When Fashion Met Architecture…
Last week the exhibition Fashion & Architecture kicked off with a good party at the Amsterdam Architecture Center (ARCAM). Along with ARCAM and office for architecture and urbanism V2A, our friends of Amsterdam-based fashion label OntFront has challenged four creative duos to enter into a design process. Each duo comprises a fashion designer and an architect who have teamed up specially for this occasion. The results are interesting and impressive.
Cross-over projects are common in the world of fashion as well as in the world of architecture. However, intensive collaborations between fashion designers and architects are pretty new, while there are lots of similarities between the two professions. Both deal with creation of volumes and take constructive principles in mind. At the same time, more and more fashion designers aim to make timeless products that fight high turnover rates, and architects attempt to create buildings and structures that are increasingly flexible, fluid and responsive to the environment. Mutually inspired, the designers cut through the dogmas of their own discipline and allow the visitor an insight into the creative process. The exhibition shows which new design statements have derived from an intense and extraordinary collaboration between professions that have not much in common at first sight. That makes this exploration very appealing and definitely worth visiting.
The four teams involved in the project are Iris van Herpen and Jan Benthem/Mels Crouwel (Benthem Crouwel Architekten), Mattijs van Bergen (MATTIJS) and Anouk Vogel (Anouk Vogel Landscape Architecture), Farida Sedoc (Hosselaer) and Nicole/Marc Maurer (Maurer United Architects), and Kentroy Yearwood (Intoxica) and Jeroen Bergsma (2012 Architecten).
With this exhibition, ARCAM, V2A and OntFront hope to provide insight in the growing opportunities for collaboration between architects and fashion designers. Please watch the video above to learn more about the project. The exhibition runs until September 11, and entrance is free. By the way, if you’d like to get updated about what’s going on in the vibrant fashion scene of Amsterdam, check out the OntFront blog!
