Karel van Laere

What is your name? Karel van Laere

Where did you study and when did you graduate? I am currently in my 3rd year of Theatrical Performance at the theatre school in Maastricht and will graduate next year.

What inspires you as a theater maker/performer? The New Media is always a huge inspiration. Its endless possibilities.

Who is your favorite artist? Why? Hussein Chalayan is one of my favorite fashion artists. In my opinion he thinks more like a performer than like a fashion designer. Plus his shows can definitely be considered performances. I also love the way he uses the new media in his designs.

Another artist who inspires me is the sound artist: Alva Noto. His sounds and videos are mostly based on things that could go wrong in a computer.

What will you bring to FASHIONCLASH Maastricht 2011? I will bring a performance surrounding my own fashion line. Seven beautiful people from my school will show my designs on the FASHIONCLASH catwalk.

The focus for me will be on the way I show my pieces. In 2010 I made a fashion show 'peak Oil' which was still a bit too much fashion and not enough performance. This year will be both! Last year when I visited FASHIONCLASH Maastricht I thought all the shows were too smooth. I would like to make my show more raw than the others.

Why fashion? Why theater and fashion together? A fashion show has a different audience than a normal theater audience, that inspires me. I started to get interested in fashion because of my uncle, 'Carel van Laere'. Because of him I started designing my own clothes. I got accepted at the Maastricht Theater Academy and began making costumes for performances and theater.

In 2009 I made costumes for the opera 'Kepler' by Philip Glass and in 2011 for the opera 'Rage D'amour' by Rob Zuidam. Both of these operas were directed by Peter Missotten.

In Maastricht I started to combine my performances and my designing skills.

What do you expect from FASHIONCLASH Maastricht 2011? Lots of beautiful models in fresh designs.

What are your goals concerning your career? Where do you see yourself in the future? After the theatre school I want to continue studying and focuse on the new media.

Edited by Natalia Serwanska

Carolina Reis

What is your name? Carolina Reis

What is the name of your label? The project that I am presenting for FASHIONCLASH is called WEAROUT. I don’t have a name for my label. I practice under my own name. I work on different collections and projects and each one lives like a brand on its own.

Where did you study and when did you graduate? I did my bachelor at Université du Québec à Montréal in Canada and I graduated in 2008. Then I studied Master in Design in the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. I graduated in 2010.

What inspires you as a designer? Primarily, the context in which the clothes will be worn. We use garments to protect ourselves, not just for social appearances. Is the environment going to be cold, warm? How will the wearer move? At last, what does it need to communicate?

I have a multidisciplinary approach to fashion design. I seek inspiration in materials and fibres, innovation, current affairs, social behavior, psychology of identity, science, geometry and ergonomics. Basically, everything that moves the world is important and is a part of the process.

Who is your favorite (fashion) designer? Why? I am asked this question very often and it is hard for me to select one designer. Clothes reflect the values of a given society. I admire a designers who go beyond the simple fact of doing fashion, but also communicate a new vision of the world and promote quality. There are too many, but to name just a few: Bless and Martin Margiela for deconstructing, recycling and transgressing conventions; Rei Kawakubo for questioning the idea of the body and female representations; Issey Miyake for pushing technological innovation; Katherine Hammet for her legacy in fighting for ethical issues; Ying Gao for giving grace and sense to interactive garments and Hussein Chalayan for making me proud of being a fashion designer..

What can you bring to FASHIONCLASH Maastricht 2011? I hope to show a new way of seeing fashion to the visitors of the event.

What do you expect from the FASHIONCLASH Maastricht 2011? I hope to communicate the message that fashion is about people and for people who wear it and not about the designer.

How did your experience with fashion started? When did you decide to be a (fashion) designer? I have always had interest in visual arts. Fashion brings a great challenge because it links the creativity of an art and the pragmatism of design. It bares the history of seduction and fantasy, but also needs to satisfy basic needs of physical protection. Fashion relates to everyone as it adorns every body. It offers great possibility for artistic expression through all kinds of mediums that go beyond just clothes, because it is intrinsically linked with the being.

What are your goals concerning your career? What are your ambitions? Where do you see yourself in the future? My ambitions are to continue to develop and improve my work. I would like to find new ways to overcome the challenges our societies are facing. I hope to improve people’s living, even if that means making less fashion. Designers have an increasing social responsibility.



Edited by Natalia Serwanska

Ellis Biemans

What is your name? Ellis Biemans

What is the name of your label? Ellis Biemans

Where did you study and when did you graduate? I studied at fashion & design at AMFI- and I graduate in June 2009.

What inspires you as a designer? The human body inspires me in the first place: the movements of the body and how to use and shape unusual materials as a body adornment. Additionally, in nature you can find beautiful shapes and colors, Im in love with color pallets, combining the right unusual colors together can define a whole new concept.




Ellis's drawings, paintings and sketches.



Who is your favorite fashion designer? Why? Im very impressed by the way Hussein Chalayan works out his concepts, making shapes with rare materials and developing new techniques to show us his vision, without loosing the esthetics.

What can you bring to FASHIONCLASH Maastricht 2011? l will bring to FASHIONCLASH Maastricht 2011 my newest and first collection of my own label . Where I will show some techniques and color pallets that might inspire others.

What do you expect from the FASHIONCLASH Maastricht 2011? I expect it to be very nice, I expect meeting people, introducing myself and my work to new people and having a beautiful environment to present my collection in a different way than on a catwalk show.

How did your experience with fashion started? When did you decide to be a fashion designer/artist? I can't exactly remember, it just slipped in there somehow. My mom used to sew a lot of clothes for me and my sisters, and at some point a wanted to learn it too. It started with simple patterns from pattern magazines. But slowly I began to make my own designs mostly to wear them myself. After high school I couldn't think of anything else then studying fashion design.

What are your goals concerning your career? What are your ambitions? Where do you see yourself in the future? I like to leave my future open, you never know what will come up in a year or more and Im curious about any new opportunities to come. I will stay in fashion for sure and of course I hope my label to grow bigger and bigger.

Edited by Natalia Serwanska