibition the visitors had the chance to browse through installations by designers such as Maison the Faux, Amber Ambrose Aurele & Kesha Felipa, Begüm Yıldırım, Matthijs Holland, Camiel Fortgens and a fashion performance by Juliëtte Heijnen. One of the highlights of the exhibition was the 25 meters long digital painting 'Openinghours' on fabric by designer Flora Miranda.

VERWEVEN 2015, a performance project created by theatre performer Nina Willems, was yet again one of the main attractions of the exhibition. Three people were asked to tell the stories behind the clothes that they wear. How do these clothes reflect their personalities, memories and feelings? And how do they use their clothes to express gender? Every interview resulted in a short film. For every person that was interviewed, one young designer created an entirely new outfit which reflected their personality. Designers David Laport, Loes van Nijnatten en Schueller de Waal were all invited to take part.

VERWEVEN 2015, By Nina Willems

Expo - Amber Ambrose Aurele & Kesha Felipa

Charlotte Van de Velde - Clash Project
photo Peter Stigter

CLASH PROJECT
Visitors were also able to visit the ‘Clash Project’, one of the main highlights of the festival, in the exhibition area. The project placed its focus on the connection between disciplines and visions. In other words it embodied the interdisciplinary spirit FASHIONCLASH tries to propagate. Ten non-fashion designers were invited to share their vision according to their artistic discipline in relation to fashion. Ultimately this lead to a 'clash' of philosophical, cultural and practical methodologies. As a result a new hybrid discipline took form.
Each year Clash project causes a clash and fascination by the audience with surprising proposals and out-of the box creativity. This year again, we enjoyed creations by Charlotte Van de Velde, Roos Gomperts, Alexandra Karpilovski, Jan Pieter Kaptein and Stefan Auberg.

DESIGNER MARKET
The Designer Market completed the Festival programme at the main venue. This was a great opportunity for our visitors to personally meet the designers and buy their unique clothing, jewellery and accessories. Visitors discovered brands and designers such as Anna Vikman, Karin Brettmeister, Sciumé, MPA jewellery collective, Blueberries, Bas Timmer, Mees, Delacier, One Wolf, Sofya Hats, Mies Nobis, Danielle Vroemen, and many more.
FASHIONCLASH Side Program, at various location in Maastricht 11–14 June

Market - Delacier

Market - Bass Timmer and Hibernate

Meet the Maker at Bureau Europa

The FASHIONCLASH Side Program, an accompanying schedule, took place at various locations in Maastricht city centre. Next to the many fashionable stores and shops, visitors enjoyed a variety of cafes and restaurants of which some also had room for emerging talent. At the Outspoken Designer Pop-up Store located at ‘De Brandweerkantine’, visitors where able to buy designs and fashion presented by Outspoken Concept Store. And if that wasn’t enough, we treated the fashionista's with the Designers-in-Store program, a route along must-see stores and hotspots such as Coffeelovers, PL-Line, Stijl Wyck, Conflict, Festen, Noir, Le Marais Deux & Koffie and Mayfair.

The 'de Bijenkorf', a luxury department store, hosted the captivating Showpieces exhibition with striking work by among others into into, Simonetta Alejandra, Fien Ploeger, Isabel Helf and Jasna Rokegem who presented a performance. Another stunning exhibition was staged at the book shop Dominicanenkerk, where visitors could savour the mini-collections of 3rd year fashion students. Bonnefantenmuseum exhibited a series of silhouettes, courtesy of the Fashion Museum Hasselt archive, that typified gender codes throughout the 20th century. This exhibition included iconic designs of Yves Saint Laurent, Jean Paul Gaultier and Comme des Garçons. Bureau Europa hosted the 'Meet the Maker' exhibition where visitors could meet the artists themselves. Theater performer Luca Szymkowiak performed ‘In the Milky Ways of eternity’ at Marres. Furthermore we entertained our visitors and urged them to engage in the 'fashion & gender' dialogue with the 'Fashion Talk' with Aynouk Tan at Centre Céramique.

Fashion Talk with Aynouk Tan, Willemijn da Campo, Lotte Milder, Dirk Reynders and David Laport

Lumière Cinema hosted 'Fashion Film Night Out' where visitors could watch a curated selection of award-winning short fashion films. At Museum aan het Vrijthof visitors could take a closer look to a collection created specially for the MIJNshop/MIJNcollectie project and installations by studio IKKAI, Lisa Schamlé and Malou Beemer & Eef Lubbers.

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