BRANKOPOPOVICBLOG: HKU Exposure exhibition and show

Berber Struiksma

HKU Fashion Design Graduation show 2023

The opening of the HKU Exposure, the annual graduation event, took place on June 28 with a performative fashion show. Exactly at 16:16, also the title of the show, Kay Lambertius Ettema opened the event with an all-black collection followed by two dancing models from Farah Sahupala. Further on in the show, dancing was brought back by Jentl Rietdijk, who based her collection on research into the connection between her grandmother's old house and her life in Tallinn.

Similar to other academies, HKU students worked with upcycling, sustainability themes and created new forms with existing clothing and textiles. All symbolic of the recurring search for new fluid worlds where personal stories are connected to social themes. Mostly hopeful approaches to bring synergy and harmony to the world through fashion.

To play with the autonomy of fashion, Berber Struiksma created her own fairy tale with characters based on stories she found in second-hand books. Rosa Damen makes new compositions of found objects and materials. Marvin Beekman also played with waste and probably his project literally WA(I)ST.

In the search for new worlds, André Konings took the most innovative approach by mixing digital and physical and creating a fluid world. “The collection is a series of looks that represent liminal Spaces that are in line with me. As someone who is half Dutch/half Philipino, floating in between genders and sexuality. I find myself not completely one thing. Being in the gray area can be quite stressfull and uncertain.”
Another innovative approach was proposed by Roxy van Kemenade where digital and physical lives meet. With this 'phygital' collection, Roxy explores a way to make a digital embodiment more tangible.

With Camping Couture, Senne Roeper explored how to connect the pretentious fashion world with the simple and earthy camping life. This research is symbolic to his own life, on the one hand growing up on an island where he lived with people who don't care about fashion and on the other hand studying fashion in a city, where people usually have no idea what it is like to live in nature and outdoors.
Emma Pastoor found inspiration in the techno rave scene that is unknown to many people and that is why there is often a negative image of this community. With her collection, Emma wants to show the other side of this scene where openness to each other and freedom are central.

After the show, the exhibition officially opened where the work of the entire design department was on display, including an impressive textile artwork based on the slavery past that Marleen van der Eerden & Joëlle Wagteveld made in collaboration with Peggy Bouva. There was also an installation by product designer Mathilde Hanneuse who made a series of conceptual accessories. For the show she worked together with Alain Albert Meijnhard van Schor.