When I thought of fashion, I pictured an elite group at the catwalk: catty models and hostile designers. After my visit to the Fashion + Design Festival Arnhem, all those images have been completely adjusted. In the month of June, everyone in fashionable Arnhem seems to be working together. Fashion designers walk fraternally with each other in a fashion parade, share studios, catwalks and celebrate fashion together.
'When it appeared in 2013 that the Mode Biennale in Arnhem would not go ahead, we joined forces to safeguard the city of fashion with a new festival,' says Fashion + Design Festival business director Riëlle Schoeman. FDFA is now celebrating its fifth edition. That lustrum will be celebrated extra large with its own festival centre in the former V&D, for the month of June -pun intented- the F&D.
This year's festival runs from 1 June to 8 July and there is much more to experience than just fashion and design. 'Our aim is to be accessible to everyone,' says Schoeman, 'we serve a wide audience.' For instance, there will be a fashionable circus performance, you can party in the streets during the night of fashion and make your own trainers in a workshop. That's just a fraction of the programme then.
The many different Arnhem initiatives provide a diverse programme and all work together fraternally under the umbrella of the FDFA: 'We take care of the marketing and promotion. We don't organise ourselves, but we do initiate,' says Schoeman. FDFA makes sure the programming is aligned. This year, for instance, with the theme Essentials sustainability first. This is festively visible across the city through the project Reflags: Studio VOLLAERSZWART decorates the city with old recycled flags and cuts them together into a new colourful mosaic.
Textiles from old plastic and leather from fish skin
It's not just looking and shopping, says Schoeman: 'The State of Fashion (StoF) has a very good exposition of content: Searching for the New Luxury.' StoF showcases beautiful designs, but more importantly the story behind them. On the outskirts of the city in the Melkfabriek is work by several designers who offer an answer to the sustainability issue.
The exhibition features designs with textiles made from old plastic, leather from fish skin and latex from sustainable rubber. In addition, big international names such as Vivienne Westwood and Stella McCartney have been brought to Arnhem for the exhibition.
Westwood's bags made from recycled canvas, advertising banners and discarded pieces of leather are the showpiece of the exhibition. However, they are displayed on carpets and blue tarpaulins as you might expect at many a street vendor. It is a nod to where they were produced: Nairobi's biggest slum.
'Next thing you know you'll run into a great designer'
Local initiatives also fill the theme essentials in their own way. Schoeman thinks it is especially important for the programming to showcase Arnhem's talent, because even though Arnhem has produced many designers, their products are not for sale there. Schoeman: 'We want to ensure that the work of those designers can be seen in Arnhem for a month.' The F&D features several pop-up shops by Arnhem designers. Before you know it, you'll bump into a well-known designer. Like Peet Dullaert.
His fabrics look so beautiful that you immediately want to touch them. 'It is soft and glides very nicely over your body,' Dullaert says. He sees fashion as a personal experience for the wearer: 'We don't say, "this is fashion, you have to wear this." You are either attracted to it or not.' Dullaert explains that he does not do much in the Netherlands anymore. How modest that formulation is becomes clear a little later when I go through Google leather that his brand has branches in global cities from New York to Beijing
The audience's unashamed eagerness
The Fashion + Design Festival is built around the foundation of Arnhem's talent: the graduation shows of fashion academy ArtEZ. 'We open and end with them,' says Schoeman. As a fashion layman, I decide to educate myself and throw myself in at the deep end: I take my place on the catwalk of the graduation show From ArtEZ.
The renovated Musis theatre houses a gigantic intimidating catwalk. To thumping techno beats, the models parade; looking bored and defiant at the same time. It takes a while to get used to the unabashed eagerness of the audience that looks at the models from head to toe, points, and reacts loudly to the different outfits. A model in a dress and hat made of blinds walks onto the catwalk. 'Ah - how funny!" sounds next to me. At a more wearable gown, I hear: 'Wonderful!'
'A little later, two models open cans of half-litre lager'
The various collections are icily announced by a French-accented voice-over. For a moment, I imagine myself in fashion city Paris until the collection YOUR MOTHER by Dennis Schreuder enters the catwalk: Suddenly, 'Mama, you are the sweetest in the whole world' blares from the speakers. Heintje's tones do not linger long and burst into a grimly loud remix. Schreuder elicits a laugh from his audience with it.
What I mistake for a creative handbag in student Emmie Hermans' collection turns out to be a bag of crisps. A little later, two of Hermans' models open cans of half-litre lager. This is how some collections put you completely on the wrong track.
Spotted: a fashionable man
The room is mostly filled with proud parents of the designers. Judging by their outfits, fashion sense has skipped a generation for some. On the stairs, I happily spot a fashionable man. Thijs is sportily yet neatly dressed; you could almost call it casual, but everything seems to fit him too perfectly. This turns out to be no coincidence: 'Because I am such a "thin clothes hanger", I was often "fitting model" for friends at the academy.' Thijs modestly adds: 'Then we are talking about ten years ago, mind you!' He now lives and works in Arnhem as a perfumer.
When I ask Thijs if he thinks extra about his outfit when visiting such an event, he first says firmly: 'No,' but then: 'Well though. I have an expensive pair of trousers from Acne Studios and then I do think "I'll put those on now."' Full of admiration, I look at his trousers, "Bought on sale at 70% discount, though!
About his highlight of the show, he has to think for a while. Thijs seems to be reconstructing the many outfits in his head. But then: 'Yes, I know!' Thijs tells about the model in a design by Dennis Schreuder. She walked dressed from head to toe in denim until she tore off her long skirt and suddenly revealed a bright red latex slip. 'I thought that was a very exciting moment.'
With a parade to the heart of the fashion city
For my second day, I head to the heart of fashion city, Fashion Quarter Klarendal, for the Night of Fashion. It will be opened with a festive parade.
Rows of brass band musicians are followed by four models in sky-high heels. Together they lead an elated crowd to the Modekwartier to jointly open the night of fashion. Until midnight, all studios and shops are open and it's party time in Klarendal.
'The crazier the better!'
Maaike, Els, Esther and dog Fien make a striking appearance in the parade with cardboard signs around their necks. With their graphic design studio Paradise They represent the piece of design in the Night of Fashion. For the night, they make a photobooth, everyone there can have their picture taken with as muscular a torso as Els. When I ask the ladies what the festival trend is, they say: 'The crazier the better!' They certainly live up to that themselves.
'For today, I am a mannequin'
Hanneke Janssen is also walking along: 'For today, I am a mannequin.' She is dressed in a dress by Clau-D and is joined by her husband Jörgen and dress designer Claudia Träumer. Hanneke's husband Jörgen looks equally finely styled. When I ask if he too Clau-D wears. He sighs, "Unfortunately, but if there is a men's line, I will be the first to buy something! Hanneke will be on the outdoor catwalk in front of Claudia's shop tonight, sharing the stage with two ladies from Studio Bolder.
With so many small fashion shops next to each other, you would expect competition, but nothing could be further from the truth. Claudia explains that Studio Bolder no longer has his own working space: 'I say, "I have plenty of space. Then come to my place anyway."'
'Models walk through partying, beer-drinking crowds in Haute Couture'
As the night progresses, the streets in Klarendal fill up and the festival feeling is omnipresent. The promoted sustainability seems a bit far-fetched with all the plastic beer cups, but perhaps a designer will sweep them up to make a nice new plastic skirt.
It is not only designers who collaborate with each other on the night of fashion. The whole neighbourhood helps out: residents sell muffins on the street, play ball games and there is a local cover band on every street corner. Just a few metres away, the Elite models prepared for a final catwalk. The models walk their haute couture through the partying, beer-drinking crowd.
They seem like completely different worlds, but in the Fashion Quarter they mix perfectly.
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