(Un)seen Labour is a research project of the Fashion Professorship at ArtEZ University of the Arts, in collaboration with State of Fashion and partners Avans University of Applied Sciences and Crafts Council Nederland.
From ArtEZ, Femke de Vries and Studio Tjeerd Veenhoven are conducting research in collaboration with Professor of Fashion Daniëlle Bruggeman. From Avans (Centre of Expertise Broad Prosperity and New Entrepreneurship), Joline d’Arnaud van Boeckholtz is participating. Designers Tess van Zalinge, Zyanya Keizer & Eleftheria Lavdaki, and Amy Suo Wu take part through State of Fashion: a fashion platform where alternatives to the current fashion system are given a stage. Together, they explore how hidden forms of labour, from repair and craft to care and collaboration, can take a central place in the fashion of the future.
Fashion and textile designers are keen to contribute to a circular transition, but need more knowledge about circular manufacturing and design methods. Production chains are long, complex and opaque, leaving much work ‘unseen’. This invisibility makes the transition to a circular and socially just fashion system more difficult. The project therefore focuses on questions such as: who are these unseen players in the chain? What do we mean by hidden labour, and which aspect(s) do we want to make visible in order to achieve more circular practices? In the first exploratory phase, the researching designers are given space to map this out.
Designers will engage with practitioners, researchers and other parties, exploring how circular working and design practices can emerge that are both socio-culturally and ecologically sound. Participating designers are given the freedom to decide which aspect(s) of unseen labour they want to make visible. The result can take various forms: from a publication to a new tool or methodology. What is important here is that the process leads to more insight into circular work and that the entire ecosystem is included, because circularity is not only about material flows, but also about social and cultural dimensions.
The project (Un)seen Labour runs until 2027 and is part of the Call for Artistic and Design Research by the Taskforce for Applied Research SIA and the Creative Industries Fund NL. The first outcomes will be presented at the State of Fashion Biennale 2026 in Arnhem, in the form of an exhibition and an assembly.
