Issue 21 – In Conversation with .. 10!

In the context of your Eastern European heritage,
how do you integrate this into the dynamics of
FASHIONCLASH?
I have always approached my Eastern European
(Yugoslavia) background with an open mind and
looked at how I can have a connecting role.
Of course, I follow initiators from Eastern Europe
and my own country of birth.
In general, there has always been a lot of
enthusiasm for FASHIONCLASH from Eastern
Europe, from both designers and organizations.
That is certainly not thanks to me, but I think the
accessible and openness of FASHIONCLASH makes
it possible. We also consciously collaborate with
organizations in the Eastern European context.
For example, we have often been to Poland to
attend fashion events, but we have also had good
partnerships with initiatives in Czech Republic,
Slovakia and ex-Yugoslav countries for many years.
We have been working with Zlin Design Week for
a number of years now.
In this way we meet designers and fashion
practitioners personally and ensure that we show
fashion here in Western Europe as pluriverse and
one with diverse perspectives and world views.
FASHIONCLASH bridges fashion with cultural
discourse. How do you feel the social responsibilities
of fashion designers have changed recently?
The new generation of designers, the target group
we mainly focus on, is extremely proactive and
aware of their social responsibility. It is becoming
a norm and that is inspiring. As a platform, we also
take our responsibility by supporting and presenting
these designers to the public. And by also taking
responsibility ourselves. In recent years we have
paid a lot of attention to youth participation and
empowerment. We believe that the most sustainable
thing we can do is invest in collaboration and
education.
Given our long-standing partnership, how do you
envision the role of media will evolve in fashion
cultural events like FASHIONCLASH?
The role of media is changing all the time. This
is a really big challenge for a small non-profit
organization like FASHIONCLASH. We have now
become even more dependent on our own media
channels. Fashion media has become very difficult
and it is really difficult to get media attention in
print and even online. We see this especially in
the Netherlands, we receive more media attention
abroad than in the Netherlands.
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