About the project

The fast life cycle of clothing, extreme waste of materials, worldwide transportation of raw materials and products, dreadful working conditions and disastrous consequences for the climate must change. Worldwide there is growing support for the necessary change, transparency and further collaboration that put forwards a diverse range of fashion values – financial and environmental values combined with social and cultural values.

With Culture.Fashion, we’ve built and are still building an open fashion, clothing and textile network in which visibility, connecting different actors and collaborations based on shared values have a central role. We stand for a future-proof Dutch fashion landscape in which different parties are brought together; new local initiatives are started; a culture of collaboration is stimulated; tools are presented to highlight the Dutch fashion landscape; and the future of fashion in the Netherlands in 2050 will be explored and shaped through various working groups.

Currently, different working groups provide substance and direction to Culture.Fashion and play an essential role in identifying and involving other parties. The working groups have been defined ad Narrative & Media, Mapping, Activities, Analysis and Coordination.

While the Narrative and Media group focuses on broadcasting the vision of the network through different media, the Mapping group builds the foundation of our platform, creating the needed infrastructure to support the development and expansion of the network. The Activities group is primarily busy with zooming into what conversations are being held and what is being organized so that they can ‘plug-in’ by adding extra value to what already exists within the landscape. All of this is coordinated by our Coordination and Administration working group in which we also brainstorm on the sustainability of Culture.Fashion and handle administration. Lastly, we measure our impact and look for improvements with thanks to the Analysis group.

Become part of the movement

To become part of culture.fashion, the first step is to create a profile and join as an organisation. Within the application, you will be asked to share with us how your organisation puts into practice our values, or is striving for them. There are no wrong answers and you are not alone! Feel free to ask for assistance during the process by selecting 3 member organisation, they will be your reference point. Our peer to peer system enables participants of the network in welcoming new ones and explore their questions together. We are collectively responsible to ensure that all members of the network adhere and believe in the shared values.

Join with your organisation today
  • Media & Narrative

    The Narrative and Media working group focuses on a shared narrative for a future-proof fashion, textiles and clothing field. Through a collection of voices and personal persperctives, that give depth and multiplicity to the values of culture.fashion and through social media actions that stimulate the collaborations and curiosity within the network.

  • Activities

    The working group Activities works on a shared online calendar of events and on creating stronger connections within and outside the culture.fashion network. The events are developed in a plug-in format, highlighting the values of culture.fashion, building upon the network's efforts.

  • Mapping

    The mapping group works on laying down the foundation of the infrastructure, we provide the tool to capture and supports the self mapping of the network as it slowly grows organically. Based on our shared values and a peer welcoming system, we look at how the network evolves.

  • Analyse

    The working group Analysis works two fold, on one side it focuses on making sense of the first results and impacts of the network. On the other side, it analyses our collaboration methodology, what is our collaboration process?

  • Coordination

    Coordination focuses on the further development and implementation of a sociocratic collaboration methodology for this growing, value-driven network. Working groups propose their vision and ideas, which are brough together into a more cohesive shared vision by the group of referents and coordination. An important aspect there of is exploring the paths towards the sustainability of the network.

Organisations that started it

In 2018, Culture.Fashion started as a project supported by the (Dutch) Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, by bringing together a broad and varied group of individuals and organisations that formulated needs, values and aims for the dutch sector as a collective.

The project was initially carried by the wide range of organisation presented in the logos below; where FASHIONCLASH, MAFB, M-ODE, State of Fashion, and Waag have coordinating roles for each of the working groups, and have been working all together to create the space and dynamics for this network to keep growing.

Organisation logos that started this project