On Friday November 5, the Mode Partners 025 (State of Fashion, Fashion & Design Festival Arnhem, Museum Arnhem, Rijn IJssel and ArtEZ) and GIST (ArtEZ Future Makers, WUR Circular Fashion Lab and Kiemt) hosted a session on local pioneers who aim to transform the fashion system in the Arnhem region. Together, the Mode Partners 025 and GIST try to nurture the local ecosystem - of makers, designers, start ups, researchers, students, etc. - to facilitate a continuous cross-fertilization in order to contribute to systemic change. 

In the morning programme:

Sebastiaan Kramer presented his concept for the Fashion & Design Festival Arnhem 2022.

Esther Munoz Grootveld engaged in a conversation with Kaat Debo (director MOMU Antwerp) about the how a fashion museum in a city with a renowned fashion history could reinvent itself as it faces new challenges in the context of the transition towards another fashion system.

Theodoor Adriaans interviewed the two curatorial teams of State of Fashion 2022: Fashion Open Studio and the Not_Enough Collective, who introduced their theme 'Ways of Caring'.

Danielle Bruggeman presented the KIEM-project 'Solidarity in Fashion' as well as 'Practicing Solidarity', funded by the VriendenLoterij Fonds (previously: Bank Giro Loterij Fonds, of the DOEN Foundation) - on the explorative, speculative artistic and design-driven research into more solidary practices of making and wearing.

In the afternoon programme we opened up the floor to the following local pioneers:

- Elsien Gringhuis

- Yi-Jing Chen (student MA Critical Fashion Practices)

- Marco Blazevic (alumnus of ArtEZ BA Fashion Design)

- Daan Berkhoff - Humanoid

- Anna Jos Wetzel (alumna of ArtEZ MA Practice Held in Common)

- Mirte Engelhard 

The livestream of the morning session is available here.