Where will we be in?
Will we always continue to pay attention to our clothing or is a training suit behind a laptop if we only have to hoist our virtual alter egos in glitter dresses and tailor -made suits? If we look at waste mountains full of clothing and raw materials that run out, it makes sense that fashion students look for alternatives to the future of fashion. We asked three graduates from the Amsterdam Fashion Institute how they see that future and we then discover three trends: making clothes ourselves, upcycling clothing and digital clothing.
No rest
A mood board with pink cherries, little ponies and plastic dolls, mannequins with sloping collars, zippers in unexpected places and a jacket of transparent plastic with embroidered clouds underneath. On another mannequin a jacket with a black transparent trunk on the front. Or is that the side? If you enter the studio of the graduates of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute, your eyes will not get a minute of rest. The graduates themselves also have no rest because they will soon have to graduate during the future -day day and then present 6 pieces.
With one of those students, Tijn Roozen, the mood board is fairly empty, but his head is full of ideas. Although everyone has to wear clothes every day, the raw materials to make that fashion at a rapid pace, so we have to be more economical. He notices that people really see that fashion must be more sustainable, but not knowing how well. That should really come from the industry, he thinks.
And what did he think of that now? “I make clothing packages in which you will find a cut piece of fabric, a zipper and buttons exactly to size. It only needs to be put together and you have a splendor of a piece of clothing. That is nice to do, much more durable than fast fashion and if you have made it yourself, you will also be more economical.” This makes fashion accessible to the do-it-yourselfer but also contemporary and sexy, thinks Tijn. He believes that fashion will be more a luxury product in the future with a new wardrobe no longer every season. If you can make that fashion yourself it is completely sustainable. And the people who cannot sew well asks your reporter? Tijn: “I always see sewing cafés on dolls where you can sew together and with help.”
A bomber jacket of wedding suits
Being economical on raw materials is a future theme that is good at the fashion students. According to Yasmien Knubben you are in the right place in Amsterdam. Here are many vintage stores, pop-up stores that recycle clothes and Amsterdammers who make second-hand clothing completely Modefähig. “I hope that the future will also turn around more instead of just buying, buying, buying,” says Yasmien. “Clothing gets so much more value if you also see where it comes from and it is not just something new.”
She already made a whole collection of old men’s suits. “I work in a bridal business and there were a lot of suits about that. I thought it was a shame to do it away and, for example, I made a very nice skirt of shirts, a blazer of pants and a bomber jacket of two pants.”
Yasmien is currently upcycling of beautiful old -fashioned items from the fair. She comes from a fairground genus and grew up between the merry -go -round and the caterpillar. “I went back to my roots and dived into the old materials. For example, think of the hundred -year -old ‘rabats’; those are the decorative velvet cloths that hung in the carousel. There are beautiful weapons marks with hand -hosted glass beads. I transformed them into a suit.” But she also used the slightly more prose ducks from the shooting tent in a fabric with a duck pattern and the lampshades of the tent have become knots on a piece of clothing. In short, with a little imagination you can reuse everything. Yasmien sees the future in upcycling; Renewing of clothing by converting them, adding something or combining it into a new item of clothing. She understands that people have the urge to put on something new, something special to express yourself in your clothes. And it is precisely by adding something or entertaining it to an existing piece of clothing, you can have something new in your closet and at the same time not saddle the planet with even more new items of clothing.
Objectification with dolls
And if you really no longer want to use physical materials, you will end up with Julia de Beer. She graduates as a digital designer with a collection that is completely online.
For Julia, fashion has always been much more than a piece of clothing to cover your body, for her those pieces of fabric are a clear way to express you. “In my puberty I was just like every teenager rebels and I started wearing black clothes and pulling holes in my tights’. That was a way to compete against everything.” And still, Julia can denounce things with her designs. She has done a lot of research into doll clothes because she has experienced what it is like to be objectivated. “My personal experience is that I have often felt like a toy for men; something to play with and project their imagination. I had the feeling that I was not seen as a person but as a doll.”
That is unfortunately something we see more in society; More and more women’s rights are being removed worldwide. Women are imposed what they should look like and with that their bodies are checked. Julia pulled that to think to what it would be like if you were really a toy. “I started researching doll’s clothing and now make it into digital clothing myself. I try to visualize my anger by using playful and cheerful patterns.”
Future of fashion
“By making clothes myself, I have the feeling of taking control and that gives me a sense of justice. And I hope that my work will inspire other women to make their voice heard and tell their own story.”
The future sees Julia primarily as a way to express you and less focused on physical materials. She believes that technology, such as augmented reality, will play a greater role in the fashion industry. And it is good that this can be a way to deal with fashion without physical waste being produced.
Author: Veerle Corstens from Bureau Wibaut
Future -day
The Amsterdam Fashion Week also celebrates the birthday of Amsterdam with a catwalk on the Ring on June 21.
These three students are part of the Fashion & Design graduates. On June 19, the Amfi Graduation Show is part of the Future Day. Here you will find more information about the Amfi Graduation Show.
