State of Fashion x FDFA: Exercising Fashion
With Fashion Open Studio + NOT__ENOUGH Collective
The preparations for 2022 edition of the State of Fashion biennial are starting! Would you like to have a say in what the event will look, feel and sound like? Here’s your chance: during this years’ Fashion + Design Festival Arnhem, our brand new curator team, existing of Fashion Open Studio and NOT____ENOUGH collective, invites creatives from Arnhem and beyond to join them for a full day of exercising fashion. In 5 different sessions, you can join in, connect to the curators, and share thoughts, tips and advice to make the upcoming biennial as purposeful as possible.
“Our aim is to move away from the biennial as an isolated event, and to approach it as an ongoing public exercise in which everyone should have a role,” says the team of Fashion Open Studio. "How can we subvert the practices of exhibiting, curating and selecting in this biennial? How do we go beyond talking about it and to practicing it? What does it look like, what does it feel like? We are opening up our process from the start, as we want people to experience this with us,” the members of NOT____ENOUGH collective add.
Interested in joining one of the exercises? Find the program below.
Participating is free and everyone is welcome!
Workshop: Re-mapping Arnhem

10:00 - 12:00
Workshop: Remapping Arnhem - Where does fashion exist in Arnhem?
With the NOT__ENOUGH Collective
Where: live event, Rijnijssel Retaillab, Bovenbeekstraat 10, Arnhem
We kick-off the day with a live exercise hosted by NOT__ENOUGH Collective. They cordially invite you to help map out where fashion lives in Arnhem, and also where it doesn’t exist as much yet. Drop in to meet the curators and help them plan out where the biennial should manifest itself next year in the city. This workshop is in cooperation with Rijnijssel Retaillab.
As this is a live event, there are limited spots available. Register here: Re-mapping Arnhem
Lunch talk - the Arnhem Fashion Quarter

13:00 - 14:00
Lunch talk - the Arnhem Fashion Quarter
Tamsin Blanchard (Fashion Open Studio) meets Berry Kessels & Mirte Engelhard
Where: online event
At lunch, tune in to a relaxing exercise with curator Tamsin Blanchard. As a new curator of the biennial, Tamsin is curious about Arnhem’s renowned Fashion Quarter. How did it start, where is it now, and where is it going? She meets two key players in this project for a heart-to-heart: city-maker Berry Kessels and designer Mirte Engelhard.
Register here: Lunch talk: the Arnhem Fashion Quarter
Workshop: What about fashion exhibitions?

13:00 - 15:00
Workshop: What about fashion exhibitions?
With the NOT__ENOUGH Collective
Where: live event, Rijnijssel Retaillab, Bovenbeekstraat 10, Arnhem
After lunch, join the NOT__ENOUGH Collective for a second live exercise, focused on exhibiting fashion. The curators invite you to share how you feel when visiting fashion exhibitions, museums, biennales or galeries. What do you experience in these spaces? What inspires or moves you, and what is mostly missing? The workshop is meant to understand and reflect in which ways fashion exhibitions can exclude and include people, cultures, fashion systems and workers. This workshop is in cooperation with Rijnijssel Retaillab.
As this is a live event, there are limited spots available. Register here: Workshop: What about fashion exhibitions?
Stitch & Bitch

16:00 - 17:00
Stitch & Bitch
With Orsola de Castro & Niamh Tuft (Fashion Open Studio)
Where: online event
Do you have any mending work that needs to be done? Then join curator Orsola de Castro and Niamh Tuft of Fashion Open Studio in the afternoon. During one of their infamous Stitch & Bitch sessions, they invite you to join them in a mending session, while discussing reparations. What needs repairing in your closet, in your city, and in the fashion system?
A Stitch & Bitch event is a way to sit together and explore topics in a gentle way, while sewing, mending and making. There is no leader nor principal speaker, rather everyone is invited to introduce themselves and their stitching and share concerns, or just stories. Like women have done for millennia, enjoying each other’s company, making things last, repairing damage. Register here: Stitch & Bitch
Jam Session - The Sound of State of Fashion 2022

17:00 - 18:00
Jam Session - The Sound of State of Fashion 2022
With Filippo Ricci (Fashion Open Studio)
Where: online event
Which music can empower a better future for fashion? How could the Arnhem music community participate in the next State of Fashion biennial? Join curator Filippo Ricci for a musical jam session on Zoom. Filippo invites you to participate in a discovery journey in which we will map the Arnhem music community and start building a playlist together. Requests are mandatory!
Register here: Jam session - The Sound of State of Fashion 2022