EXPOSED Fashion Show 2024 - KABK

Yara de Vries

EXPOSED / the FASHION SHOW, the annual presentation of the Textile & Fashion department of the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague took place On June 13th at The Megastores shopping mall in The Hague.
The Fashion Show featured the work of all years, from the first investigative steps in year 1 to highlighting the very personal collections of the graduating students Sophia Bogstedt, Elke Cloïn, Julia Groven, Wassim el Hodayebi, Patryk Ochmánski, Yara de Vries, Peter Wertmann and Siyu Zhang.

After the show, the Keep an Eye Textile & Fashion Scholarship Award was presented to Wassim el Hodayebi to invest in his creative development. 

 

 

Gerrit Rietveld Fashion Show 2024

Camille Doussy

The Rietveld Academie Fashion Show is the annual presentation of the Fashion Department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. This year the Rietveld Academie Fashion Show presented the graduation projects of Anna Ammerer, Oline Bronée, Camille Doussy, Mads Lucky Hemmingsen, Elayne Henry, Olivia Sahl Jensen, Emmanuelle Martinez, Erin McClain, Dorka Morvai, Sophie Rintala, Vincent Schefz en Marlene Scheinle, as well as a selection of work by first and second year Fashion students.

This edition of the fashion show is characterised by live sound. Amplified by a microphone, each student is literally given a voice. Like in the early fashion shows of the 1950s, where a presenter provided live comments on elements like the fabric, length and detailing, this microphone adds a sonic dimension to the work. The models are no longer silent, but breathe, hum, shout, speak and sing. Because the show is an inherent part of the work, integrated into the curriculum and not just a stage to display the result of a design process on, the students have developed their own performative dimension of the work.

Under the guidance of Elisa van Joolen, Uta Eisenreich, Fashion teachers Philipp Schueller, Oscar Raaijmaker, Ferdinand Schmeits, Tenant of Culture, Sanne Karssenberg and Marina Sasseron de Oliveira Cabral, and in collaboration with makers from various disciplines, such as voice and performance coach Deborah Abrahams, artist and choreographer Alexis Blake, scenographer Stefan Prokop and sound artist Jeroen Vermandere, each student developed the multifaceted nature of their work through experiments with voice, sound, space, movement, light and shadow.
The works show a wide range of personal interests, techniques, forms and materials, but come together in a play on identity, parallel universes and the twilight zone between fiction, dreams, memory, reality and lies. Clothes that function as an extension of the body, emphasizing its movements. Clothes in cultural rituals, but also ‘clothing failures’ that stretch the standard of what is allowed to be visible.

Jan van Eyck Academy Open Studios 2024

Kexin Hao

From June 20 until June 23 Jan van Eyck Academy held its annual Open Studios.

36 Artists, fashion, graphic, social, and food designers, curators, writers, performers, and other researchers will opened their ateliers to display the processes and outcomes of their time spent at the Jan van Eyck Academie.
For four days, the academy studios, labs, halls, and gardens will be filled with presentations, installations and screenings, readings and talks, workshops, and performances. The event programme also counted on savourable contributions by the Jan van Eyck Food Lab, the Future Materials Lab, and a special Writers’ Programme. 

Particioants: Ana Tomimori & Carlos Felipe Guzmán, Andrea Zavala Folache & Adriano Wilfert Jensen, Anouk Beckers, Ayo Akingbade, aqui Thami, Arjun Das, Astrid Haerens, Céline Mathieu, Cemre Kara, Ginevra Petrozzi, H M Baker, HaYoung, Ikram Hamdi Mansour, Immanuel Yang, Kexin Hao, Klodiana Millona & Yuan-Chun Liu, Luca Soudant, Lucas Odahara, Magalie Mobetie, Malina Suliman, Merel van Slobbe, Michał Grzegorzek, muSa Mattiuzzi, Mirte van Laarhoven, Nadim Choufi, Olena Newkryta, Raimo Saarinen, Sara Bachour, Sepideh Behrouzian, Sujin Moon, Ugo Woatzi, Valentina Curandi, Yoeri Alexander Guépin

More information: www.janvaneyck.nl

Some picture impressions

Artez Fashion Show 2024

The Artez Fashion Show took place on Friday, June 7, which showcased Generation 66, or class of 2024. During the Fashion Show, eleven Fashion Design graduates presented their graduation collections. First and second year students also presented their projects and the film Collection Arnhem '24 was shown.

Graduates: Yelyzaveta Kostenko, Sophie-Marie Ordo, Fie Lenders, Arva Bustin, Christiaan Sebastiaan Kock, Loreta Rogule, Darina Denisova, Nouka Rous, Hannah Hasler, Madelief de Lange, Zihao Li

State of Fashion 2024 - Ties that Bind

Mohammed El Marnissi

On 16 May, the festive launch of the State of Fashion Biennale | Ties that Bind took place. During the opening a special artwork was unveiled and performance presented by designer Ruben Jurriën and students of Thomas a Kempis College in Arnhem. Also on show was a live performance by participating artists Ülkuhan Akgül and Batuhan Demir.

State of Fashion 2024: Ties that Bind brings together creative practices in fashion, textiles and contemporary art from across the Global South. Curated by Louise Bennetts and Rachel Dedman in collaboration with Sunny Dolat, Kallol Datta and Hanayrá Negreiros, this decentralised edition unfolds across Arnhem, Nairobi, Bengaluru and São Paulo. Ties that Bind explores the complexities of tradition, the power of indigenous knowledge, and the political potential of clothing.

Ties that Bind celebrates fashion in an expanded field, through critical creative practices from all over the world. How are artists from the Global South addressing and contesting colonial legacies embedded in clothing and cloth? How are designers evolving inherited traditions, and engaging with the urgencies of our time? Rooted in the universal intimacy of fabric, Ties that Bind seeks to amplify the kinships and connectedness among global practices, and share the powerful human stories woven into what we wear. 

State of Fashion Biennale 2024 | Ties that Bind take place from 17 May to 30 June 2024.

From Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00-17:00, you can visit the Ties that Bind exhibition at the main location Rembrandt Theatre with spatial design by Maison the Faux. In addition, there is an installation at Museum Arnhem with live performace activation with artist Lisette Ros. 

Themes - State of Fashion Biennale 2024 | Ties that Bind

Unfolding across four core themes, Ties that Bind unravels notions of tradition, explores the political power of clothing, and alternative approaches to exploitative fashion systems. How are artists from the Global South addressing and contesting colonial legacies embedded in clothing and cloth? How are designers evolving inherited traditions, and engaging with the urgencies of our time?

Themes:Political Bodies
By virtue of being made by hand and worn on the body, textiles and dress are intimately connected to people, society and the political. For hundreds of years, the textile trade was entwined with colonial systems of exploitation, but clothing has always remained a mode of resistance, as well as an instrument of repression. Artists and designers from across the Global South engage in the present with the potential and power of fabric: to challenge stereotypes around identity, origin and gender, to reflect upon migrant experience, to address the legacies of conflict, and to speculate on the future.

On show artists and designers: Azra Akšamija, Esna Su, Bárbara Sánchez-Kane, Jakkai Siributr, Alia Ali, Reena Saini Kallat

Theme: Dismantling Tradition
Tradition is a deceptively complex term. Fashion and the making of clothing are practices defined by constant change and transformation. Although we associate tradition with the past, it is never at odds with the innovative. In Dismantling Tradition, fashion designers from across the Global South revel in the historical techniques they inherit,using weaving, draping, sculpting, quilting, embroidering and paper-cutting to celebrate the enduring potential of textiles, and to evolve local legacies. At the same time, in the Global South traditions frequently represent indigenous knowledge that was marginalised and repressed under colonialism. Over hundreds of years, local textile and clothing practices were eroded and overwritten by imperial power; in recent decades, globalisation has homogenised our world’s diversity of dress. Designers today are not only reclaiming their heritage, but acknowledging this violence.

On show artists and designers: Christopher Raxxy, Nous Étudions, Lukhanyo Mdingi,Sun Lee, Maison ARTC, Kallol Datta, Karim Adduchi, NKWO, Mohammed El Marnissi.  

Las Manuelas Project

Theme: Designing Integrity
Today’s global fashion system is heavily exploitative of the world’s human and environmental resources, and it is predominantly the Global South that bears the burden of demand for fast, cheap clothing. From the practice of waste colonialism – where developed countries dump their textile and clothing waste in developing countries – to the inhuman treatment of garment workers, the dominant economic model is unethical and unsustainable.
Designing Integrity brings together makers from across the Global South who are forging alternative approaches to the creation of fashion and textiles. Their work favours slow making, prioritises fair wages, and values transparency in their supply chain. These organisational principles are matched by creative innovation. Whether revitalising waste textiles or celebrating artisanal practices, such projects give agency and visibility to workers and labourers in the garment industry and beyond.

On show artists and designers: Material Atlas, ABOUT A WORKER, TMS.SITE, Buziga Hill, Luna Del Pinal, Las Manuelas Project 

Mounira Al Solh

Theme: The Fabric of Shelter
Cloth is a building block of humans’ social and material lives; from birth we are swaddled, in death we are shrouded. The very word fashion means to make, to form. The technology of textiles is fundamental and ancient, and clothes are the changeable, ephemeral homes through which we navigate the world. From suspended sheets that conjure refuge amid conflict, to garments that enable individual worship, practices in The Fabric of Shelter use textiles to address the elemental connections between the body and architecture. Exploring grief and change, home and its loss, their works harness the familiar intimacy of fabric.

On show artists and designers: Melati Suryodarmo, Mounira Al Solh, Filwa Nazer, Hangama Amiri

State of Fashion 2024 | Tradition(al)
At the heart of this edition of the State of Fashion Biennale is a decentralised structure. Ties that Bind has unfolded across four places: the home site here in Arnhem, as well as in three sister sites in Kenya, India, and Brazil. In each sister site, an interlocutor-curator – Sunny Dolat in Nairobi, Kallol Datta in Bengaluru, and Hanayrá Negreiros in São Paulo – was invited to develop a Ties that Bind project embedded in their local context and community. Their thoughtful, powerful exhibitions happened in March and April 2024, and highlights from each one are presented in Arnhem.

Batuhan Demir & Ülkühan Akgül

State of Fashion Biennale curated by Fashion + Design Festival Arnhem

As part of the Ties that Bind Biennale, State of Fashion has invited Fashion + Design Festival Arnhem (FDFA) to organise an Open Call for Arnhem-based makers. From October 2023, Arnhem-related makers could apply for the Open Call. They were asked for a plan in which makers described their idea for an installation/presentation/performance around the theme of the Biennale. Hankyul Jeong together with HongKai Li and Jiwoo Lee, Raven, Batuhan Demir together with Ülkühan Akgül, Sophie Roumans and Bas Kosters reflect on the theme of this Biennale with new work. Especially for this part, an exhibition will be set up in Rozet Arnhem, which will be on view free of charge from May 17 to June 30, 2024.

More information: https://stateoffashion.org

State of Fashion is a platform for showcasing alternatives to the current fashion system. We connect fashion, explicitly and honestly, with the societal questions and challenges of our time, such as inclusivity and fair practice, the impact of globalisation and the climate crisis. Our leading question is how fashion can contribute to a better world?

10th edition of Zlin Design Week

Birds Aren't Real by Peter McIndoe

The 10th edition of Zlin Design Week took place from May 8 – 14 in the town of Zlin in Czech Republic. This was not only the 10th anniversary of this design festival but also the 15th edition of Best in Design competition that is part of the program.

Composed around the theme FUTURE IS!, with this edition the organization behind the festival aims to look forward and reflect on what kind of future is created by design. Questioning the potential of current innovations and trends in design for a better future. The program, spread all over Zlin, contains exhibitions, lectures, workshops, fashion shows, talks, award ceremony, pop-up shop, networking events and parties.

Exhibition program consisted of the main exhibition Future is! at the Zlín Castle. Curated by, Michala Lipková, Future is! explores current challenges and trends in design and presents projects that can shape our near and distant future. The selection of projects has focused on meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), resilient design, use of new technologies, and inclusive approaches.

One project featured in this exhibition that stayed with me is by Crafted Liberation. From headscarves to stadium seats, Crafted Liberation celebrates Iranian Women's resilience in the pursuit of gender equality. Crafted Liberation is an exhibition showing unity and empowerment among women of Iran. With headscarves donated by Iranian women globally, they transform them into stadium seats, telling stories of their struggle against political and societal constraints. This project calls for awareness and solidarity for women in Iran and beyond.

Best in Design exhibtion

The second exhibition in the G18 gallery was centered around the finalists of the international competition Best in Design 2024, a showcase for new talents in the fields of Product & Industrial Design, Fashion Design, Communication Design, and Service Design for fifteen years.

The finalists of the 15th year of the competition were selected by a jury panel and their work was on show in the exhibition program. On Saturday evening, May 11th, the awards were given out at the impressive Tomas Bata Memorial (Památník Tomáše Bati), a functionalist building built in 1933.

Best in Design is an international contest for young designers. There are not only financial rewards from 200 € up to 1 500 € at stake, but it’s also a great opportunity to get a feedback and network. Jury is mix of various professionals and previous winners.

In the fashion category the first prize went to Rafał Zakrzewski’s project ‘Reconnect with cloth’, second to Aidan- Jayson Peters ‘Danusa life of a garment’ and third to ‘Embracing Female Healing’ by Ziyao Xiao.
Barbora Kramná was awarded first prize in the communication category and Dorothea Wagnerberger in Service Design. Marek Kuźmiński, finalist of the Product & Industrial Design category, took home most awards, including the media award and the overall Best in Design Award.

OUR SHIFT x Škoda

Furthermore in the program platform was given to aspiring fashion designers. On Friday evening the festival’s main Fashion Show, under the title Future is spectrum! took place outdoor on Platform 14/15 of the Bata Institute.The concept of the Jubilee Fashion Show revolved around the idea that the future is not a linear path but a dynamic spectrum of possibilities. The fashion show featured ten designers from Czech Republic and abroad: Tereza Helánová, Pavel Mikliš, Terezie Kožíková, Karin Elízová, Kateřina Klozová, Jakub Mikulášek, Zuzana Vrábeľová, Valerie Vrbová, Marija Petraityte and Ema Domanická.

One of the highlights happened on Sunday evening, when OUR SHIFT presented a performance in collaboration with Škoda in an emptied parking space. OUR SHIFT is an activist textile and fashion startup launched in 2022 in Copenhagen. The founder duo Milan and Barbora aim to empower individuals and companies to make a shift enabling a more responsible world through activism and textile upcycling. They combine design and upcycling techniques to create unique upcycled styles. With their activist slogans and responsibly-made products, they aim to contribute to the inevitable shift in the fashion and textile industry. In addition, they use their knowledge and experience in the textile upcycling processes to help other companies reuse their left-over textiles and shift their business models into more sustainable ones.

And there was more. Check out https://zlindesignweek.com @zlindesignweek

Take a look at the picture report

Fashion in Flux Showcase #1 - FEELING FASHION

Image: kumfo domfo (fka The Slum Studio).
Photography: Kevin Kwabia

Fashion in Flux Showcase #1 - FEELING FASHION

Sunday 2 June, 15:00 - 19:00
Location: The New Institute, Rotterdam

Does sustainable fashion exist? Ghanaian visual artist Sel Kofiga does not think so. He does believe in sustainable relationships between makers, wearers, materials and land. Kofiga: ’Producing sustainable relationships relies mostly on understanding the implications of what we wear – that's what I'm interested in.’ (Source: Courier Media).

From 2 to 7 June, Fashion in Flux invites Sel Kofiga to the Netherlands to connect and exchange with the Dutch fashion network. For this occasion, Fashion in Flux asked Branko Popovic, artistic director of FASHIONCLASH, to curate an afternoon inspired by Kofiga’s vision and work.

Along new textile work by Sel Kofiga, Popovic will showcase creations of three up and coming fashion makers who - like Kofiga - are interested in the relationships that lay hidden in the cloth of garments. To make their stories even more tangible, Popovic invites four performers, who gently invite us connect to the showcased garments, without seeing or touching them.

Join us for a one-of-a kind and intimate afternoon of music, performance, film and of course: fashion.

Marina Abramović - Stedelijk Museum

Stedelijk Museum is presenting the largest retrospective the legendary Marina Abramović ever held in the Netherlands. Over 60 key works spanning five decades trace the development of the prolific oeuvre of the pioneer of performance art: from her early work, created in former Yugoslavia and in Amsterdam, to the pioneering performances with her partner Ulay and works from her solo practice, in which she is still active today.

The show features photos, videos, sculptures, and live reperformances of four iconic performances that will be staged in the Netherlands for the first time: Art Must Be Beautiful, Artist Must Be Beautiful (1975), Imponderabilia (work with Ulay) (1977), Luminosity (1997) and The House with the Ocean View (2002). As a visitor, you are invited to take part in two performances: Work Relation (work with Ulay) (1978) and Counting the Rice from the Abramović Method.

On show Mar 16 until Jul 14, 2024
More info: www.stedelijk.nl

Jules François Crahay. Back in the spotlight

The first exhibition devoted to Jules François Crahay is taking place from 23.02.24 to10.11.24 at the Fashion & Lace Museum in Brussels.

The name Jules François Crahay may not mean very much to you, and yet this Belgian designer is one of the last geniuses of couture. For the first time, and thanks to extensive research, the museum is devoting an exhibition to him. An opportunity to discover or rediscover this undeservedly forgotten couturier.

‘A new star is rising in the firmament of Parisian fashion’, journalist John Fairchild wrote in Women’s Wear Daily in 1959. Jules François Crahay had just signed his first collection for the Nina Ricci fashion house. It was showered with praise and brought in countless orders. The press compared him to Christian Dior. The subsequent collections confirmed his reputation as a master of couture.

In 1964, he joined the Maison Lanvin, where he created some 40 haute couture collections and more ready-to-wear garments. He dressed celebrities like Claudia Cardinale, Princess Paola and Jackie Kennedy. His unique creativity and independent thinking opened the way to Belgian designers like Martin Margiela, Olivier Theyskens and Nicolas di Felice at the head of prestigious Parisian fashion houses.

Jules François Crahay. Back in the spotlight traces the long and fascinating career of this fashion virtuoso. Beyond a biographical aim, the exhibition seeks to define and enhance the renown of this designer’s unique style. As artistic director of the Nina Ricci fashion house between 1959 and 1963 and then at Lanvin from 1964 to 1984, Crahay set the tone for a light, playful, romantic fashion, a touch theatrical but always perfectly in control.

While his couture was not one to break boundaries or use statement-women, it was marked by independence and sometimes dictated fashion, shaping it through its passion for folklore and exoticism. And keeping its distance from both purism and futurism. He excelled, in particular, in the manipulation of fabrics, colours and motifs.

The exhibition covers half a century of the history of fashion while tracing the career of this little-known Belgian couturier. The Fashion & Lace Museum unveils its unique collection built up over the years. A selection of haute couture and ready-to-wear samples from this collection is supplemented by outstanding loans from the Palais Galliera – City of Paris Fashion Museum, the Museum of Decorative Arts, the Patrimoine Lanvin and other public or private collections. 65 silhouettes, accompanied by sketches, photos, films and archival documents bring to life the person and work of the famous yet forgotten couturier.

Bill Viola, Sculptor of Time

The Musée de La Boverie (Liège) staged an impressive monographic exhibition to the American artist Bill Viola. A major figure in contemporary art, Bill Viola is considered one of the fathers of video art. In partnership with Tempora and the Bill Viola Studio, La Boverie is offering the first Belgian exhibition of international scope celebrating the work of this unrivalled video artist. 

Technically dazzling, Bill Viola's works are at once grand and intimate, complex and surprisingly accessible, spectacular and deeply human. The sources of inspiration for his installations are multiple, rooted in Western and Eastern artistic traditions and diverse spiritual philosophies: Buddhist, Sufi and Christian. All are permeated by a humanism of a universal nature.

Bill Viola's primary achievement is to draw the viewer into his work. No one is unaffected by the experiences he stages, because these experiences concern everyone. The works address fundamental themes of birth, life and death, and evoke primordial emotions such as empathy, suffering and hope.

It is understandable that wherever he is exhibited, from Melbourne to Bilbao, via Tokyo, New York, Rome or Paris, the art of Bill Viola attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors. Now it is the turn of the Belgian public to fully experience the range of his immersive and powerful works.

Iris van Herpen. Sculpting the Senses

Staged at the Musée des Arts décoratifs, from 29 November 2023 to 28 April 2024, the exhibition Iris van Herpen. Sculpting the Senses pays tribute to one of the most forward-thinking fashion designers. A pioneer in the use of new technologies in her discipline, Iris van Herpen transgresses conventional clothing norms, while embracing both traditional Couture craftmanship and innovative techniques. 

Ranging from micro to macro, the exhibition questions the place of the body in space, its relationship to clothing and its environment, and its future in a rapidly changing world.

A selection of over one hundred haute couture pieces made by Iris van Herpen dialogue with works of contemporary art, by artists like Philip Beesley, the Collectif Mé, Wim Delvoye, Kate MccGwire, Damien Jalet, Kohei Nawa, Casey Curran, Rogan Borwn, Jacques Rougerie and design pieces by Neri Oxman, Ren Ri, Ferruccio Laviani, and Tomáš Libertíny, in addition to items from the spheres of the natural sciences, such as skeletons and fossils, thereby instilling a unique resonance with historical pieces.

The exhibition will be presented in the Christine & Stephen A. Schwarzman Galleries, and curated by Cloé Pitiot and assistant curator Louise Curtis, with the scenography entrusted to the Studio Nathalie Crinière.

Born in 1984, Iris van Herpen grew up in the village of Wamel (Netherlands) in harmony with nature and the living world, which are, along with the classical dance she practiced intensively from an early age, the founding elements of her relationship to the body and clothing. After a formative period with Alexander McQueen and Claudy Jongstra, she founded the Maison Iris van Herpen in Amsterdam in 2007, combining the subtleties of craftsmanship with the pioneering spirit of innovation, decompartmentalising and opening up her practice to a host of other disciplines, resulting in sensorial design that capture the intricacy and diversity of a natural world. Four years later, she joined the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in Paris.

The year 2010 marked a turning point in her career: she presented her first 3D-printed dress from the Crystallization Collection, currently conserved by the Musée des Arts décoratifs. In the manner of the iconic piece made in collaboration with Daniel Widrig and the Materialise company, Iris van Herpen contemplates fashion as an interdisciplinary language and a dynamic entity, the result of the cross-pollination of various fields: art, chemistry, dance, physics, architecture, biology, design, and technology. By collaborating with creatives and thinkers of all stripes, she seeks to challenge our notions of Haute-Couture. Conscious of the issues of her time, for the past number of years, she has privileged eco-responsible manufacturing methods, as evidenced by certain creations made from recycled plastic or 3D printed cocoa beans. In 2012, the Groninger Museum devoted a first major exhibition to her work. Today, Iris van Herpen is internationally recognized as one of the most remarkable and surprising fashion designers of her generation.

Iris van Herpen’s commitment to slow fashion and thoughtfully allow her multidisciplinary to transcend boundaries, inspiring a reimagining of our relationship with fashion and extending the realm of imagination.



Celebrating her unique approach, this retrospective, organized around nine themes, identifies the essence of her work, merging fashion, contemporary art, design, and science. The theme of water and the origins of life, omnipresent in the designer’s work, opens the exhibition. Her latest collection, entitled Carte Blanche, showcased in this space, dialogues with David Spriggs’ work Origins, literally inviting the visitor to immerse themselves in the designer’s aquatic universe. Water is also touched on in terms of the scale of the immensity of the ocean with the wave realized by the Collectif Mé. A special space reveals the natural environments invisible to the naked eye already unveiled in the 19th century in the illustrations of Ernst Haeckel or in the remarkable glass models by Léopold and Rudolf Blaschka. Works by Ren Ri and Tomáš Libertíny, made by bees, contrast with the fragility Rogan Brown’s paper works.

The theme of the skeleton is inaugurated by the Skeleton dress echoing the hybrid skeleton of a work by Japanese artist Heishiro Ishino. The place of the body is also evoked at the heart of organic and architectural networks, represented by means of a dress, a metaphor for a Gothic cathedral, but also by Ferruccio Laviani’s Gothic cabinet, and a documentary by Yann Arthus- Bertrand and Michael Pitiot entitled Terra, committed to the defence of life and the interconnections between ecosystems. Next, visitors are invited to leave the physical dimension of their body to explore the sensory world and through photographs by Tim Walker, a sculpture by Matthew Harrison. Finally, the shadows of mythology around the theme of the medusa created by Phillip Beesley enter into a dialogue with works by Kate MccGwire, EcoLogicStudio and a piece of Samurai armour. In the next section dedicated to new nature, the installation Living Shadows by Beesley comes to life as a derivative of physical dress and infiltrate its surroundings. An installation by Casey Curran offers a reflection on the place and the physical and spiritual future of human beings.


The exhibition ends with a presentation of Iris van Herpen’s works as if projected in the immensity of the cosmos. Her dresses dance across the sky, with bodies floating through space and time. The photographic works of artist Kim Keever, as well as images of nebulae encourage visitors to experience the world in a more holistic fashion.

Ferruccio Laviani, Good Vibrations Cabinet, 2013

Three spaces bring the exhibition to a close: an evocation of Iris van Herpen’s studio, in which vistors are immersed into the atelier process through hundreds of material samples, a cabinet of curiosities presenting her accessories (shoes, masks, and hairstyling items), alongside elements from the natural sciences and videos, and a room celebrating the living and moving body through videos of the designer’s catwalk shows.

The exhibition is accompanied by a sound composition created by Salvador Breed, which challenges the senses and further immerses the visitor in this journey around the body and the themes close to the designer.

More information: https://madparis.fr

STRP Festival 2024: A Matter of Freedom

Hanna Haaslahti

It had been on my wish list to visit for several years. But this year I was finally able to attend the STRP Festival that took place in Eindhoven from April 11 to 13.  This time in Microstad (former KPN building).

The program with exhibitions, dialogues, a music and performance program and a broad education program, STRP delves deeper into the theme of this 2024 edition: A Matter of Freedom. What does freedom mean? How free are we to be who we want to be? Can we really say what we want in a polarized society? The artworks at STRP reflect on the relationship between freedom and technology: how is technology used to restrict freedoms, activate imagination or learn to look at yourself critically? STRP highlights freedom from different perspectives, cultures and angles.

STRP offers a high-quality and innovative cultural program, including the festival, the relationship between art, technology and major social issues. In addition, there are daily Artist Talks where artists discuss their practice and the work exhibited in more detail.
I attended the opening of the exhibition where 12 works could be seen and experienced.The opening speech not only emphasized the theme but also their strong focus on participation, especially of young people. STRP succeeds in showing complex themes and works in an accessible way. The interactivity of the works gives you as a visitor the opportunity to actually experience the works. Some are more effective or more intrusive than others, which certainly depends on your areas of interest.

All works explore the theme of freedom through art and technology. For example, Carrie Chen wonders how free children are if their behavior is monitored by technology. In Ling Tan's game you learn to play with the rules of democracy with your own body. Bianca Carague takes you through a liberation ritual in which you can let go of your obstacles.
One of the works that impressed me was ‘WE ARE BECAUSE OF THOSE THAT ARE NOT’ by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley where the freedom of Black Trans people in a game situation is explored. Another work that really struck me was Captured by Hanna Haaslahti, it is a narrative simulation about social injustice where your Digital Double has a role to play. It was intense to see my double in the metaverse and get hit. The presented works not only explore the positive aspects of technology, some give you an ominous feeling of powerlessness and an irreversible future that you as an individual cannot do much about.
STRP invites you to play along and determine the experience of the work. And ask yourself: what does freedom mean for me and others?

www.strp.nl
IG @strpeindhoven

Fashion and Sports: From one Podium to Another

Looking forward to the 2024 Olympics, the Musée des Arts décoratifs (Paris) presented Fashion and Sports: From one Podium to Another (20 September 2023 – 7 April 2024), an exhibition on the fascinating interconnections between fashion and sports from the Ancient World to the present day.

This major exhibition illuminates the shared social concerns and focus on the body of the apparently unrelated worlds of fashion and sports. 450 items of clothing, accessories, photographs, sketches, magazines, posters, paintings, sculptures and videos illustrate the evolution of sportswear and its influence on contemporary fashions. Jean Patou, Jeanne Lanvin, Gabrielle Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli were some of the interwar fashion design pioneers who found inspiration in the world of sports.

The exhibition shows how they made sportswear fashionable in a wider range of contexts, including in everyday wardrobes. The importance of comfortable clothes is a recurrent theme, explaining why tracksuits and sneakers are now ubiquitous on the streets and on the catwalk, from Balenciaga to Off- White. The exhibition was curated by Sophie Lemahieu, Keeper of the museum’s post-1947 Fashion and Textiles Collections.

At the centre of the exhibition is a contemporary fashion “running track” overhung with golden rings in homage to the Olympics. Photographs show some of the sports stars who have been particularly inspirational for fashion designers, including Zinedine Zidane for Dior, and Naomi Osaka for Louis Vuitton.

Models walk up and down the track clad in the designs of some of the prestigious couturiers who have drawn inspiration from the rich and diverse world of sports: we catch a glimpse of a football motif on outfits by Comme des Garçons and Paco Rabanne, a baseball jacket in a collection presented by Off-White... We also discover that athletes themselves brought fashion to the sporting world, including Serena Williams and Andre Agassi, who sported bold outfits on the tennis court, and Surya Bonaly, who wore Christian Lacroix designs at ice skating competitions. In the background, podiums illuminate the increasing number of collaborations between great sportswear brands and fashion designers. In 2003, Adidas and Yohji Yamamoto pioneered this new type of joint venture with the Y-3 collection. Other collaborations are also presented, notably those of Lacoste and Freaky Debbie, Gucci and Adidas, and Balmain and Puma. Last but not least, the spectators in the stands use their outfits to project a certain image at a sporting event. From the elegant dresses that ladies wore at the races in 1900 to the football shirts of the RC-Lens football team’s supporters, practices have seen major changes over the years.

The exhibition design is by BGC Studio.

More information: https://madparis.fr

Epson Design Awards 2024

André Konings

The third edition of Epson Design Awards took place in Eindhoven on March 27 welcoming designers from Benelux. Printer manufacturer Epson and fashion innovator LABELEDBY once again, organized the award show in which young designers can show their creativity based on print design. 12 young and talented designers were selected to join the design challenge. Epson provided each designer with ten meters of textile on which their dessin is printed with an Epson sublimation printer. The central theme of this years fashion show revolves around ‘Inclusivity.’ The designers were encouraged to explore the concept of inclusivity in their creations. Celebrating all body types, genders, ethnicities, and abilities. The submitted designs were judged by a jury and were shown in a runway show in Eindhoven, hosted by OKLA, a local drag ambassador.

The overall award went to Annalie van Doorn, a prize that includes an Epson SureColor SC-F500 dye-sublimation printer. The winner with the most colourful print was Povilas Gegevicius and the winner who's proposal best responded to the theme of diversity and inclusivity was Lotte van Stijn. Both receiving 10 meters of sublimated textile with their own print.

The jury panel consisted of Troy Nightingale, Sophie Wantia, Megan van Engelen and Ruben Jürrien.

Nominated Designers 2024: Janne van Wezel, Povilas Gegevicius, Babs de Kock, Louise Noordam, André Konings, Annalie van Doorn, Sam beddegenoodts, Tijn Roozen, Maryléne Madou, Lotte van Stijn, Joëlle Leenders, Guerline Kamp

Recap of first edition of FASHIONCLASH Tilburg

The first edition of FASHIONCLASH Tilburg, a 1-day fashion event in Tilburg took place on Saturday 2nd of March.

The program contained performances by Esra Copur and Ruben Jurriën developed within the framework of The Clash House, an exhibition, pop-up sales, a selection of fashion films, a fashion talk, workshops and theatre play Who cares what you wear? about fashion and sustainability.
In addition, there was a surprise intervention by Fynnandmathis before entering the The Clash House program.
Especially for FASHIONCLASH Tilburg, 20 designers and artists are selected to participate in the exhibition and pop-up sales program through an open call.
At the Pop-up sales work from different designers and labels was on show and for sale: Anne Exoo, André Konings, &AMPERSAND, C.Pouki, De/Wi, IZZI Label, Lili Jullian, MUSA intimates, POViS, usnea.
The multimedia exhibition consisted of clothing, textiles, video and photography of the following participants: Anne Jansen, Aïsha Fashion Design, DFC Upcycling, Esra Westerburgen, Lara Warson, Kutsal Taylanci, Paulo Assunção, prActiZe, Sophie Fabre Design, Studio Rik Versteeg, Esra Copur, Ruben Jurriën.

More information about the program and participants: www.fashionclash.nl/fashionclash-tilburg 

All images by JinzenVisuals