Talent Talks: Collectie Arnhem
Could you please introduce yourself?
Collectie Arnhem is a third-year collaborative collection project at the ArtEZ University of the Arts fashion department. Collectie Arnhem provides a laboratory-style environment where students research and explore diverse aspects of the design process and the profession, from an idea on paper to the presentation of the collection. Questioning the meaning of fashion and envisioning what it could become.
Having graduated recently, how do you look back on your studies?
We are currently still enrolled in the BA Fashion Design studies at ArtEZ Arnhem, and we will be graduating from the department during the upcoming 2025-2026 academic year. The combination of artisticity and craftsmanship, which shapes the core of our design studies, truly reflects in our work for Collectie Arnhem TWENTYFIVE. The integrated approach of concept and technique has been a leading factor in our design approach, continuing this search for renewed practices into our graduate year.
Could you please tell us something about your graduation collection/project?
The 2025 collection had a starting point of the word “craftsmanship.” From there, the word was reinterpreted into the theme of neglected luxury, the idea of luxury being synonymous with great craftsmanship. This idea of neglected luxury developed a story; an old wardrobe filled with expensive archetypal garments that are rediscovered by young explorers. This wardrobe has been altered over time by the environment, showing traces of both use and neglect, while the young explorers who find it add a modern twist through minor alterations and styling.
Which materials, techniques, programmes and/or applications are you mostly interestedin? Please specify your use and views on wool
Collectie Arnhem 2025 is committed to working exclusively with natural materials such as wool, cotton and leather, which will later be translated into woven and knitted garments that appear to have been untouched for decades. These natural materials are also being reworked through felting processes and ombre techniques to make the fabrics look like they are withering away. The core concept emphasises process and craftsmanship with the focus on raw materials, especially those with imperfections. To bring our forgotten wardrobe to life, we have also developed multiple techniques to shape our garments as if they had been neglected for decades. Some of these techniques include lazily tossing a garment and stitching the position it is in or fixating the garments mid-movement on a body. Another technique is to stretch knits using weights traditionally used for knitting machines, and moulding leather fabrics over the back of chairs-both using gravity to form shape with little to no human intervention. Finishings on these garments are mostly improvised, as if a young explorer who found the wardrobe had tried to repair it in some way. This includes dangling or mismatched buttons, old decorative pins, and small embroidery work, amongst others.
The exhibition you are a part of looks into the meaning of regeneration. What does regeneration mean to you and your work?
Regeneration means taking full responsibility for our environment as a designer. Not just as a press release, but as a focused way of working and an approach towards design in general. This reflects in the way we choose our raw materials, handmade techniques and applications into the final designs. For most of the pieces, this way of working has led to the visual design outcome. Using the term regeneration not just as a starting point, or something only written on paper, but as something that is fully integrated into the whole design process and is translated into the visual and physical outcome. Taking into consideration all phases, people and planet as a whole and being able to give back as a designer.
How do you perceive the meaning and importance of community within the fashionfield?
The 2025 edition of this project has been developed by 16 students from various parts of the world, where the group dynamic is a driving force for the design process to develop. All individual talents lead to a final coherent outcome, where every person has been involved and taken on a part within the group, adding a unique personal perspective to the project. Creative synergy is the core of our work and should be for the fashion field as well.
How do you view the future of fashion? And your own role therein?
As Collectie Arnhem is a joint project consisting of all individual views and voices, every person has their own perspective and take on the future of fashion. For us, the future of fashion should therefore be diverse and inclusive, with many different and colourful voices co-existing next to each other, with respect and space to reflect and communicate. For us, there is not one answer to present our predilection for arts & crafts in fashion. Our role is to find our own personal space within the whole to be able to flourish all together.