This was FASHIONCLASH Festival 2023

The 15th edition of the international FASHIONCLASH Festival took place from 17 - 19 November 2023 in Maastricht (The Netherlands).

During this three-day festival, a new generation of designers and performing artists from all over the world are given the opportunity to show their work to a broad (inter)national audience. The program with an exhibition, performances, talks, workshops and fashion film screenings, showcases projects that explore, contextualize and celebrate contemporary fashion culture. During the festival, the work of more than 100 designers, artists and makers from more than 30 different countries was presented.

FASHIONCLASH Festival is all about discovering, stimulating and co-shaping current developments in fashion and disclosing these developments to a wide audience. Participants of the festival belong to a generation of designers and artists who explore and question the boundaries of their discipline. With their works they move between the transdisciplinary domains of fashion, social design and visual arts.

The multi-voiced festival program is a composite selection from the proposals submitted through various open calls and from the projects initiated by FASHIONCLASH itself that are developed in co-production with various organizations and makers. For FASHIONCLASH, the annual festival is a vehicle for disclosing the results of all projects and talent development trajectories that happen throughout the year program.

Opening program

The festival opened on Friday evening 17 November with the New Fashion Narratives exhibition at Bureau Europa in the Sphinxkwartier. During the opening there was a performance by Tevin Blancheville, who recently graduated from the KABK in The Hague, and Fynnandmathis, a duo consisting of Fynn Herlinghaus (Germany) and Mathis Hadji (France).

Photos: Laura Knipsael

As a designer with storytelling as his forte, Tevin Blancheville shines a light on various social issues and puts them in a new perspective. With his project FODDER 22 presented during the opening, Tevin sought to change the viewers perception and inform them how geopolitical competition has been dividing communities worldwide with propaganda and disinformation. His goal is not to convince the audience of his opinion, but rather to take the audience on their own mental journey.

For Fynnandmathis, fashion it is not an industry-governed business, but a cultural phenomenon that arises from people and their daily clothing behavior. By styling existing clothing and working closely with communities, they create events where fashion works as a tool that enables exchange and empowerment. During the opening they photographed the visitors in a spontaneously created catwalk, and then shared the images in the exhibition as part of their work.

Subsequently, on Friday evening at Lumière Cinema there was a focus on fashion film, with a screening of the films of the five finalists chosen by the jury panel. Cristian Velasco won the KALTBLUT Magazine award with the film ‘RETAZOS’ and the film 'HUM (We/Us)' by Little Shilpa and Ashim Ahluwalia won the FASHIONCLASH Festival Fashion Film Award, worth 1000 euros. Shilpa and Ashim joined forces for a dark yet exuberant fashion film that turns sociocultural conventions of beauty, desire, and sophistication on their head. HUM (We/Us) is a dystopian tropical fairy tale unsettling gender and class hierarchies. The jury panel consisted of Mira Postolache, Sam Bassett, Odunayo Ojo, Sofia Tchkonia and Marcel Schlutt.

Photos: Laura Knipsael

During the fashion film program, the premiere of ‘The Leap’ also took place. This is a fashion film emerged from a development process made possible by the Meester Koetsier Foundation. ‘The Leap’ is a production of FASHIONCLASH and is created by five makers (Amber Rozema, Solar Vlaar, Yana Engelbrecht, Jelena Bondt and Damiano Bodei) who made the film under the supervision of FASHIONCLASH and filmmaker Daniel van Hauten.

Program Recap

New Fashion Narratives
Bureau Europa

For this year’s exhibition program, five independent fashion practitioners (Enzo Aïtkaci, Chinouk Filique, Jonathan Ho, Lotte de Jager and Boris Kollar) were invited by FASHIONCLASH to form a curatorial team and collaborate on the concept for the New Fashion Narratives exhibition that was presented at Bureau Europa during FASHIONCLASH Festival 2023. Starting the curatorial process with a Residency Week in Maastricht in April 2023, they decided to take a different approach: instead of focusing all attention on the final product, they prefer to highlight the diversity of creative approaches that are often hidden away as ‘process’. “We are interested in what is rarely made known to the public.” 

How would (re)sources from the past act in the present, and create context for the future?

“What happens during the creation process? What types of creative references get used or lost? What are the different collaborations required in order to make one’s final vision come to life? We would like to explore how multi-authorship is represented in fashion, and how to unlock new perspectives by zooming in on the creative processes.”

Participants: Annalie van Doorn, avoidstreet, Azalja van Dijk, Bastiaan Reijnen, BAYARTAEV, CHAEWON KONG, FRANK & Moritz Ernst, Fynnandmathis, Ivan Delogu, Jakob Hodel, Justina Semčenkaitė, Kelly Konings, KKJ, Maria Gilmen, Roxy van Kemenade, studio allesingebruik, Svatopluk Ručka, TANJA VIDIC, Teresa Carvalheira x Eunice Pais, Tevin Blancheville, Timothy Scholte/Mary-Ann.

Short doc. New Fashion Narratives Trajectory

FASHIONCLASH founder Branko Popovic and the participants of the New Fashion Narratives Trajectory 2023, speak about their trajectory experiences in this short documentary. The participants are Enzo Ait Kaci, Chinouk Filique, Jonathan Ho, Lotte de Jager, and Boris Kollar. This documentary is produced by FASHIONCLASH and filmed and edited by Steve Iseger for Opulence Films.

Photos: Laura Knipsael

The CLASH House
Studio Radium

The CLASH House is a showcase and development program for designers who focus on crossovers between fashion and other art disciplines – especially performing arts. These designers explore alternative ways of making and presenting fashion.

Participants of The CLASH House enter a coaching program in which they are supported by theater maker Giovanni Brand and dancer and choreographer Laisvie Andrea Ochoa Gaevska. The aim of the program is to encourage designers to experiment with presentation formats and thus contribute to the innovation of the field and create a unique experience for the audience. The CLASH House was hosted by Ariah Lester, who was wearing an outfit by Denzel Veerkamp. Esra Copur took up the challenge of turning her performance “to-be-to-exist” into a participatory project in collaboration with five people of different ages and experience. During a number of workshops in Tilburg, they worked together on the performance and the performance outfits.

Participants of The CLASH House 2023: Barbara Rozenberg, Jean Flogie, Esra Copur, MAASH, Ruben Jurriën and maatrev.

Short doc. The CLASH House

In this short documentary, artistic co-director of FASHIONCLASH Branko Popovic and coaches Giovanni Brand & Laisvie Andrea Ochoa Gaevska, explain the context of The CLASH House, and the participants of 2023 share their thoughts and experiences. The participants are Jean Flogie, Ruben Jurriën, Jonas Konrad & Martha Hupfauer (maatrev), Esra Copur, Rachel Marseille & Miquel Gonçalves-Alver (MAASH), and Barbara Rozenberg. This documentary is produced by FASHIONCLASH and filmed and edited by Opulence Films.

Photos: Laura Knipsael

Fashion Film Program
Lumière Cinema

The (short) fashion film has become an established format in which designers and brands present their ethics and aesthetics. In this multimedia age, fashion film has become a growing way to capture a story and reach a wide audience through online platforms and media.

The program consisted of a selection of 41 films from different countries in the world, thus showing a very diverse and rich view of perspectives, disciplines, cultures and stories.

Selected films: A New Beginning - Christophe Chudy, Adarrak - Valentino R. Sandoli, An Ode to Procrastination - Aleksandra Kingo, An unusual lady on an ordinary day - Ahva Rahminov, APRÈS NOUS, LE DÉLUGE - Annalie van Doorn, Daan Kamphorst, Yana Engelbrecht, AS IN LIFE, SO IN DEATH - Cristian Velasco, BLACK CHINA - Nicolai Sagasser, Bride Armour - Jeana Elizabeth Theron, Burning Gold - Matt McDermott, can't be bothered - Medea Zingerle, Nelson Chio, CityCenterDC - "Celebrating You!" - Dean Alexander, Dancing With My Hands - Kelsey Ann Kasom, Entangled - Kaja Grujic, Eroica - Nathan De Pas Habib, Formafantasma Tacchini Flock - Filippo Raineri, Free Prisoner - Amber Witte, Rikash Gobardhan, Funhouse Fransje - Fleur van Heezik, An Smid, FURRY FRIEND - Xinyi LI, Futuri Aprili - Enrico Bellenghi, GOLA - Vitoria de Mello Franco, Ian Cheibub, Marina Zabenzi, Het Cluster B Effect - Megan van Engelen, HUM (we/us) - Ashim Ahluwalia, Shilpa Chavan, Hybrid Love, Andrés Finat, Josefina Maiza, IN LIMBO - Harun Güler, Llamas at the Laundromat - Martha Grant, Manusama Nuance: Woven Stories - Ottilie Maters, Mijo - Mazdey, Not from here - Oscar Tony O'Ryan, Louise Coetzer, Ode to the Centaur - Chenshuo Xu, Precious parts - Into Niilo, RESURECTIO - Nicolai Sagasser, RETAZOS - Cristian Velasco, Salt - Dominik Hill, SKIN HUNGRY - Marije Seijn, Annie van Noortwijk, STEP - Sentongo Muhammad, Niyigena Jean Maurice, The Antwerp Cyber-Six - Shayli Harrison, The Digital Rituals - Reiki Zhang, THE DOOR IS OPEN, I'LL WAIT - Helen Sotropa, Kevin Johnson, The Unicorn Symposium - Max Simonson, The Vintage Hunter - Laís Sambugaro, We Belong Together - Flo Meijer

Fashion Makes Sense
Centre Céramique

Fashion Makes Sense is the ongoing participation program of FASHIONCLASH from which projects are developed focused on social design, inclusion, education and collaboration between professionals and semi-professionals/amateurs, especially involving young people. During the festival, the results of a number of participation projects were presented, such as the finisage of The Hooooooodie Project. The sleeves of the hoodie are now more than 300 meters long and more than 500 people, mainly young people, have worked on them over the past two years.

On the third floor there was the Fashion Makes Sense exhibition, with fashion films about fashion and sustainability, work by Faye van der Aa, winner of the Kunstbende main prize, and the creations of the Campaign Project, which was made in co-creation with young people, were on display.

During the festival there were also Upcyling & Mending workshops and ‘Who cares what you wear?’ was on the program, an interactive theater performance for young people about fashion and sustainability, developed in collaboration with theater maker Mayke Roels.

On Sunday afternoon, 19 November, the Fashion Makes Sense Talk took place, moderated by Chanel Trapman of MUMSTER. She talked to Schepers Bosman, Samuel Valor Reyes, Esra Copur and Mayke Roels about their process and experiences of these participatory projects.

Photos: Laura Knipsael

Afterparty, with performances

“What do we express in the light and who do we want to become when everyone's watching?” On Saturday evening, 18 November, fashion and identity could literally be celebrated during the Afterparty at Dans- en Partycentrum Bernaards. For this project, FASHIONCLASH collaborated with theater maker and performer Samuel Valor Reyes. The FASHIONCLASH Festival Afterparty was an invitation to celebrate our individual identity; an act of community, empowerment, safe spaces and individual expression to play with the idea of ​​who we are in the shadows when no one is looking through fashion, music, dance, performance and spoken word!

Samuel invited a number of performers for this evening: Jento Schaf, Mikael De Geyter, Renzo Pepers and Nata Mandaria shared the stage with a number of participants of the Movement and Making workshops that were organized prior to the festival.

Photos: Mitch van Schijndel

…and there was more!

During the festival weekend, there were a number of continuous and free activities, such as an exhibition in the garden house of Marres with work by André Konings, Roumans, UGO WOATZI and TIM VAN DER PLAS. In the garden of The Green Elephant Hostel, there was an installation of OUR SHIFT. Limestone Books, in collaboration with Warehouse, organized a pop-up around the fusion between fashion and publications and on Saturday they hosted a talk with designers and artists Anouk Beckers, Iris de Leeuw and Muslin Brothers. At S.A.C - Store. Art. Concepts. you could see and buy work by Floris Wamelink A.k.a. Flowed, Underdog Collective and OUR SHIFT.

Photos: Mitch van Schijndel

Community

FASHIONCLASH is a community-based platform with a community-driven annual program. The FASHIONCLASH Family is a collective of FASHIONCLASH’s founders, freelancers, and volunteers — and all participants and partners of all FASHIONCLASH projects.

FASHIONCLASH aims to provide, to contribute, and to inspire. And our ever-growing network keeps the FASHIONCLASH Family forever expanding. We thank everyone for their continuous support, with a special mention of our visitors. Were you present at FASHIONCLASH Festival 2023? Visit our visitors photo gallery and look for your photograph!

Campaign Project

FASHIONCLASH is actively dedicated in involving various target groups and a broad audience, especially young people, by organizing all kinds of activities throughout the year. This year the festival campaign was developed entirely in co-creation with young people. From outfits to styling and performance, more than 40 young people aged 8 to 37 participated in the project. Between 14 April and 27 May 2023, FASHIONCLASH had set up a Pop-Up Atelier in collaboration with Centre Céramique in Maastricht. Several designers have supervised the fashion making workshops. Photographer Laura Knipsael and video maker Steve Iseger guided the young people in the photo and video production.

The result, consisting of a collection of outfits, a series of photos and a fashion film, is used for the festival campaign and was exhibited at Centre Céramique during the festival.

About FASHIONCLASH

FASHIONCLASH Festival is an initiative of the Maastricht (The Netherlands) based FASHIONCLASH Foundation. FASHIONCLASH is a development and presentation platform for fashion (culture) that, through crossovers, contributes to, on the one hand, the individual talent development of the new generation of fashion makers and, on the other hand, to general awareness of the role of fashion in the world.

Since 2009, the FASHIONCLASH has realized more than 250 projects in the Netherlands and abroad and provided a stage and support for more than 1500 artists and designers from all over the world. Many program parts of the previous two editions are available on YouTube channel.

FASHIONCLASH Festival is made possible thanks to great support of various funds, subsidizers, sponsors, partners, volunteers and friends. FASHIONCLASH is part of a the cultural infrastructure within the policy of the municipality of Maastricht and the Province of Limburg (The Netherlands).