ArtEZ students present collections in fashion graduation show ‘Generation 66’

On Friday June 7, the ArtEZ Academy of Art and Design presented its 2024 graduates at the school’s annual student fashion show. This year’s show, entitled ‘Generation 66’, took place at the ArtEZ campus in Arnhem, Netherlands.

The student show consisted of four parts, one for each study year of the programme. The first-year students were up first, showing a joint collection entitled ‘The Sweet Escape’ dominated by blue tones and metallics, which seemed to be inspired by the underwater world.

The second-year bachelor students then presented their designs in ‘B-Project Vol.4’. The assignment was to create an experimental approach to the dress suit. Next up were the third-year students. They created the fashion film ‘Collectie Arnhem-Formication’ that featured looks reminiscent of insect-like creatures with hair and makeup to match.

ArtEZ Academy graduates showcase designs at annual student fashion show

Finally, the 11 graduating BA4 students presented their collections. Several graduating students chose not to have their models walk the catwalk in the traditional way and instead opted for more expressive or even theatrical catwalk presentations, used as a tool to highlight the theme of their collections.

Designer Denisova’s collection, entitled ‘The Great Faraway’, is inspired by the idea of the loss of one’s homeland. After the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the country where she was born, she experienced feelings of ‘profound grief’.

In the show notes, the young creator writes that each look in her graduation collection ‘captures the complex and ambivalent feelings of losing and rediscovering a connection to one’s homeland’ For this, Denisova had to relive and above all ‘rework my happy childhood memories from Russia’. To further illustrate the thematics of her collection, one of the models showcasing her designs performed a ballet dance in the centre of the stage.

Another final-year student, Zihao Li presented ‘Shadow Labyrinth 2.0’, a collection inspired by the video games she used to play before applying for fashion school, such as World of Warcraft and League of Legends. Her catwalk presentation starts off with two female models entering the stage dressed in a short all-black outfit made from leather complete with armour, over-the-knee boots, half-masks with attached horns as well as two large fake weapons.

The final look of her collection was another all-black outfit with matching horns. For this look, Li used a ‘very liquid-ish fabric with strong reflection, like some high-tech thing’, as per the show notes. Describing the inspiration for her collection, the designer writes: ‘Characters [in video games, ed.] need specific armours or wearing pieces to empower’ which reminded her that ‘what we [humans, ed.] choose to wear’ can give one ‘a lot of confidence, energy’ or create a specific mood.

‘Ultra Ora’ is the name of Arva Bustin’s collection, which the designer describes as ‘A mediaeval space crew’s journey to the unknown’. Bustin writes in the show notes that it carries a subtext, representing ‘kind of a caricature of the current trend of rich people wanting to go “where none have gone before”’ and ‘the human tendency to rush into the unknown without properly preparing [oneself] and this way dooming themselves.’

To create his designs, the Dutch graduate took inspiration from’ late medieval fashion and armor and space suits’ as well as from medieval arts such as the ‘The Anolfini portrait’ by Belgian painter Jan Van Eyck.

The names of the members of the ArtEZ graduating class 2024 are: Yelyzaveta Kostenko, Sophie-Marie Ordo, Fie Lenders, Arva Bustin, Christiaan Sebastian Kock, Loreta Rogule, Darina Denisova, Nouka Rous, Hannah Hasler, Madelief de Lange and Zihao Li.

The bachelor programme in fashion design, first established in 1953 as the programme in fashion design and fashion illustration at Arnhem's academy of the arts, has been taught at ArtEZ' Rietveld campus in Arnhem since 1963.