Coffee Break Story #1

Together with our partner Coffeelovers we will be sharing a Coffee Break Story almost every Sunday as of the 4th of June! 5 Local designers who are part of FabricAge will be sharing their “cup of inspiration” and “what tickles their fashion senses”.

Our first Coffee Break is with:
SUZANNE VAESSEN – www.strikks.nl 

Suzanne Vaessen, 29, living in Maastricht and knitwear designer/ co-owner of STRIKKS designer knits. Suzanne is one of the designers in this year's edition of FabricAge. STRIKKS will also present its research collection at the FASHIONCLASH Designer Market (30 June-2 July 2017/SAMDecorfabriek), where they will be investigating the role consumers play in the customization of a (fashion)collection.

1. What makes the social design label & project FabricAge so unique and why do you want to be part of the project FabricAge? 

The interaction and commitment with other designers, crafts buddies and participants is very strong. FabricAge demands you to look at people who share your passion, but have different ways of making this passion come to life. As a designer, I’d hope to create a mindset that the image in your head can always be realised. Open up, talk to others, look around (and always keep your eyes on the prize!).

Judith van Vliet at FASHIONCLASH Festival

FASHIONCLASH Festival 2015 is starting within few days - soon you will have an opportunity to appreciate various talented designers and talents. One of them is Judith van Vliet, Enjoy our interview with her to find out what you can expect on the catwalk, who is going show her collaboration with Chris van Elzen, sell her pieces at the Designer Market and present her piece in de Bijenkorf.


Who are you?
I am Judith van Vliet, a Dutch fashion Designer, based in Noordwijk. I have graduated in 2012, at the Utrecht School of Arts. Since 2 years I have my own label.

How would you describe your work? What is your technique? Have you shown your collections before, if so, where? 
I design women's clothes, which often contain an architectural shapes. Besides that, I like to experiment with non-conventional materials. I used in the past wooden pins, sedge, perplex and metal. I like to work on pieces that can be both seen as art and clothes. My graduation collection 'The Western Uniformity' was my first real catwalk collection and ,next to the graduation show in Utrecht, it has been showed at Amsterdam Fashion Week during a talent show. My first collection under my own label was presented last year: Excidium, which was prepared in collaboration with Chris van den Elzen. This collection was showed during previous edition of FASHIONCLASH Festival and also during Cologne Fashion Days, where we won the Cologne Catwalk Award.

ZWYRD at 11th Fashion Week Poland

Last year, FASHIONCLASH had a pleasure to invite young, Polish designer, who just debuted  at the FashionPhilosophy Fashion Week. It was first ZWYRD’s collection ever created and ever shown and at once people fell in love in his masculine and nature-inspired designs. Question was, if Grzegorz Marcisz, the owner of ZWYRD, will continue his success with his second collection. And you know what? He did!

Second collection of ZWYRD focuses on the science fiction theme – Grzegorz’s aim was to present his own vision of the future. In case of Marcisz, the theme is not a random words, which are supposed to fill in the catalogue or a press info – the general destruction of the world, pessimistic image of the future is visible in his designs. Grzegorz based his colors and hues on very dark cobalt, metallic silver, greys, black and white. He also included semi-transparent black materials and colorfull prints, which resembled explosion (matching with the theme of destruction).

In case of ZWYRD, it is extremely impressive, that such a young designer (he is actually still a student) creates coherent, mature and interesting collections. The same goes with the shows themselves – barely anyone uses metal/rock music to the fashion-shows. We cross our fingers for ZWYRD and we wish, that this young Polish talent will create many goods for European fashion. 

All images are by Martyna Wasiak

Stefanie Barz

Meet Stefanie Barz, a young fashion and costume designer from Berlin. She studied at the School of Art Berlin-Weissensee. She will be presenting her collection at the exhibition.

Audio > Vision, Stefanie Barz
Picture: Florian Penke/ Model: Dina

Hello Stefanie! What inspires you in general? 
It can be anything, but I am particularly interested in phenomena of culture and environment, so mainly people and nature. The source of inspiration is very important, as it is the starting point of my working process. I develop the whole concept around it. Theoretical aspects and thoughts are associated with pictures that provide me with ideas for the colours and the forms. My latest collection is in that sense an unusual experiment: I got inspired by music and by my favourite songs that I then transformed into fashion – seeing by listening.

Freya Proudlock

Photographer: Mitchell McLennan

Let us introduce you to Frey Proudlock, an English knitwear designer, who recently moved to Amsterdam. Her collection will be presented at the fashion show. Freya grew up in London and completed a degree in Fashion Knitwear Design and Knitted Textiles in Nottingham. Her work explores stitch and pattern through the use of experimental techniques in both fine and chunky gauges.

Hello, Freya! What inspires you in general? 
Colours, textures and structures. I enjoy looking at other cultures and their take on design.

What place or city do you find inspiring? 
London, Amsterdam and other major cities. I enjoy visiting galleries and exhibitions. Being around creativity and design inspires and motivates me.

What attracts you about the FASHIONCLASH platform? 
It’s always nice to be able to showcase a collection in a new way to a new audience. Seeing the collection in new contexts opens up the possibilities of my practise.

What is the concept behind your latest collection? 
"Modern Japan is a strangely familiar country which, through its own ambivalent exoticising of the West, has at once inflected, resisted and reversed the binaries of orientalism." (N. Perry in Hyperreality and Global Culture).
Cultures are evolving, merging and borrowing different cultural attributes from one another, which has become more apparent and widespread since the growth of globalisation. Cultures are of course dynamic rather than static and will naturally change and develop when they interact with each other. I researched into both Japanese and British culture taking inspiration from traditional fashion and textile influences. I don’t think of my collection as being solely conceptual, this was the starting idea and hopefully the collection developed into being something autonomous.