The international fashion world often takes itself too seriously. Few creatives or companies show humor these days, let alone self-mockery. Even brands that still sometimes dare to poke fun at fashion – like Moschino, with its satirical references to consumer culture – do so in the form of large-scale catwalk shows with high-profile guests and serious-looking top models. The audience watches from the dark and can usually go home after a controlled bow from the creative people responsible.
Fashion enthusiasts can take a breather from the seriousness of fashion at FashionClash, the Maastricht fashion festival, the 14th edition of which took place last weekend. It’s human not only literally, but also figuratively. With exhibitions, alternative shows, performances, theater and discussions, the public is invited to participate in fashion, to question the discipline and sometimes to laugh about it.
team spirit
In the past, the festival sometimes had a theme, such as ‘gender’ or ‘heritage’. That is no longer the case, at least not explicitly. The campaign that the organization launched in the run-up to the festival strikes a clear note. The campaign photos portrayed the people working behind the scenes at FashionClash: photographers, models, volunteers, interns. They were photographed in sports uniforms against the backdrop of a pastel colored dressing room. “For us it’s about the people, about the team spirit,” says Branko Popovic, co-founder of FashionClash, in an interview shortly after the opening. “We want to make fashion tangible and human.”
The human aspect is particularly important for this edition of FashionClash, as it is the first physical event in three years. The 2020 and 2021 editions took place online. The festival was already prepared last year when it became clear at a press conference that it could not take place physically. Disappointing for staff and audience alike, but perhaps also the moment when everyone’s commitment to the festival was most evident. After all, sometimes you only know what you have when it fails.
The fact that the FashionClash team is particularly in the limelight this year is also due to the fact that there will be big changes. The reason is that Nawie Kuiper and Laurens Hamacher, who have co-directed the festival with Popovic since its first edition in 2009, will step down. The two will be “pursuing other dreams,” they said on the opening night of the festival, which also marks their farewell.
For Kuiper and Hamacher, their departure was a reason to put others in the spotlight. “We get the recognition very often, but all the volunteers do so much. With this festival we want to pay tribute to all those who are behind the wheel,” said Kuiper. And Hamacher added: “A former intern who comes from Berlin every year to help us as a volunteer, parents who make bread rolls behind the scenes. We’ve all built something together over the years and now it’s coming together again.”
Shows but no fashion shows: Open Mic Night and Clash House
A few things have changed since the launch of FashionClash. Above all, the form of the traditional catwalk show is increasingly being abandoned. Alternative events include the Open Mic Night on Friday nights and the Clash House on Saturday nights. During the Open Mic Night, young fashion talents present their visions in a format reminiscent of a comedy evening. Six designers who recently graduated from the Netherlands present their work in the form of more playful shows or free performances.
For example Lauren Thoonen, who won the Kunstbende Prize in Amsterdam this summer. Her collection entitled ‘Playing Outside’ is reminiscent of her own childhood. The models walk across the stage in colorful Thoonen tops, skirts and trousers. They play catch with each other, sometimes one of them taps someone in the front row on the shoulder – who doesn’t join in, by the way, but remains perplexed. Before Floor Klaassen’s presentation, a trampoline is set up and a grass mat is rolled out, on which her models – including her own grandfather – play football.
Ruben Jurriën, who won the Lichting Prize in September, lets a large stuffed animal walk through the audience during his show: Toetie, the stuffed animal and muse of his childhood. The evening will be brightened up with humor and bravura by the committed performer and singer Ariah Lester, who will interview the creatives in between and will also have two appearances herself.
In addition to the spontaneity of the presentations, it is remarkable how many of the – even young – creative people refer to their youth in their work, often with a good portion of nostalgia. One of Klaassen’s models even carries a big sign that says ‘Don’t grow up’. The game is far from over in the adult world, she seems to conclude.
The atmosphere at Clash House, on Saturday nights, is a little less playful. The participants of the evening come from all over Europe and have been working with the support of professional theater professionals on presentations that are somewhere between fashion show, performance and theatre. Israeli designer and acrobat Maya Kaplan displays her colorful bodysuits and accessories while hanging from four ropes like a human puppet. Britt Liberg and Joline Kwakkenbos from the Dutch Elliot Collective set their models in stiff suits and dresses on plinths like statues. Liberg and Kwakkenbos, themselves dressed in white smocks as sculptors, then tackle the garments with large scissors.
What is striking about this evening is that the designers have decided not to stay behind the scenes, but instead play a role in their own show. In the excitement, they don’t always manage to look coherent to tell a cohesive story about their work — but if anything humanizes fashion, it’s someone who trembles with nerves and pride on stage.
New fashion narratives
New Fashion Narratives is the title of two fashion exhibitions at different locations in the city. The first takes place at Marres, a contemporary art institute. A combination of young and established talent with a connection to the Netherlands will be exhibiting there. Bobbine Berden shows her artificial plants, the leaves of which are made from worn clothing. In a room on the far left, paper mache crafts and sowing seeds in textiles are a project of the Extended educational program that guests can participate in.
The second New Fashion Narratives exhibition was organized in collaboration with Bureau Europa, an architecture and design platform with its own showroom in the Sphinx district. On display are the works of international designers selected by FashionClash in collaboration with Glamcult magazine, whose work pushes the boundaries of their discipline and raises social issues. The audience is greeted by designs by Our Shift, a Copenhagen-based creative duo that draws attention to the large-scale incineration of worn, and sometimes unworn, clothing. The artist collective BCHMNN performed a fashion collection as a sound installation that can be heard in another room.
The presentation at Bureau Europa does not seem very accessible, and that also has to do with the context. Bureau Europa’s high white walls give the place a museum feel: an exciting exhibition space for young creatives thanks to the status that comes with it. But for guests, it can feel a little distant. Luckily, the festival also offers good counterexamples, like the – albeit somewhat hidden – exhibition at Pizzeria Da Nonna, elsewhere in the city. In the pantry on the first floor, designs by the Dominik fashion collective hang above freezers, staff cupboards and cupboards with pizza ingredients. At the back there is a Dominik pop-up shop where guests can try on and buy the creative fashion collages made from recycled materials.
Film, Theater and Participation
In addition to the performances and exhibitions, FashionClash also showed fashion films. On Friday evening, the audience was shown the five films selected for the Fashion Film & Video Award from the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Limburg and the Kaltblut Magazine Award – Fashion Film and Video. First prize went to designer Erik Bergrin and filmmaker Arkan Zakharov, who in the film ‘The 8 Dissolutions’ draw the viewer into a universe of tactile materials, ritual gestures and rhythmic dance. The Cold Blood Prize went to Hanneke Klaver and Tosca Schift from the Ant Eye Land collective. In the film ‘Sock Monster’ they unfold a comical and imaginative scenario in which they try to explain how it is possible that socks seem to disappear in the washing machine in every household.
There is also the ‘Moving Portraits’ film series, part of Fashion Makes Sense, FashionClash’s ongoing participation programme. For this series, FashionClash enabled collaboration between fashion designers and filmmakers. This resulted in a series of film portraits in which the creatives portray an alter ego of themselves. Another part of Fashion Makes Sense is ‘Who Cares What You Wear’, a theater performance for young people about fashion and sustainability. The theater maker Mayke Roels and the actresses Ilse Geilen and Lindsay Zwaan took the popular but also criticized unboxing video as a starting point. The result: a performance full of hysterical screams and flying Shein shirts, but also serious conversations with the (sometimes very young) audience about Rana Plaza and sustainability labels.
The fourteenth edition of FashionClash is a good example of how the organization tries to actively involve the audience in the festival. People are not always immediately drawn into a discussion or pushed onto a stage, after all, that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. By creating a stage for young and critical talent and providing behind-the-scenes insights – whether it be inside the fashion industry or at the festival itself – it makes clear that fashion is not always spectacular and untouchable, but also social, physical and close.
This article was similarly published on FashionUnited.nl. Translation and editing: Barbara Russ