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.


Who are your artistic influences or inspirations and why? 
My inspiration for shapes and designs comes mostly from architecture/constructions and nature. I adore geometrical forms which are often to find also in the architecture. Additionally, nature is filled with many gorgeous colors, organic shapes which are full of live.

Finding your own voice is difficult, where and how do you find your personal creativity (before you start designing; during the design process)? 
I am usually working on a story, what I do want to tell to the audience through my work. I try to find a social issue that bothers me and then I translate it into my collection. Then I tend to develop a mood board which is helping me for the first sketches and material research.

What is your most favorite brand and why? 
One of my most favorite brands is Ilja Visser. She is a great Dutch designer who has gorgeous pieces with amazing prints, great shapes and a story behind. She is now working or her way to the top and getting recognition in New York and France!

How would you define fashion? 
Fashion can be for everyone. You can use it to tell your story, about yourself or what you stand for. But fashion is also an art expression for designers to tell the audience their story, about their feelings or view on society in the most expressive forms on the body.

Are you a people's person or a loner?
I do love to have people around, but certainly not all the time. I do need to focus on the designs and I am not so good in multitasking. Also when a deadline is coming, I'm not really willing to see my friends because I only want to work till all is done!

What do you strive for in your work? 
I strive to be unique, not to follow trends and design clothes that are seasonal, but can be used for many years. 

What is your ultimate goal? What do you want to achieve with your projects? 
I would like to be an established fashion designer with my own label, exclusive clothes and show pieces, but also some more basics for the people who can't afford or won't wear exclusive designs. It needs to be for everyone.

What are your views on gender categorization in fashion? (as in differentiating between male/female collections, is this necessary?) 
I really like to work on the female bodies, because of the shapes. But some of the items can be seen as unisex. I don't like to see guys in a gorgeous gala dress, maybe because I like masculine man or maybe because I'm just not used to these images on daily basis.


Do you believe the western binary gender system (male/female) will eventually disappear? 
I think it won't totally. I think it's in the nature that boys want to be a fit and cool, and just want a pants and a shirt.

What does your collection try to communicate (what is about)?
The collection is named 'Dark Depths'. It's about the deep ocean where beautiful creatures live with bright glowing colors. We don't know much about the this deep ocean, much of it hasn't even be discovered! Still we dump our garbage in here and build big oil platforms above it. Don't we need to be more careful with the important oceans?

Why have you decided to participate at FASHIONCLASH Festival? 
It's a perfect platform for young designers. Good exposure and a great team working on it. I participated last year for the first time and it was a great experience!

What can we expect from you at the festival? 
I will be a part of the show on the Opening Day, together with Chris van den Elzen. We will show 12 outfits of our new collection. Next to this, one of my outfit of the Extended Excidium collection will be showed at the Bijenkorf. I also participate at the Designer Market with the Excidium items.