The Netherlands and China to Collaborate More Intensively in the Field of Fashion

After the opening of the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen exhibition ‘The Future of Fashion is Now’ on 28 October in Shanghai, initiator Han Nefkens announced that a number of Chinese fashion talents are being invited to make new work for this exhibition. In due time, the new Chinese pieces will also be shown in Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam.

More Dutch-Chinese collaboration
The Future of Fashion is Now is also leading to other special collaborations. Several Dutch fashion designers accompanied the exhibition to China to exchange expertise with their Chinese colleagues. Immediately after the opening in Shanghai, Donghua University, which has one of China’s most important fashion institutes, signed a declaration of intent with the fashion school of the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem to work together in the area of fashion and innovation. ArtEZ, with famous alumni like Iris van Herpen and Pauline van Dongen, has an international reputation in this respect.

At the moment, Donghua University is working with the city of Shanghai to create a platform where fashion designers, engineers and scientists can come together to help develop new techniques and manufacturing processes for the fashion industry around Shanghai.

The Future of Fashion is Now
Prior to this, the exhibition was presented in 2014 in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. It was brought to China in connection with the state visit of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima. The Future of Fashion is Now will be on view in Shanghai for the next four months. After that the exhibition will travel to Shenzhen, where it will be shown from 26 March to 31 July 2016 in the Hua Gallery.

Partners
The Future of Fashion is Now and the exchange of knowledge between Dutch and Chinese designers and institutes is made possible by the generous support of the Chinese corporate group OCT, the Creative Industries Fund NL and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Cultural Affairs and Science, as well as contributions from Control Union Shanghai, Han Nefkens Fashion on the Edge, Next Fashion, the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, The Pin Projects, the Dutch Embassy in Beijing and DutchCulture.