God is a Woman?!

Mette Sterre

The theme for the 10th edition of FASHIONCLASH Festival was  ‘Fashion My Religion!’.
Within this framework, ‘God is a Woman!?' project is initiated. For this project, FASHIONCLASH selected ten designers to create an outfit based on research related to this theme. ‘God is a woman!?’ invited the designers to explore gender roles in religion, examine existing intolerances and question how fashion can play a role to increase inclusiveness in religion: it is a project on social issues and patriarchal systems.

All the designs where exhibited Centre Céramique during the 10th edition of FASHIONCLASH Festival.

God is a Woman?! Participants
Photography: Sem Shayne & Anton Fayle
Hair: Sigrid Eiting at KEVIN.MURPHY
Make-Up: Rachel Ritzen / Ellis Faas

Boris Kollar - ‘’Adam belongs to Eva’’ 

This is not a coat. This time I haven't designed any garment. This is a space between a woman and a man. As physical as even more psychical. Because nowadays fashion designers want to make you look like beautiful, brave, independent, individual. And so it works, you become a self standing man and a women. Free and therefore disconnected. You feel powerful and less and less careful. And finally just careless. Time passed by and you realised that you are more dependant than you ever thought you would be. The gender gap has widened wide enough and every present side of the gap is occupied by extreme. Therefore I am not going to give you another opportunity to look at some amazing jacket to make you dream you can wear it one day. Instead I would like to make you think about clothes as a platform focused on connecting people of different gender, race or religion. And than one day soon we might even wear a coat, two of us at the same time.

Mette Sterre Enterprise - Rocking rookie (p) Roxy

I'm a visual artist/designer that researches how far we can contort and skew the ‘natural’ human body in order to form a new form of ‘ethics’. I create sculptural costumes on the of border of the uncanny and the grotesque. My work is a call-to-arms to break away from the Western obsession with the sanctity of the human form.To produce in a time-consuming and labor-intensive way, I show the body's abilities to take ownership, linking up to folkloric and carnivalesque traditions of temporary autonomous spaces. My work is being shown internationally. I designed a garment to communicate that women are warriors godesses, creating a knight in shining armour, combining the aesthetics of the movie “Metropolis” character “Maria” and Naomi Aldermans sci-fi feminist novel “The Power”, in which women obtain the power to produce a deadly electrical charge that renders them able to zap men at will.

LEO-NORE - DATAISM

I like to speculate about the future, to reflect on the past and to create my own vision about how we, human beings, will transform. That is how I have approached 'God is a woman?!'. Dressing the body is an open adventure. I have created a dystopian design centered around an human being that slowly transforms into a cyborg. This illustrates that we might be heading towards a future were we exchange the Bible for data and algorithms. We are becoming more powerful and we are able to postpone death further and further. We are so eager to update ourselves, but when is it enough?

Anouk Beckers - Curating Identity

Curating Identity is the story of a person who can be whoever she - he - it wants to be by the ability to create your own identity. This work is a mix of archetypal man’s and woman’s clothing. Garments are repurposed by cutting up, disassembled and transformed into fragments of a modular system for garments. These pieces are calling into question the border of gender and identity. It allows us to express our identity in a fluid way, in our ever changing world. There is no anticipation on how the garment will look. Anouk Beckers wants to make clothes that allow the wearer to communicate. The system is challenging you to become your own fashion designer or collector of pieces.

Sander Bos - The Daugthers of God

The theme 'God is a Woman' influenced the work by focusing on gender when we speak about God. The work portrays the fictional daughters of God. Since we hear repeatedly about the sons of God in both religion and culture. The outfits have become a parody on the daughters of God, they portray in a playful way identical twins who have never reached maturity. They symbolize the under evolved role of the woman in religion, and refer to the embryo and the egg; The givers of life.

Sarah Lauwaert - I am a modern prophet

With this design I want to visualise a modern-day prophet. Nowadays, we are no longer limited by conservative worldviews where God is only seen as a man. I wondered what modern-day prophets would look like, and how they would spread their gospel, whilst making use of contemporary communication technologies. With these ideas in mind, I created a QR code vestment that can be worn by anyone. A new QR garment could be made for every new message.
 I graduated in 2016 at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, and have lived and worked in Antwerp since.

Sophie Roumans - ALIAS

Roumans is a sustainable menswearlabel founded by Sophie Roumans. She graduated in 2017 at the school of the arts in Utrecht. Sophie got selected for 'De Lichting' and presented her work at the Amsterdam fashion week. With her collections Roumans reflects on the society. Working with rest materials from the industries, her designs can always recur from a previous collection. ALIAS is a research of the stereotype and the rules that are obliged. Between the womanly and the manly. Between different cultures. ALIAS tells the story about the harmony and clash between all the different identities of ones personality.

Teun Seuren - I decline
My name is Teun Seuren and I graduated from HKU University of the Arts Utrecht as a Fashion Designer specialized in men's fashion. My work gives of a message, I pose questions and play with different perspectives such as homosexuality gender and vulnerability.The concept behind my design is a clash between homosexuality and religion. Why is there still a problem within religions when it comes to homosexuality? I want to find the overlap between the two and merge them together. "I DECLINE" is a final showdown in which we demand to be accepted.

STEVEN VANDERRYT - OG (Original Goddess)

I've been studying fashion since I was around 15. Did multiple educations about Fashion Design. In the first years I really focused on techniques and craftsmanship. After that I started to focus more on experimental fashion and couture. That's when the love for experimental fashion kept on growing so much that I made it my main focus. The outfit for the God is a woman project is a reflection of the modern day god/goddess. A goddess that lives with the modern world.

Mandy Roos X Victoria Ledig - Pussymagic

Mandy Roos and Victoria Ledig graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven. They found each other in their obsession with the beautiful, the ugly and the strange. Playfully and grotesque they explore the possibilities of materials. Their shared focus is increasingly shifting towards their soft, feminine side: "If God is the source of mankind, God is a vagina. A part of the human body still surrounded by a huge taboo. Similar to depicting God in different religions. We want to open up this disturbed relationship in all its glory. A combination of pride and courage, a mirror of soft allure."