"My mother warned me about Fashion students"
Internal research and historical documentation for ArtEZ University of the Arts - Arnhem 2023
Directed, filmed and produced by Luisa Haddad Zavadinack.
Before starting the Creative Direction of ArtEZ Fashion Show 2023, I started a research because the university’s events had lost audience and I wanted to know why. I looked at all other years and interviewed the head master of school, to find out about numbers and facts. Not only the show numbers and expectators had dropped by a third, our in house shows also had very little support from the other students at ArtEZ, something that I saw existed amongst other departments; the music conservatory, for example. Why?
“I THINK THEY’RE QUITE SCARY AND REALLY ARROGANT”
"I think they are quite scary and really arrogant" said a friend of mine when I asked him what he thought of my fashion peers, at ArtEZ University.It was such a passionate answer, it intrigued me. So I asked several students from all twelve University departments:
“What do you think of the Fashion Department students?”
In my research I observed mostly fear and insecurities. Both sides felt threatened, one for being judged and the other one for not understanding. Although all of the interviewed students were also artists, none of them were walking around showing their souls to the world.. Fashion is the only art capable of it. We literally wear our hearts on our sleeves, shirts, shoes, pants...
The sacred closeness between body and garment broadcasts feelings and emotions in the purest simplicity (have you ever unbuttoned your shirt’s top button for someone?) and communicates strong opinions. Of course, it represents status, since the beggining of civilisation.
Respect will always shine over the sight of a Prada bag. Therefore, who would not fear a pink mowhawk?
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