The course educated AMFI students on the ins-and-outs of social compliance in apparel factories, challenges for the apparel sourcing industry, and the role and importance of factory audits for the health, safety and well-being of factory workers. Students spent the week learning how to conduct an audit—weighing everything from health and safety standards and conditions to proper working hours and compensation.

At the end of the course, they were presented with a challenging final examination—and all students passed, a prerequisite for continuing on in their programme to Hong Kong and internships in Asia.

For more information on the course, go to the WRAP blog.

Text by Corri Sue Morris

On the 26^th of January the AMFI brand Individuals presented  its twelfth collection ‘DUALS’ at the Amsterdam Fashion Week. The venue at  Westergasfabriek was  packed and the responses to the collection were very positive. In this collection Individuals reacted to society as never before; with a passionate, powerful and raw street wear collection, full of references to a nomadic city lifestyle.  Oversized and outspoken hoodies, bomber jackets and garments in heavy leather,  fine wools and basic cottons were combined with unique handcrafted pieces  in a palette of dark, earthly tones.  

At Fashion Week Individuals also presented a limited edition collection book which was inspired by a desire to create a time document, which captures the interaction between contemporary fashion and society. The book has been created with the  support of ‘Voordekunst’; a crowd-funding platform that helps young creatives in The Netherlands.

For more pictures of the show click here.

Photograph: Peter Stigter

Five short fashion films will premiere on Tuesday the 24th of January at 21.30 hrs in cinema Het Ketelhuis in Amsterdam. From the 25^th until the 27^th of January the films are viewed at 17:00 hrs, followed by Tom Fords’ ‘A Single Man’. Tickets are 5 euro for the AMFI films and 6 euro for the AMFI films combined with the movie ‘A Single Man’. Tickets can be reserved at the Ketelhuis by phone: 020-6840090.

Students of AMFI’s Fashion and Visual Culture programme were challenged to create innovative fashion images. After ten weeks of photography assignments they started their film projects with a crash course in filmmaking. In less than a week they had to write, produce, shoot, direct and edit a one minute film. On Monday the students had never made a film before and on Friday they presented five short films about fashion and freedom.

The films were sent to the ‘A Shaded View on Fashion Film Festival‘ competition in Barcelona and have a chance to be shown at the festival in January. The films can also be watched on the Fashion and Visual Culture’s You Tube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/AMFIMFVC?feature=watch#p/u

The students are currently working on their last assignment for the Fashion and Visual Culture programme; a three to five minute film inspired by a Dutch fashion designer. These five films will be shown at cinema Het Ketelhuis during the Amsterdam International Fashion Week.

Fine Dining

A short story about two fierce, extravagant women entangled in a silent battle sparked by fashion envy.

Fashion Victim #064327

A boy in a mental institution is medicated by means of clothes instead of drugs. The more clothes the boy gets forced into, the more numb and suffocated he becomes.

Eight AMFI students and alumni were selected to drive the vision of the hotel rooms. They created designs using fashion metaphors. Before “dressing up” began, fabric designs took form under the tutelage of Dutch Studio INA MATT in cooperation with the Dutch Textile Museum. Abiding by a largely organic process, the students drew inspiration from objects like abandoned mattresses, forgotten cardboard boxes and building facades to create unique fabrics to dress the room and waiting areas.

Picture: Heewon Kim

Beyond Tree Hugging is a one-off digital magazine created by fifteen 2nd year AMFI-students about fashion and sustainability. It shows a creative and fun way of looking at the green issues in fashion.

LAYOUT
Katharina Barthel, Lena Dischinger

TEXT
Sjoerd van Beelen, Bibian Bingen, Juliette de Dreu, Ryfa Felicia, Sannah Harman, Rebecca Herrlich, Thomas Lindenmann, Juliette Sijnja, Laura Wagemans.

IMAGES
Jakub Oleskevic, Justin Rahantoknam, Marije Rottier, Sophie Schaminée.

MENTORING
Jean Casimir Morreau, Frank Wijlens

Biomimicry: Garments inspired by nature adapting to the surrounding.

A day of inspiring, big & small ideas, joining forces and having fun saving the planet in a creative way organized by the Amsterdam Fashion Institute for the fifth time.

Being sustainable in a competitive, capitalist and ruthless business, which has profits at heart solely since the industrial revolution, is more than hard. At times it seems basically impossible. The Beyond Green Symposium gives hope that a seemingly impossible task can be accomplished and inspires the future of fashion big time.

Who would have thought that biologically simple plant like the algae could contribute majorly to safe the planet? Creative British minds have accomplished not only to make aesthetically pleasing air fresheners with this multicellular organism, they were also able to mess with its DNA programming to the pint where the plant grows itself into lovely lace. A simple start of a big idea, which could lead the way to, modified plants growing garments by themselves.

Nature can and should serve as the mainspring of inspiration for solutions in the matter of saving the planet. Nature never destroys itself. It works in circles. So should we. By taking natures principles and turn them into design. The magical word is biomimicry. In Carole Collets speech, a French mind set free at Central Saint Martins, it became clear that designers of the future will not only work in ateliers but more so in laboratories. By making se of the intelligence of nature growing haute couture accessories on and with your own skin does not seem to be a loony’s dream so much.

Amazig lace: Algae growing itself into lace

Strolling down the street, promenading your fabulous wardrobe and make the world a cleaner place. A striking thought! The collaboration of a designer and a scientist will make this possible in only a few years. A special treatment of your garments will turn them into air cleansers without altering their appearance. Cities could have fresh air, clean streets and no more of the urinal scent that usually and unfortunately is one of their characteristics.

Not only lies sustainability in the big, it starts with the small things. Amazingly enough by simply wearing weather according clothes and give up on the folly of wearing your summer wardrobe in December a large amount of heating energy can be saved, namely up to 40%.

How is this utopia of a sustainable industry reachable though? It seems like an impossible undertaking, but by taking all the parts of the supply chain into account, pay attention to the small and the big, provoke a shift in profit oriented thinking and most importantly educating the future of the industry, it can be done.

Text by Thomas Lindenmann
Imagery by Marije Rottier

A small injection and your skin grows haute couture accessories.

8 November Beyond Green!

On Tuesday November 8, AMFI will organise Beyond Green for the 5th time. Beyond Green is AMFI’s symposium about sustainability in Fashion. This year the central theme will be Material Mindset. How are the used materials made and how sustainable are the production processes from the Fashion Industry? These (and other) questions will be answered coming Tuesday.

The programme is a bit different from last year. There is a strong educational focus which means that the morning programme is open for everyone, but the afternoon session is only for AMFI-students and teachers. Beyond Green will, like past years, take place in the World Fashion Centre (WFC).

Download PDF of the programma

The participants in the Free Fashion Challenge: a mix of fashion students and professionals, including AMFI teachers Ernestine Koelman, Nannet van der Kleijn and Frank Jurgen Wijlens.

It has been almost a year since 30 fashion addicts stopped buying clothes for a year. Over the last decades fashion has become more and more about consumption; fashion became fast fashion and clothes have become disposable. Aim of the project was to find out what the meaning is of consumption within the definition of fashion – since the participants were not able to shop, they had to be creative in order to be part of fashion.

It has been quite a struggle for some of the participants throughout the year and not all fashion addicts made it to the end. The Free Fashion Challenge got good publicity throughout the year and the website has been a popular read. Next to that about a hundred people applied on the website to participate in the Challenge for a certain period.

On November 11 the Challenge will end with an intimate get together in the By Amfi store and a second generation may then start for their year of non-shopping.The results of this huge shopping detox will be published after November 11; the experiences of the participants may later on be published in a book as well. We will keep you posted! www.freefashionchallenge.com

Facebook event page.

Founder and AMFI-graduate Laura de Jong about the Free Fashion Challenge in an article of Dutch magazine HP-De Tijd.

AMFI-teacher Frank Jurgen Wijlens had an Xtreme Challenge: wear a different outfit every day.