FASHIONCLASH Festival 2016

The 8th edition of the international and multidisciplinary FASHIONCLASH Festival took place from June 30th until July 3rd 2016 in Maastricht (The Netherlands).

During this 4-day festival over more than 150 young fashion designers and (performing)artists from 30 different countries were given a platform for their work.

FASHIONCLASH Festival gives a unique opportunity to get inspired by the art of fashion and to discover new talents. The program consisted of Fashion shows, Exhibitions, Performances, a Designer Market, Fashion Talks, Awards, MAFAD Graduation Show, social design project LET’S (AD)DRESS THE PEOPLE!, Acreati Pop-up shop and more. This year’s festival theme was HERITAGE: a celebration of cultural diversity, which included special events such as the Heritage Exhibition, the Heritage Show and the Spot On! Opening event.

 

‘Spot On! Celebration of Diversity’

Unlike the previous editions, the festival opened with the theatrical and festive evening called ‘Spot On! Celebration of Diversity’. The evening was directed by theater director Joost Horward and Nina Willems and with the cooperation with students from the Maastricht Theatre Academy.

It was an evening where fashion clashed with theater, dance and music, but also an evening with a political statement to honor brotherhood, addressing the current state of mind in Europe. The finale ended with lyrics of John Donne’s “No Man is an Island ‘ along the tune of “Alle Menschen werden Brüder”. In this show there where ethnical costumes from the students of the Antwerp Fashion department and the KABK The Hague, costumes from Tiel Janssen and work of designers like Markéta Mrtišková, Uta Bekaia and Linda Friesen.

 

Awards

Before the party took off at the SAMdecorfabriek, the Saturday program was festively concluded with the Awards Show. Three awards were presented. Chapeau Magazine Award for best MAFAD graduation collection was won by Domino Vughts. Kaltblut Magazine Award went to Hermione Flynn.

The main prize, the FASHIONCLASH Festvial Talent Award 2016, was presented by the mayor of Maastricht to Alessandro Trincone from Italy. The jury panel of Amandine Piango(NJAL), Carlo Wijnands and Marlo Saalmink had the difficult task to choose a winner from many participants of the festival.

 

Fashion Shows

The fashion show program started Friday Night with international fashion talents as Alessandro Trincone from Italy, Emilie Thirion from Belgium and Dutch designers Told you so and Jivika Biervliet.

Evening ended with the graduation show of MAFAD with, among others collections of Maarten van Mulken and Domino Vught who are both selected for the Lichting 2016.

Saturday was filled with a variety of shows by fashion talent as Ting Gong from China, WEUTRICHFUERST from Switzerland, Roman Ermakov from Russia and the Ebby Port from Netherlands.

The program had many strong men’s collections such as the collection of Mexican Sanchez-Kane, 8CUFF from Hong Kong, Ieva Mezule in Latvia and the Dutch designers LAU by Laura Verdonk, Bluedenîmes & Minou Lejeune and L A T (the winner of FASHIONCLASH Festival 2015 award).

The program also featured designers representing FASHIONCLASH Festival partners. David Catalán and Tania Nicole won Sangue Novo at ModaLisboa – Lisboa Fashion Week, Sofya Samareva won participation in FASHIONCLASH Festival at designSUPERMARKET in Prague and Ivana Mišić won the FTDC contest at Serbia Fashion Week. Kevin Murphy and M.A.C Cosmetics have ensured that the models look fantastic. Sessibon kept the dynamic choreography of the shows.

 

Performances

FASHIONCLASH catwalk is known for its exciting crossovers between theatre and dance.

This year in the program included the dance performance ‘Folia’ by Martin Harriague and Mieke Kockelkorn (Project Sally Maastricht production), the performance ‘Iemand, niemand, 100.000’ by Lotte Milder and SWINGS, the inner songs from Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe. The performance COTTON by Mami Izumi/GOTRA in cooperation with Verena Klein will be presented at the exhibition space in between the shows.

 

Clash Project

True to tradition, ever since the first edition the Clash Project is presented during the festival. In this project ten designers who are not involved in the fashion field are challenged to design a creation for the catwalk. Among the contestants are designer Adrianus Kundert, textile designer Amber Veel, interior architect Alexandre de Vos, jewelry designer Marit van Heumen and designer Daniela Treija.

 

Heritage Exhibiton

A section of former factory Mosa was temporarrily transformed into an exhibition space, in which a curated selection of works related to the HERITAGE theme where displayed.

In this exposition the work of Belgrade Design Collective, Suzanne Oude Hengel, Pikkpack Shoes, Yekatarina Ivankova, Alya Hessy, Nida Gönül, but also the live installation ‘VERWEVEN’ made by theatre performer Nina Willems were exhibited.

Part of the exposition was the presentation of the project Exploring Inspirations, in which Dutch Designers have collaborated with Serbian craftspeople and designers. Inspired by Serbian traditional handwork techniques such as Sirogojno knitting and traditional Balkan shoe making ‘opanak’, Dutch designers such as Jan Jansen, Deniz Terli and Conny Groenewegen have developed new work.

 

Designer Market

The ‘designer’ Market completed the Festival program at the main location. Over thirty designers are given the opportunity to sell their designs to the audience. This is the perfect opportunity to get a hold of unique clothing, jewelry and accessories of brands such as One Wolf, MEES, MYIA, Kukka, dry milk of virgin mary, NELE Maroquinerie, TOKEN, LEM design, Klu by Edyta Jermacz, Gradstore Design Hub and many other.
HERITAGE SHOW + TALK by Studio Dennis Vanderbroeck

The Heritage Show was a fashion presentation in line with the theme Heritage directed by Studio Dennis Vanderbroeck. This collective show was composed with collections of designers who’s work expresses the theme of Heritage. During this show the work of a.o. Uta Bekaia, Pavlína Miklasová, Muslin Brothers, and Juliëtte Heijnen were shown.Following the performance there was a fashion talk with the audience and the designers.

 

Photography: Team Peter Stigter