Collectie Arnhem 2019

UNLOCK, BECOMING

There is a place where girls and boys, with each passing year, grow more serious and more dull. Among the grey confines of their grey, grey buildings and their grey, grey offices, they get increasingly engulfed in a sea of responsibilities, labels, expecta- tions, judgements and social restrictions. What once were mon- sters under their beds became monsters under their desks, mon- sters waiting with them at the bus stop, monsters behind them in the queue for the ATM, sulking and brooding all around them.

One day, a peculiar few decided to leave this fate behind to seek a better fortune. They packed their trunks with their most precious and their most curious belongings, onwards to a journey to discover an alternative way of living, an alternative way of be- ing. Hopeful and ambitious, they start to walk, to trudge, to plod far, far away from the greyness and the dullness. So far, so wide, they even wander all the way to the other end of time. Through many a marsh, through many a field, resting among the hay bales, the thicket and the shrubbery.

During their pilgrimage, they are followed by an omnipres- ent looming darkness, reminding them of their former life. On their long winding path, they encounter an otherworldly spirit releasing them from all fears and entering them into a foolish dream state, enabling them to discover their layered, ultimate true self. Elevated by a sense of absolute confidence, the foolish dream- er with a fetish for mother nature arose.

With the guidance of their new, mystical friend, they are taught to wield the armour of their choice, to master it and use it with care and conscientiousness. They brandish their new found shields towards the threatening cloud of gloom, causing it to scarper frantically and frenziedly, startled to be so suddenly chal- lenged. As it withdraws, the monsters of the mundane pull out their claws and instantly disappear.

In celebration of this victory, each individual has now the strength and the bravery to embrace their peculiarity and return to their prior existence. As they return to town, they jubilantly parade and march in front of the gazing grey townsfolk, who scratching their heads in astonishment, pondering over their own predicament.

Collectie Arnhem is a collective of 20 third year fashion design students from ArtEZ University of the Arts expressing their own view on fashion today. Collectie Arnhem 2019 was presented on the 30th January in Loods 6 in Amsterdam.

Photography by JW Kaldenbach