A | Scen | Dance by Carlijn Veurink

Photography: Leroy Verbeet

Meet Carlijn Veurink, a recent graduate from the Product design department at ArtEZ Institute of the Arts. Even though her background is in product design, she has always been interested in performing arts, and tries to combine disciplines in a playful way. Movement, humour and the human body are the key aspects in her work, resulting for instance in dance costumes which translate the movements of the dancer into completely new ones. This is the thought behind her current project, 'A | Scen | Dance'. Everyone has their own way. Their own way of acting, thinking and moving. Religion and fashion both are ways to express and expand yourself. A | Scen | Dance, controlling influence, refers to the way you must create your own autonomy within these concepts to make them personal. This collection consists of different suits which react to your body. You can take control over shape and outline by moving around. Transitioning your movements make the suit come alive.



Carlijn Veurink makes use of materials that have their own way of reacting to change. The movements the body makes echoes through the material and translates this into completely new ones.

'A | Scen | Dance ' will be presented at the SAM-Decorfabriek on Saturday the 16th of June as part of the Show Programme. You can get your tickets for the show here.

What made you realize that you wanted to work in (fashion) design?
I like to imagine scenarios in which people behave, move or react in different ways than they would normally do. I use design to create and visualise these scenarios. I try to make other people also wonder about how we do or make things.

Why did you choose fashion?
I didn't specifically choose fashion. I studied product design because it is really broad and can result in anything. After I graduated I got an assignment from the cardboard company Smurfit Kappa. I decided to make the cardboard flexible and put it around the body to make it dance along with the body. I collaborated with a dancer from Introdans to make a video of this costume. This worked so well I decided to expand this project into a collection which resulted in the work I will show during FASHIONCLASH.

What would you say are your main achievements in your career?
My 'career' has only recently started, but so far I got an assignment from Smurfit Kappa to experiment with their materials, which are paper and carboard. This was presented during the Dutch Design Week last year. And my graduation collection The Production Theatre was selected for the Diploma Selection of Designblok festival in Prague and for Make me! during Łódź Design Festival in Polen.

Annaiss Yucra Mancilla

‘Expressing the identity of my country through my garments’, this is how Annaiss Yucra Mancilla,  a Lima based emerging designer, describes her design vision. Dedicated to transmit a colorful conversation through fashion, she aims to bring her Peruvian heritage to confront social barriers through her garments. This theme is highly visible in her new collection, 'WILLKAS', inspired by Peruvian mythology, and the story of the twins Willkas, a boy and a girl, who have to go through the human world and conquer the adversities that come with it. Emerging victorious, they are rewarded by the Gods and transformed into the sun and the moon to bring balance back to earth. Her collection draws a parallel between this myth and modern Peru, seeing the children from low resources as the Willkas who have to go through the adversities of everyday life.

Her collection will be presented at the Show Programme at the SAM-Decorfabriek on Saturday the 16th of June. You can get your tickets to the show here.


What made you realize that you wanted to work in (fashion) design? 

Since I can remember the sound of the sewing machines are part of myself. My family owns a small textile factory in Lima, and the fabrics and trims have been part of my childhood. When I was a kid I used to give them my doodles of “new designs” so they could make them. I think that summarize my choice: its my heritage and legacy.

Why did you choose fashion?

I wanted to have a way to speak through all my thoughts and concerns and views about life and my country. I found the balance when I started designing. I found a way to communicate through fashion.

What would you say are your main achievements in your career? 

I had the incredible luck and opportunity to be able to be part of wonderful platforms in London (graduate fashion week 24th anniversary), Lima (Lima Fashion week)and soon New Zealand( iD Emerging designer awards 2018). But my main achievement in my career are the projects in which I have been collaborating, such as working with male inmates in San Juan de lurigancho jail, or with the indigenous Shipibo ladies in the Jungle of Peru and the Andean community of San Pedro de Cajas and their artisans. It has really made me realize I can change and improve lives, by creating and helping these people develop new incomes for a better life.

What are your sources of inspiration?

My biggest muse is my country. I found so many sorts of inspiration. I have indigenous heritage, so my background was also a big part of how I define myself and my garments. As a third generation of Peruvian immigrant to the capital, I always lived with this huge problem in Peru about racism against their own for their skin or heritage, so growing up I had to deal with this problems and I had to go through a shame of myself and lack of identity, to embracing it and really capturing this beautiful part of myself in my pieces.

Why did you decide to participate in FASHIONCLASH 2018? What are your expectations?

FASHIONCLASH is an upcoming contemporary platform, that embraces emerging designers and gives them the opportunity to share their work with the world. I feel very lucky and grateful to be part of this year's selection. I really want to land to an Asian platform and I believe this event will really help me to grow as a designer and help me achieve my dream.

Aurum Aurais collection by Daria D'Ambrosio

Photography: Gioconda & Augusto

Meet Daria D’Ambrosio, a second-time FASHIONCLASH participant.
She was born and raised in a village in the south of Italy, and it is this culture and tradition that characterizes her identity.  Therefore it is not surprising that, in line with the theme of the FASHIONCLASH Festival 2018, her collection 'Aurum Auris' was inspired by sacred vestation, and the charming mystery celebrated by women.

Her collection will be presented at the Show Programme on Saturday the 16th of June, at the SAM-Decorfabriek. You can get your tickets for the show here.


What made you realize that you wanted to work in (fashion) design?

It all happened by chance ... I constantly felt the need for something that was not there. So I thought of enrolling myself in the “polimoda” in order to express what I had inside.

Enni Lähderinne presents Boy Meets Evil

Photography: Pauliina Maus

Meet Enni Lähderinne, a designer from Helsinki, Finland. As a fashion designer she studies gender as a social phenomenon and ways to express and interpret one's gender through clothing. From a biological viewpoint there are only two genders but in reality there are as many genders as there are humans. One of her goals as a fashion designer is to find ways of self expression through clothing for those who don’t feel like they fit in the gender binary, or the mold our history and society have created for the most of us to fall into. Can this mold be broken with fashion?

Her current collection is however closer to the theme of the FASHIONCLASH Festival 2018. 'Boy Meets Evil' explores the world of Herman Hesse's Demian and Abraxas and the belief of God and Satan being one. The collection studies the changes one has to go through to find themselves, as well as the eternal search for a true understanding of God.




Enni Lähderinne will present her  collection at the Show Programme on Saturday the 16th of June. Get your tickets here.


What made you realize that you wanted to work in (fashion) design?
Fashion is one of the most multidisciplinary fields of design out there. It keeps me on my toes and pushes my mind to keep on finding better solutions time after time.

Why did you choose fashion? 
Considering all the fields of Design, fashion speaks to me the most. I feel like fashion is the way I present my thoughts about the word the best way. It is my canvas in changing the world.

What would you say are your main achievements in your career?
Finishing my BA studies in Fashion and winning the MTV Break Costume Design Competition.

What are your sources of inspiration?
Usually it’s something that inspires or irritates me. I’m a person who enjoys watching documents, experiencing art, reading and just generally wandering around. These are the ways I use to find subjects that tangle my mind a one way or another. Usually I find myself being interested in the way human mind works and how this can be seen in art and design and society. From there on I keep on specifying my choice of research. I keep making questions and if I can’t find the answers right away, I go forward with the chosen subject of the research. The designing progress is my way of finding the answers to the questions I presented to myself in the beginning.

Enclothed Cognition - FASHIONCLASH Festival 2018

Enclothed Cognition is a collaborative project from fashion designer Bregje Cox and visual artist Mark King. The collection is inspired by the theory of Enclothed Cognition. Particularly, how a garment’s symbolic meaning paired with the physical experience of wearing the garment combines to impact the wearer’s performance in everyday tasks. The Enclothed Cognition collection seeks to empower others by bringing awareness to the interplay between the clothes we wear, the built environment and the human mind.

Enclothed Clothing will present their collection on Saturday June 16 at The Show program at SAM-Decorfabriek. You get get you your tickets online: here.

Q&A 

Mark: I am a Barbadian interdisciplinary visual artist. My work encompasses photography, installation, textile surface design and public art. I am inspired chiefly by behavioural psychology, technology and neuroscience. My artwork investigates the individual’s relationship with the built environment through pattern and the coding of an ever-evolving visual lexicon. My main interest rests in how we can learn more about our surroundings and in-turn leverage this knowledge for a better navigated life.

Origins – Passion and Belief 2015

FASHIONCLASH stand with design of Yojiro Kake

FASHIONCLASH at Origins – Passion and Belief: “sharing a goal but walking different paths”
by Maxime Van der Aa (contributing author)

From the 14th until the 18th of May FASHIONCLASH found itself in the historic centre of fashion design and textile manufacturing. Venice and its surrounding area is famous around the globe for its garment expertise and tailoring knowledge. It has enjoyed this contemporary distinction since its heyday and is still prominently visible. Even though production units of large capitalistic conglomerates have moved to countries harbouring cheaper labour in order to maximise profit. A process which has forced these authentic, artisan companies into decline. They still maintain their work ethic and philosophy under harsh economic circumstances. Withstanding the urge to fold and take advantage of the current situation to legitimize a relinquishment or abandonment of personal values is in our opinion remarkable indeed.
Fiera di Vincenza in collaboration with NJAL tried to fan the flames and pioneer in trying to stimulate international partnerships spawning mutual benefits. Italian fashion production and manufacturing businesses were buoyed by the opportunity to meet a fresh, progressive generation. Lively young designers were in turn awed by the potential to strike fruitful business affiliations.

With the current economic climate moving towards 'Slow Fashion', NJAL brought together a hundred young designers who all share a passion. A passion in design. A passion that structures their reality and symbolizes the charismatic, energetic aura that defines them. The chosen designers were active in all disciplines ranging from stone to textile and beyond. From NJAL's perspective these designers represent the new creative generation. A generation which has subversive and transgressive potential. A generation which, when forming a collective, can undermine the hegemony of large fashion corporates and make their voice heard above all the obscuring noise. However this notion doesn't imply that these conglomerates will cease to exist. It merely intensifies the influence of the visionary youthful. NJAL's aspiration is to help these young, dynamic and inspirational designers to achieve their ambition. Find their feet and confirm their existence in the current cut-throat fashion world. An ambition which FASHIONCLASH shares but tries to realize using their own innovative interdisciplinary platform. In other words: we share the same dream but walk different paths. Where NJAL focusses on economic sustainability. FASHIONCLASH safeguards the artistic integrity each fashion designer, in the broadest sense of the word, has. Being able to showcase a collection based on conceptual inspiration without having to think about profit.

Origins itself was divided in several segments: Leather, Stone, Textile and Technology. Furthermore OPB invited 20 institutions such FASHIONCLASH, Fashion Forward Dubai, Belgrade Fashion Week Design Collective, Esmod Berlin, Worth Project, Doing Fashion and Maisons de Mode.
FASHIONCLASH met interesting and inspirational characters in each of these prodigious sections. We witnessed admirable design aesthetics, unbelievably revolutionary cloth and material choices, stunning embroideries, marvellous patterns and incredible sculpturing of form. We were fascinated by the perseverance and motivation these young designers embody. An embodiment that articulates itself in their fascinating designs.

Doing Fashion from Basel

One could ask oneself the question why FASHIONCLASH as autonomous organisation focussing on fashion as art had any reason to be at Origins. I will therefore end this article by clarifying our impetus and incentive. First of all we wanted to create more brand-awareness about FASHIONCLASH Festival as a brand. A cultural brand which epitomizes an interdisciplinary and international platform that showcases future artistic design talent, whether their collections are wearable or not. We believe fashion can change society. Not only serve as a reflection of cultural norms or solely exists to stimulate consumption. We therefore want to help and incentivize young designers to aid this transformation by creating artefactual fashion. Next to that we also realize that fashion is inextricably linked with economy. In order to survive, one has to sell. To achieve this our platform also hosts a market and a 'Meet the Industry' project. This brings us to our second aim. At Origins we met some very interesting potential collaborative partners that we believe can not only help us to achieve our dream but are also well placed to help the young designers we curated to achieve theirs.

Petra Ptackova

Ultimately, FASHIONCLASH at Origins was a joyous occasion. A weekend in which we had the chance to meet enthousiastic designers and which inspired us to keep doing what we're doing. Broadening our horizons and enriching our knowledge of what is needed to become even more constructive for young designers and for fashion in general.

Flora Miranda, winner ar Mittelmoda Award 2015

Among Origins – Passion and Belief 2015 we met several FASHIONCLASH designers and some of them competed at the Mittelmoda The Fashion Award 2015 that was held under the same roof of Fiera di Vincenza. Flora Miranda won the OPB Technology prize and Peter Movrin won one of the main awards. One of the finalists was the Swiss designer Rafael Kouto, one of the FASHIONCLASH Festival 2015 designers.

http://www.originfair.com/

Rafael Kouto

Impressions from Origins – Passion and Belief 2015. all images by FASHIONCLASH

YOJIRO KAKE at FASHIONCLASH Festival 2015

Today we introduce you to our next FASHIONCLASH Festival 2015 participant - YOJIRO KAKE. The brand consists of  Yojiro Kake from Osaka Japan and the partner Oka HuiYun Lin from Formosa in Taiwan, but currently they are based in Florence, Italy. YOJIRO KAKE has participated already last year the FASHIONCLASH Festival 2014 and they describe their work as an endless dream of kid. They seek to explore the playful methods based on menswear tailoring and the most pleasant thing is the customer understanding and enjoying the mood of their designs.

Find out more about our fashion show case, market and Side Program (SHOWPIECES, exhibition at De Bijenkorf Maastricht) participant below!


Who are your artistic influences or inspirations and why? 
The life around us, may be a story happened to some neighbor or dying plant we pass by.

Finding your own voice is difficult, where and how do you find your personal creativity (before you start designing; during the design process)?
About design, we may say itself is quite personal, and we just do and design generated from the bottom of heart, stick to it and that’s it. 

What was the most important thing your parents taught you, that you now bring into your work? 
The childhood memory of Yojiro’s father and father’s friends wearing suits.

Which item in your wardrobe really typifies you and why? 
One pair of stylish black leather boots which is broken like something else from Yojiro’s studio.

What is your most favorite accessory and why? 
A simple necklace Yojiro made with a small scissors. The most practical item he has made ever.

How would you define fashion? 
Some kind of illusion? 

Are you a people's person or a loner?
We are two loners. 

What do you strive for in your work? 
To realize our imaginations. 

What are the key factors in your design?  
The appliance of menswear patterns. 

What makes your items different from others (What is your designing philosophy)?
Inspiring errors. 

"Fashion needs to progress year in year out, how do you keep innovating? 

Keep dreaming nightmares. "

YOJIRO KAKE at FASHIONCLASH Festival 2014

What is the contemporary condition of fashion in your place of residence? 
Florence is a famous tourism spot, stylish people from all around the world. The great thing is PITTI UOMO, the most interesting menswear party only happens here in Florence which is an inspiring street show for us. 

What is your ultimate goal? What do you want to achieve with your projects? 
We have no idea about any ultimate goal except to keep realizing our thoughts gradually. 

What are your views on gender categorization in fashion ? (as in differentiating between male/female collections, is this necessary ?) 
Is not necessary only into two genders, may have unisex or others. However female/male category might be always there, like the two ends with mixtures in between. 

Pattern-making 

Do you believe the western binary gender system (male/female) will eventually disappear? 
No. 

What are your thoughts on the idea that unisex is the new androgynous in fashion ? 
Shall be interesting and practical for the market.


What has changed/happened since your last attendance at FASHIONCLASH?
We may say that we started to develop collaborations with some boutiques located in Florence Italy, it’s an inspiring progress for us. 

Why have you decided to participate at FASHIONCLASH Festival once again? 
FASHIONCLASH Festival 2014 is a great experience along with economic fee for us, the team is professional, punctual and well-­‐organized. Therefore, this time we would like to participate again also the design market, as FASHIONCLASH Festival is getting more and more ambitious and popular, we believe there we will find out more about the target and ourselves.

YORJIO KAKE Backstage at FASHIONCLASH Festival 2014

BLANK ETIQUETTE at FASHIONCLASH Festival 2015

Meet Tosca Wyss - Berlin based designer who stands behind the ‘BLANK ETIQUETTE’ . She was born and raised in Switzerland, but she did her Master degree in Fashion Design at the University of Art and Design Weissensee in Berlin. She will present her new collection in the fashion show program of FASHIONCLASH Festival, and in the market section you will be able to meet her and buy her designs. Furthermore she is also taking part at the accompanying Side Program showcase "Designer in Store" - at the MAYFAIR shop in Maastricht.


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 inspired from life, that can be everything, nature, music, cities, traveling, people wether I like them or sometimes also from people I don`t understand. My problem is not to find inspiration, but to organize them in my mind and then it`s the challenge to transmit this diversity in a own homogen language, that can be understood by the audience.

The Future of Fashion is Now

FASHIONCLASH Festival participants featured in the exhitbition 'The Future of Fashion is Now', at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam

The Future of Fashion is Now focuses on new visions and fresh designs by young fashion designers from all over the world. It seeks out designers with non-Western backgrounds and designers from the fringes of Europe, where until recently there was effectively no fashion tradition, who are actively looking to modernize the fashion system.

The Future of Fashion is Now is open until January 18.

http://futureoffashion.nl
http://www.boijmans.nl/en