The Gerrit Rietveld Academie Fashion Show is the annual presentation of the Fashion department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie. The show features graduation projects as well as a selection of works by first and second year Fashion students.
Who’s (on) show?
What is a fashion show and who or what, is in fact on show? The audience, wearing (fashionable) clothes, often outnumbers the models and outfits on the catwalk. And they too dress up for the occasion. On the day of the show, they pick their outfit, accessories, makeup and perfume. They leave their house or office to ride their bike, take a train, bus, tram or walk. All moving in streams through the city, toward the location of the fashion show. This is where they all come together, collected. They catch up while waiting in line. The line gradually moves. They walk, pause, twist and turn. They find their seats and settle in their chairs. They check their hairdo using their phone and rearrange their coats and bags. Meanwhile, they observe the rest of the audience, their clothes, their looks.
Fashion Show 2025
In this show, the Rietveld Fashion department experiments with the established hierarchical structure of what’s generally known as a fashion show; a catwalk on which models show looks, and an audience directed towards this catwalk, to see what’s on show. This year’s Fashion show, developed by the graduate students, subtly shifts these roles. Visitors shift between being audience members and models. They too are on show, they too receive applause. As such, the perception of those involved in a fashion show, in the production of fashion, changes. Hierarchies and roles are blurred.
The collections of this generation show an exploration of the body in its many (fleshy) forms and pieces. The body’s movement, the act of wearing clothes (including its tears and stains). But also, reinterpretations of that we thought we knew - ranging from the everyday to the abstract realm of symbolics and illusions, onto the level of questioning our humanness.
The Fashion department
At the Rietveld Fashion department, students are invited to explore the different cultural and social meanings of clothes and fashion with a critical and open attitude. They are supported and encouraged to challenge and question the established commerce-driven fashion system and work towards more social, radical, inclusive, multidisciplinary, sustainable and multivocal forms of fashion. Through a combination of theory and practice as well as material/technical experimentation, they are supported in developing their own way of working while engaging with and supporting the community.
Spots are limited, so get your tickets now.
You can find all practical information here.
Rietveld Academie Fashion Show is sponsored by Keep an Eye Foundation, Meester Koetsier Foundation, Stichting van Stigt-ing and De Hallen Studio's.
