State of Fashion is the first large-scale international public event that is entirely devoted to sustainable and honest fashion. The first edition of State of Fashion will take place from 1 June until 22 July 2018 in ‘The Milk Factory’, a rough, industrial monument in the city of Arnhem, fashion capital of the Netherlands. Large-scale fashion houses and designers such as G-Star RAW and H&M are invited to present their vision on a sustainable future alongside innovative start-ups and designers such as Bruno Pieters, Osklen and Iris van Herpen.

The core of State of Fashion 2018 is an exhibition, curated by José Teunissen, Dean of the School of Design & Technology at the London College of Fashion. For this first edition she chose the theme searching for the new luxury. Together with designers and pioneers, she sets out to discover how we can apply fashion’s imaginative, seductive and innovative power to create a more sustainable and inclusive fashion cycle. In the exhibition Teunissen shows around fifty projects that explore new definitions of luxury that fit our zeitgeist.

Those new definitions are not only interesting and appealing; they are a necessity. As the fashion and textile industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world, it needs to take a strong lead in proposing change. The Rana Plaza disaster in 2013 shocked the world by revealing the poor working conditions in the fashion industry to a broad audience. This incident happened five years ago; what has actually changed? State of Fashion stimulates this public debate.

At the same time, we see designers, companies, NGO’s, governments and scientists present innovations that can change and improve the fashion industry permanently. Curator

Teunissen takes this hopeful starting point for State of Fashion 2018 and states that, to really create change, collaboration between all stakeholders is key. For the exhibition she therefore invites a bold mix of change-agents to present and share their visions. Revolutionaries such as Fashion Revolution and Apparatus 22 present themselves alongside commercial powerhouses such as H&M, Zegna and G-Star RAW, while renowned innovators such as Bruno Pieters, Osklen and Iris van Herpen are presented in relation to new voices such as Orange Fiber, Self-Assembly, Pauline van Dongen, Rafael Kouto and 11.11 / eleven eleven.

In order to underline the activist, critical and innovative approach of State of Fashion 2018, Teunissen introduced a manifesto:

IMAGINATION ​​= THE NEW LUXURY
AGENCY ​​​= THE NEW LUXURY
ESSENTIAL ​​​= THE NEW LUXURY
TECH ​​​= THE NEW LUXURY
CARE​​​​ = THE NEW LUXURY
REUSE ​​​= THE NEW LUXURY
FAIRNESS​​​ = THE NEW LUXURY
NO WASTE ​​​= THE NEW LUXURY

The manifesto and its eight 'hashtags' form the red thread throughout the exhibition and program of events, which kicks off on May 31st with the Fashion Colloquium: searching for the new luxury. This two-day conference, organised by ArtEZ University of the Arts in close collaboration with State of Fashion, is an initiative of London College of Fashion, Institute Français de la Mode, Domus Academy, Milan and Parsons The New School for Design, School for Fashion, New York. This year, on occasion of State of Fashion, the Fashion Colloquium will take place in Arnhem, the Netherlands.

The full programme of State of Fashion 2018 will be released this April.