RESIDENCY FOR RESPONSIBLE FASHION

This year I took part in the fashion residency Taskforce Fashion 2020. Taskforce Fashion started in 2018, as a unique, multidisciplinary and research-based collaboration between fashion platforms FASHIONCLASH, M-ODE and State of Fashion, commissioned by and in close collaboration with the Creative Industries Fund NL. In co-creation with Dutch design talent and in dialogue with the (inter)national fashion field and other disciplines, the three platforms investigate the transformative role of fashion in relation to social issues with various experiments.

Taskforce Fashion – Residency for Responsible Fashion

This year's residency revolved around the question “As a designer, how would you like to take social responsibility within your practice?” Together, we strive to make a positive contribution to the world around us by taking on a growing responsibility; whether it’s by helping the elderly, fighting racism, decreasing segregation or battling any other social-cultural matter that stands in the way of collaboration, mutual understanding and solidarity.

Collaboration and the design process are central to Taskforce Fashion. For the 2020 Residency for Responsible fashion fifteen fashion talents were selected, who - both individually and in teams of five - zoom in on three cities in the Netherlands: Maastricht, Tilburg and Rotterdam. I was part of Team Tilburg.

Team Tilburg 

Team Tilburg investigated how fashion can be a means of social intervention. By extending the concept of fashion beyond clothing, with an emphasis on personal style and identity, a community project is realised in collaboration with young people from the northern Tilburg district, Tilburg Noord.

We organised two photoshoots about the power of diversity; diversity in people and in fashion styles. With the help of a local team, Team Tilburg portrayed the striking and diverse youth of Tilburg Noord: the results, more than 25 portraits, were presented during the pop-up photo exhibition 'De Stijl van Noord' in NS16 in June 2021.

De Stijl van Noord gives the young people of Tilburg Noord a face. Without fuss, without filter, but with a lot of style and personality. No professional models, but (future) role models. The photos and the exhibition put these authentic young people from underexposed Tilburg North in the spotlight in a positive way.

TextielMuseum Tilburg

From January until March 2022, all three Taskforce Fashion projects will we exhibited in TextielMuseum Tilburg, the same museum where I developed my Chromarama tapestries. The exhibition is part of the main exhibition Long Live Fashion! and will be presented on the Panoramadeck, where the TextielMuseum shows presentations from partners. Located on the third floor of the museum, there's a beautiful view over the site, including the chimney of the former textile factory.