Duran Lantink is a Dutch designer based in Amsterdam. Having studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and graduating from the Sandberg Instituut in 2017, Lantink’s playful, inclusive vision for the future of sustainable fashion has already seen him shortlisted for the 2019 LVMH Prize. With his innovative approach to upcycling, Lantink’s zero-waste philosophy uses pre-loved garments and deadstock fabrics to create fashion as agenda-setting as it is ethical.

After receiving international attention for the iconic “vagina” trousers he created for Janelle Monáe’s “PYNK” music video in 2018, Lantink has gone on to design pieces for Billie Eilish and Solange. His collaborations with fashion retailers and media is as collaborative as it is critical, encouraging retailers and brands, whose deadstock he reworks, to consider the waste they generate in the name of luxury. Often taking a satirical position on the industry he works in, Duran gets into the belly of the beast to infiltrate these systems and propose viable ways that brands and retailers can tackle overproduction. His collaborations with marginalised communities - from transgender sex workers in Cape Town to homeless people in Amsterdam - put this creativity into powerful narratives of self-expression and the power of fantasy that fashion can hold.

Workshop 'The Age of Consent'
Duran Lantink proposes The Age of Consent, a workshop bringing together many generations - from the young to the ‘Original Gangsters.’ The intervention takes place in a care home for old people, inviting students to work with the local residents to reconstruct second-hand garments together. Domestic sewing machines and other hand sewing and making equipment will be provided and anybody who wants to show off the results can have their photograph taken at a pop-up photography studio. This is a unique opportunity to enjoy making outfits together and sharing knowledge which can be often lost in generational divides. The day will culminate in a salsa dancing daytime party where the participants will be invited to dress up and dance, eat, drink and celebrate creativity - and life - together.

Designers in Residence: Duran Lantink 3 - 5 June, 10:00-17:00, free admission

Sindiso Khumalo is a sustainable fashion textile designer based in Cape Town, South Africa. Central St Martins graduate founded her label in 2014 with a passion to create a sustainable brand which has a strong focus on African storytelling. Her designs tell a story about Africa and women empowerment. She is a joint prize winner of the LVMH Prize 2020, and also was awarded the Green Carpet Award Emerging Designer award in 2020. She works closely with NGOs and small workshops to produce unique handwoven and hand-embroidered textiles, all handcrafted in Burkina Faso and South Africa. In addition to speaking about sustainability at the United Nations and the European Development Forum, her work has been exhibited in London, Denmark, Washington DC, Milan and Cape Town.

Within the current global climate, and with the war in Ukraine happening, I have been thinking about war and refugees and what it would mean to move to another country with just the clothes on your back. What it means and how can clothing respond to the needs of a refugee when their lives and livelihoods are under attack. With my previous education in architecture, one of my biggest interests has been how design can help serve a need in a community and be a form of social activism. Work that is both functional, political and emotive. And so with the residency I plan to design a series of vests that would be able to help refugees move between different countries without the work of the loss of their personal belongings, and for those carrying children to have some way of managing their children in transit. I hope to make the piece both functional and political, so that it brings awareness to the refugees and their plight. But in saying that, to make the piece beautiful, that it brings a very tiny slither of beauty in a time of war and pain.

Designers in Residence: Sindiso Khumalo, 10 - 12 June 10:00-17:00, free admission
Sindiso Khumalo 'Meet & Greet', 10 June 16:00-17:00, free admission
Sindiso Khumalo 'Meet & Greet', 12 June 16:00-17:00, free admission

Born in Makassar, Indonesia and raised by his seamstress single mother, Toton Januar developed a fascination with the artisanal aspect of design at a young age. He relocated to Jakarta, to study Media Broadcasting while working as a designer for one of Indonesia’s most prominent fashion designers. After studying fashion at Parsons School of Design in New York, TOTON was founded in 2012 with Haryo Balitar. In 2016 the brand won the Woolmark Asia Award in 2016 with a collaboration with artisans in West Java.

Januar and Balitar have always committed to work as much as possible with Indonesia’s local artisans and factories. This relationship between TOTON and these artisans directly affects their livelihoods. TOTON believes that the natural craftsmanship process which mostly uses organic materials has to be preserved to lessen the environmental damage caused by big factories and irresponsible use and waste of chemicals.

Since 2017 TOTON has been incorporating recycled and upcycled materials in its collection, with a crafts approach done by artisans in Indonesia. This is a small step toward being sustainable and kinder to the environment. They do not claim to be a ‘sustainable brand’ yet, acknowledging that they still have so much more to learn and do. Their goal is to work almost exclusively with local artisans and source everything locally with a green footprint. Their hope is to promote Indonesia’s heritage and culture to preserve customs and crafts for the next generation to inherit and evolve.

'As I Stand in this Garbage Garden'
As I Stand in this Garbage Garden' is an invitation to contemplate the concept of 'New' in fashion. To reconsider our sensory needs to experience something new.. The main objective is to examine our behaviour:, the reasoning behind making a purchase and acquiring new clothing items. We like to engage the audience visually by showcasing our garments against videos and curated photographs to highlight our approach, both culturally as well as the upcycling, repurposing work we have been doing, and physically, by letting the audience see us working on some garments on-site.

Designers in Residence: Toton Januar, 1 - 3 July 10:00-17:00, free admission

Studio T.VDB is the creative studio, founded by the Belgian transdisciplinary artist and fashion designer Tom Van der Borght. The studio focuses on people, rather than gender, as the core of Studio T.VDB and its work resists a binary definition, description or title. The studio’s focus on sustainability is characterised by an artisanal approach and the development of sustainable innovations. Tom Van der Borght’s work is internationally renowned for his non-conformist approach, which challenges and breaks through rules and conventions, blurring the boundaries between fashion, performance and art. In 2020 Tom won the prestigious Grand Prix du Jury and Prix de Publique at the International Festival de Mode at Hyeres for a collection which explored normativity, non-conformism, queer identity and contemporary rituals. He works at the intersection of fashion, textiles, graphics, video, performance, scenography and visual arts blending these disciplines to create new forms. Tom’s work is highly conceptual, and breaking through dominant values ​​and norms is central.

Workshop Tom Van der Borght
For the residency at Fashion Open Studio T.VDB will focus on the idea of self-care, self-love, self-acceptance and the collectivity in this. We all face difficult times in our lives, moments of hardship. These times can feel very individual and extremely isolating, but there is a collective side to this, as we all face similar experiences.

They are only shaped differently for every individual.

Let’s care about it! Let’s care for ourselves, let’s learn how to accept and love ourselves. Let’s create collectivity and community. “Not fitting in” can feel like an isolating experience, but it also holds the opportunity to create an alternative, non-normative contemporary tribe, based on the concepts of caring for each other and carrying each other through life. Believe in fashion’s special powers. Considering fashion as an embodied practice, as a communicative layer between the individual and society (in two directions), it has the potential to be transformative.

Alongside this social aspect, there is also the collectivity between us as humans and our surrounding planet. Based on similar concepts of care, a non-normative approach to material and production can allow us to have the same transformative movement in our connection to our surroundings.

Caring for yourself, caring for each other, caring for our planet.

For State of Fashion | Ways of Caring, T.VDB will develop a procession in collaboration with the local community, during three open workshop days. Participants will work on a collective procession, made out of upcycled materials. Through the process of collective creation and the creation of Powerful signs and tools of Self-love (totems/ flats / masks) we will actively contribute in creating a self caring society.

Designers in Residence: Tom Van der Borght, 7 - 10 July 10:00-17:00, free admission