Third-year students present: Collectie Arnhem TWENTYFIVE

"How can we design fashion collectively?" Sixteen third-year students from the bachelor’s programme Fashion Design explored that question through Collectie Arnhem TWENTYFIVE. This is a project where collaboration became both method and material.

From craftsmanship to collective creativity

Starting from the word craftsmanship, the group redefined it into something fluid and shared. A form of creative energy where care, decay, and time come together. Inspired by the imagined afterlife of a forgotten wardrobe, the students created garments that reflect the slow erosion of memory. This consisted coats and hats made of Dutch raw wool, transformed through wet felting and reshaped by many hands.

Each piece carries traces of collective making: stitched, sculpted, and shaped through equal contribution. Collectie Arnhem TWENTYFIVE proposes a fashion practice rooted in shared authorship, where synergy becomes both the design language and the message.

First Paris Fashion Week, now Dutch Design Week

After being shown at Atelier Néerlandais during Paris Fashion Week, the collection was part of New Order of Fashion during Dutch Design Week 2025 in Eindhoven. Featured in the exhibition Wool: (Re)discovered and in an interactive workshop programme.

During the workshop Needle Felting Fashion, students collaborated with designer Lennart van Bolderick to transform discarded local wool into new textile samples. Through washing, layering and felting, they created expressive, repairable materials. With this project they showed that collaboration, care, and sustainability can go hand in hand.