Future Fashion

The fashion industry is one of the sectors with the largest environmental footprint, and its intensity generates mountains of waste: everyone knows things have to change, but how? New generations of designers are thinking in terms of solutions and have a different perspective on beauty. By approaching materials, processes and production differently, they are also breathing new life into the creative side of things. What if, for example, you used the earth as a dye, or as a literal raw material? How can nature be a co-creator?

Fashion curators Madelief Hohé (Kunstmuseum Den Haag) and Karen Van Godtsenhoven (Barbican, London) are collaborating with a diverse group of designers to explore how fashion is used as a means of conveying a sense of urgency. They are also examining how this inspires them to create new imagery and techniques that repair the world or are regenerative.

From upcycling to the future of fashion

Such as fashion made exclusively from existing materials. RVDK, by designer Ronald van der Kemp, is the first ethical couture label to be admitted to Paris Couture Week and to have brought the term ‘upcycling’ to wider attention. Upcycling existing materials has now been embraced by many designers, such as Duran Lantink, Sjaak Hullekes, Martan, Tess van Zalinge, Bas Kosters, Marine Serre and Mattie Bovan, to name but a few. Worldwide, there are many inspiring designers who have transformed their production processes, such as Stella McCartney, or Joline Jolink, who launched her Fashion Farm in the Netherlands. Or designers who even collaborate with nature, such as Iris van Herpen. Future Fashion aims to bring these ‘invisible’ stories to light, whilst offering inspiration for the future of fashion.