OSCAM x Illustratie Ambassade present ‘The Future of Fashion’.

The exhibition The Future of Fashion shows how makers counterbalance the fashion industry through art. They investigate sustainable working methods, use innovative techniques and work from and towards radical equality. As a result, they confront us with a renewed perspective on the current fashion system that is responsible and aesthetic as well as innovative and accessible. Seven selected image makers who are in the overlapping field of fashion and art challenge the industry in the domain of equality, sustainability and digital identity. In this way they contribute to the growing awareness about our current harmful system and shape change.

Equality: accessibility, morality and justice
A market that focuses on profit and thereby exploits human labor and natural resources is inadmissible. To achieve a fair fashion system, radical equality and balanced power relations must become central. Fashion brand The New Originals thinks outside the box and without borders. They design and produce performative garments for creatives with which they build bridges between different contexts and backgrounds. One of their greatest strengths is community and collaboration. In this way, they believe that everyone, regardless of their background, reaches their creative potential.

Sustainability: reuse, responsibility and circularity
Opposite to linear fast fashion production models are methods that focus on the entire life cycle of a product. In addition to moderate and conscious consumption, sustainable production techniques and recycling are important for a healthy fashion system. Multidisciplinary artist and fashion designer Nadie Borggreve makes colorful carpets and wearable textiles from recycled materials. She gives a second life to old textiles and wool by dyeing and processing them in her designs. She researches new ways of sustainable production and plays with the notion of classic fashion collections.

Digital Identity: materiality, craft and experiment
In forming a critical attitude towards our current fashion system, innovative techniques are key. We have to learn from the past and work towards the future to achieve permanent change. Iris van Wees is a virtual fashion designer. Her garments can usually only be fitted via Augmented Reality, which means that she is at the forefront of the digitization of the fashion industry. With her virtual garments, face filters and designs she creates a new experience of fashion that is accessible to a large audience.

The exhibition The Future of Fashion can be seen from October to December 2022 in the Meterhuis on the Westergas in Amsterdam. Participating artists are Iris van Wees, Nadie Borggreve, The New Originals, Jan van Esch, Loes Faber, Soraya and Anacollective.

Banner image: Ikram el Messaoudi
Photo credits: Illustratie Ambassade – Jurriaan Hoefsmit