Textiles are so much more than the clothes you wear. During Dutch Design Week (DDW), discover how designers experiment with colour, new materials and surprising techniques. From fabrics that plants grow through to sportswear that challenges beauty standards, these projects will make you look at textiles in a completely different way.
A colourful play of lines and shapes
What happens when you start playing with colour, light and textiles? Eindhoven-based design studio Raw Color has teamed up with Paper Collective to create two extraordinary collections for the exhibition Raw Color x Paper Collective. Both collections have one thing in common: they create a sense of space on a two-dimensional surface. At Raw Color's studio on Strijp T+R, you can wander among colourful wall pieces and get a glimpse behind the scenes of the creative process.
What if textiles came to life?
A room divider with plants growing through it? In Crafting Textiles for Plant-Human Interactions, designer Oscar Tomico shows how textiles and nature can work together. He has developed specially woven structures that climbing plants can attach themselves to. The result is a living room divider that continues to grow and change. A beautiful example of how textiles can bring more greenery into our interiors.
From old clothes to new designs
What happens to clothes that nobody wears anymore? At Remade in: Redefining Regional Remanufacturing, discover how discarded clothing gets a second life. Instead of shredding fabrics, existing garments are taken apart and transformed into new designs, preserving valuable materials. At the Fashion Tech Farm, you'll see not only the results but also how this approach could work on a larger scale.
Challenging the sexualisation of women's bodies in sportswear
Why does women's sportswear always seem designed to emphasise certain body shapes? With BUTTSCRUNCHED, designer Simone Winder challenges this idea in a striking way. She distorts familiar sportswear, plays with asymmetry, breaks away from the classic hourglass silhouette and rejects the male gaze. The result is an unconventional collection that makes you question beauty standards and the influence of fashion on our body image.
From sheep to garment
We all wear clothes, but how often do we stop to think about where the materials come from? In Flock, Folk, Field by New Order of Fashion, follow the journey of wool: from the sheep and the landscape to the makers who work with the material. International designers tell this story through clothing, films and installations, revealing just how many people, animals and processes are involved in producing a single material.
Traditional crafts, fresh ideas
Embroidery, weaving, darning and crochet: old-fashioned? Not at all! With Studio Karavan x Heirlooming, designer Teresa Carvalheira brings traditional textile techniques straight onto the streets. Working from a converted 1974 Piaggio Ape, different makers on Strijp-S demonstrate just how special handcraft can be. And you can join in!
At Visible Mending, learn from Sam Bennett (Repair Shop) how to give worn-out clothes a second life using visible stitches and patches. Feel free to bring something that could do with a repair! Prefer embroidery? During Embroidery and Smocking Techniques, Chiron Floris shows you how needle, thread and special pleating techniques can give textiles a completely new look.
Discover textiles at DDW
From colourful installations to living materials and innovative fashion, DDW reveals just how many possibilities textiles have to offer. Be surprised by extraordinary techniques, discover the stories behind the materials and see how the fabrics of tomorrow are being made.
