From 13 to 15 November 2026, FASHIONCLASH Festival returns for its 18th edition. This international, multidisciplinary fashion festival offers a stage at various locations across Maastricht to more than 100 emerging talents from over 25 countries: a new generation of designers, artists and performers. For three days, the programme features performances, exhibitions, fashion shows, fashion films, workshops, talks, parties and participatory projects.
The opening programme on Friday 13 November takes place in the Sphinxkwartier. It starts with the opening of the exhibition New Fashion Narratives at Bureau Europa, followed by the Fashion Film Program with premieres and an awards ceremony at Lumière Cinema. Next comes a special, free fashion show in the long Sphinx Passage, featuring work by young designers and by Teigetje & Woelrat. The evening ends with the opening party at The Social Hub.
Other programme highlights include The CLASH House (fashion performances) and CLASHLAB in the Peutzhal at ENCI, the participatory programme Fashion Makes Sense at Centre Céramique, the experimental project Amarte x FASHIONCLASH at Jan van Eyck Academie, the Class of 2026 at The Social Hub, and a large number of presentations at locations throughout the city. Together, they offer a multifaceted view of contemporary fashion culture.
FASHIONCLASH Festival is accessible to everyone, through ticket sales and free programme components. For more information about the programme, participants and tickets, visit www.fashionclash.nl
Campaign 2026 by Hashim Nasr
The campaign for FASHIONCLASH Festival 2026 was developed by Hashim Nasr. In surreal, avant-garde imagery, he brings together African and Middle Eastern cultural traditions. Traditional symbols, clothing, rituals and objects are transformed into dreamlike stories in which memory, mythology and contemporary identity blur into one another. By combining diverse cultural references in symbolic scenes, the project creates a space where heritage is not only preserved but also reimagined. Through conceptual photography and carefully constructed visual narratives, the campaign celebrates the cultural connections between different regions. At the same time, it explores themes such as belonging, transformation and collective imagination, showing how art can be experienced and interpreted from different cultural perspectives.
Hashim Nasr is a Sudanese visual artist and photographer based in Alexandria, Egypt. Originally trained as a dentist, he uses staged images and handmade objects to explore themes such as displacement, memory, exile and gender identity. His recent projects focus on experiences of war and migration. His work has been exhibited and published nationally and internationally.
FASHIONCLASH Festival – PROGRAMME
New Fashion Narratives – Fleshy, wobbly, slimy @ Bureau Europa | 13, 14, 15 November
New Fashion Narratives is one of the festival’s core programmes. The exhibition is curated by Jamal Nxedlana, Karmen Samson, Welmoed Bosch and Agatha Prieto Jeanty. Their curatorial concept, Fleshy, slimy, wobbly, presents work that resists being pinned down: work that leaks, mutates and resists easy categorisation. The four fashion makers developed the concept during a Residency Week in April 2026, aiming to challenge the dominant systems of the fashion industry and to make room for shapeshifting practices that move between forms and escape fixed labels. In this way, the exhibition reveals the formless, tactile and unruly side of fashion: a grotesque and fascinating tribute to everything that refuses to be neatly framed.
A number of works show how this curatorial concept comes to life.
Ida Stachura’s SCANDAL DO IT YOURSELF takes Pola Negri, Hollywood’s first European superstar, as its starting point, treating scandal as something that can be staged and used for self-invention, in a collection built on DIY and papercraft aesthetics. Ping Chen’s Thing in Itself, rooted in memories of his great-grandfather, combines tailoring with reversible and modular structures to reconsider masculinity through everyday gestures of care and domestic labour. Justin Jacob’s FLESH AS CURRENCY turns anonymous Grindr profiles into posthuman garments, asking what happens when bodies become data, images and currency. Robbeduz & Valentina Gal’s Children of Zeus X Troubled Waters is a living exhibition of water and sculptures that leads visitors into a mythical swamp. Aurore Montagner’s Les Belles Entravées is a collection created together with imprisoned women at Rennes Prison, who collectively imagined a wardrobe shaped by freedom and escape. Jessica Laures’s COIL turns stereotypes around gender performance into methods of restriction, exposing the strain behind the battle for autonomy. Hillz studio’s The First Potato uses discarded workwear to explore family hierarchy around the dinner table, and Johannes Hartmann’s semi couture (wiener papierkörbe 30486) dresses Vienna’s street bins as the new mannequins.
During the opening, a number of participants will present performative activations. On Saturday 14 November, there is a special Q&A with designer Marga Weimans, held within the curatorial context, and on Sunday 15 November a lecture by Studio Paul & Haiko.
New Fashion Narratives participants: Alper & Tim, Aurore Montagner, AKPIL, Cement Blanche, Giles Shepherd, Gloria Tomassucci, Gouled Ahmed, Ida Stachura, Isa Herrera and Maizie, Jessica Laures, C.PROTOCOL, Johannes Hartmann, Josiane Martinho, Julia Mazur, Justin Jacob, Martijntje Cornelia, Marga Weimans, Mia Bøgedal, Özgür Deniz Koldaş, Studio Paul & Haiko, Ping Chen, Robbeduz & Valentina Gal, Rosan Olij, NNAEJ, Hillz studio, Xanthe Pölk, Liew & Wang.
The CLASH House @ ENCI Maastricht | Saturday 14 November
The CLASH House, the fashion performance programme, is one of the highlights of the festival and takes place on Saturday evening 14 November in the impressive Peutzhal at ENCI. Ten designers were selected for a development trajectory of coaching and making sessions, in which they experimented with performative forms to translate the story of their collection into an alternative presentation. During the evening, they will all present their collections in the form of a performance.
Thanks to the support of the Meester Koetsier Foundation, an incentive prize of €2,500 will be awarded to one of the participants. The prize is presented by an international jury panel. In addition, there is the FASHIONCLASH Festival 2026 TIM Award, a development prize supported by Textile Innovation Maastricht, worth up to €1,500 excl. VAT. The prize includes access to the machinery and knitting facilities at Qeske Maastricht, expert guidance and materials to further develop the winning design.
Participants: Nouka Rous, Paco Teepe, Isa Hazelager, Anna Strengers, Emma Magermans, Larissa de Jager, Dies van Herk, Amy Pratt, Aron Saxe Lydon and Soojeong Lee.
CLASHLAB: pre-programme to The CLASH House
CLASHLAB brings together makers from fashion, dance and music as equal creative partners. Rather than placing one discipline in service of another, they work together from the start, allowing their ideas, methods and practices to influence and challenge one another. For the 2026 edition, fashion designer Teun Seuren, choreographer Daniëlle Huyghe and musician Nader Adabnejad come together during a two-week residency to develop a short performance. The outcome is not defined in advance: through experimentation and exchange, the three makers discover what emerges from the encounter between their different disciplines.
CLASHLAB is a collaboration between FASHIONCLASH, Musica Sacra, Nederlandse Dansdagen, SALLY, Intro in Situ, schrit_tmacher Festival, Munttheater and Via Zuid, creating space for artistic experimentation, talent development and cross-disciplinary collaboration. CLASHLAB is made possible in part by Stichting Kanunnik Salden and De Hustinx Stichting.
Afterparty @ ENCI Maastricht| Saturday 14 November
Childhood Fantasies, Surreal Realities
The FASHIONCLASH Festival Afterparty is not just a party, but an interdisciplinary and co-creative platform for community, encounter and expression. Under the theme ‘Childhood Fantasies, Surreal Realities’, the dance floor is transformed into a surreal world of childhood memories, fantasy and self-expression.
Expect DJs, spoken word performances by Puss’ Poetry, a performance by multidisciplinary artist Feliz, a fashion show by TEARS.RIP (independent cult clothing and streetwear brand from Heerlen) and the presence of La Monroy with Colossal Horizons. A Festive Requiem for Pedro Antonio Cano.
Dress code: come dressed as the person, creature, fantasy or memory you always dreamed of becoming. Bring your favourite plushy.
Fashion Film Program @ Lumière Cinema | 13,14, 15 November
The film programme at Lumière Cinema offers a stage to designers and filmmakers experimenting with the short fashion film. The programme features a selection of 44 short films from different countries, which together present a diverse and rich picture of perspectives, disciplines, cultures and stories: a multimedia journey of documentaries, digital and experimental films, travelling from Mongolia to South Africa and from Italy to surreal digital spaces.
On Thursday evening 12 November, in collaboration with Lumière Cinema, we screen the film The Designer Is Dead about Miguel Adrover, a visionary designer who revolutionised the New York fashion scene through his radical commitment to multiculturalism, sustainability and political expression.
On Friday evening, the six finalists are presented and the jury, consisting of Marcel Schlutt, Alex van der Steen, Esther Muñoz Grootveld, Katie Metcalfe and Gloria Maria Cappelletti, presents the FASHIONCLASH Festival 2026 Fashion Film Award and the Kaltblut Magazine Award. During the festival, two films produced by FASHIONCLASH will also premiere, TRAMPANTOJO and THE INVINCIBLE, both emerging from the Fashion Film development trajectory.
Fashion Film Program participants: Christos Panagiotou, Sofia Ivanova Kozhevnikova, Izzy Mana, Emma Evelein, Storm Nijhuis & Denise Bakker, Ida Boxem & Claudia Sanchez, Alyne Li & Qiyun Zheng, Jodi Cranen & Yorvique Macaay, Javi Bisbal, Naranjargal Enkhbat, Inez Carmen van Kessel, Polina Kulbachevskaia, Alessandro Amaducci, Aron Saxe, Michal Kucharski, Will Venter, Guus Bos, Adam & Nick Hayes, Zhenia Kazankina, Yiwei Huang, Emma Hakansson, Vittoria Mengoni, Lei Jiang, Hildegard Oehler & Stee van Stark, Cenyi Wang, Christophe ChudY, Anastasia Popescu & Noa Schraven, Hannah Varnell, Jordan Harvey, Sylwia Nazzal & Jad Maq, Kees de Klein, Marco Blazevic & Meike van Lelyveld, Victor Claramunt, Adam Muscat, Isa Carmejoole, Karisma Oluchukwu Ekeh, Sara Del Barba, Shako, Maria Nazarova, Julian Achilles Pawlak & Daniel Le Hai, Luigi Dalena, Yayra David Agbofah, Gina Siliquini, Luciënne Venner, Juul Sadée, Kalon Films (Will Venter).
Amarte × FASHIONCLASH @ Jan van Eyck Academie | 13,14, 15 November
Amarte Fonds and FASHIONCLASH join forces once again to give artists from different disciplines the opportunity to experiment with fashion and present new work during FASHIONCLASH Festival. Through an open call, four artists were selected, each with an intrinsic desire to collaborate with a fashion designer and engage with the fashion context. They were paired with a fashion designer and invited to experiment. Discover new installations and performances in which fashion clashes with poetry, classical music and performance art.
Theatre maker Mira Verhoeve, who took part in the project in 2024, returns with a preview of Change the Guards, an exploration of a queer girl’s body growing up amidst the military and patriarchal traditions of her forefathers. It is a personal object-performance about tradition, (male) dress-up and community.
Participants: Arian x Peishan, Hsin x Pauline, Anto López Espinosa x Berend Brus, ULTRA-ORA x RADVLAD, Mira Verhoeve.
Fashion Makes Sense – Participation Programme @ Centre Céramique | 3 – 22 November
Fashion Makes Sense is FASHIONCLASH’s ongoing participation programme. It develops projects around social design, inclusion and education, often in collaboration between professionals and semi-professionals or amateurs, with special attention to young people.
The exhibition on the third floor of Centre Céramique, which has been open since 3 November, presents the results of various participation projects. These include the co-creative project TexTiles, developed as part of Het Maastricht Jaar 2026: a community art project in which hundreds of people create individual textile tiles that come together as a collective artwork, inspired by the Maastricht Treaty and by the stories, perspectives and connections of the people of Maastricht.
The programme also features a presentation by Ecopolitan Magazine, the work of Kunstbende Fashion winner Yani Jongen, and costumes from the Stadsparade Helden, created by students of Scenography & Costume Design at Toneelacademie Maastricht. Throughout the weekend, visitors can join making workshops and explore different ways of engaging with fashion, materials and sustainability.
On Sunday afternoon 15 November, the Fashion Makes Sense Talk, moderated by Jonas Zitter of the Kledingcast platform, brings together participating designers and artists to reflect on their experiences in one of the projects.
Class of 2026, exhibitions, fashion show, Talk @ The Social Hub| 13, 14, 15 November
For the second year, FASHIONCLASH x The Social Hub Maastricht brings fashion and emerging talent to the heart of the Sphinxkwartier, with two presentations spread throughout the building. In the Social Hub Atrium, an additional showcase highlights a new generation of designers, while the lobby presents an exhibition featuring the work of five makers.
As part of the festival’s opening programme, a fashion show takes place in the Sphinx Passage, featuring work by some of the participants from the exhibition and a special guest runway by Teigetje & Woelrat.
Class of 2026 presents a selection of emerging designers who graduated in 2026 from seven different academies. What connects this diverse group of young makers is their commitment to storytelling through fashion, drawing on personal heritage, cultural memory, experimental techniques and social commentary. Each designer transforms intimate experiences and critical questions into wearable narratives that challenge conventional fashion systems.
In addition, there is a talk on the topic of upcycling, organised by Cristina Palacios and centred around the documentary by Kantamanto Social Club.
Participants: Anne Prins, Arthur Wagenaar, Casper Naafs, Elia Anania, Nia Millano, JJAYCE, Kaat van Spaendonck, Kelly Cecilie Foss, Mare Langen, ROOS adjustable design (RAD), ROZE GOUD, Storm Nijhuis / Hellion Sin, Azzurra Ruimschotel, Berber Struiksma, Josquin Fromangé, Sarah Palomares, Tara de Smit.
And there’s so much more! | 13, 14, 15 November
Beyond the main festival venues, FASHIONCLASH invites visitors to discover fashion across Maastricht through (mostly free) exhibitions, installations, talks and other activities at various locations throughout the city.
- S.A.C.59 / Space for Art & Culture (Rechtstraat): a group exhibition with work by Piet Paris, Seeing Black and Dre Drevens, bringing together different perspectives on fashion and visual culture.
- Limestone Books: a talk with Anouk Beckers, Iris de Leeuw and Harm Stevens, moderated by Tonya Studiono, centred around SpeesBookLookPak, a wearable publication and legible garment for the playful human of all time. You can also discover work by Maya Gawel there.
- Townhouse Design Hotel: sustainable and innovative designer Ruben Jurriën presents his work. On Saturday 14 November, 3:00 – 4:00 pm, he also gives a Designer Talk on all sizes, exploring questions around size, fashion and inclusivity.
- Galerie Post + García: the FASHIONCLASH collection by Teigetje & Woelrat dives into a world of checkered patterns, contrasting knitwear and leather, and a playful, carnivalesque aesthetic. The collection explores the space between contemporary design and the theatrical spirit of carnival, using bright colours and extravagant gestures. All pieces are designed and made by the four designers and makers of the studio, from the initial thread to the final hand-finished details.
- Boekhandel Dominicanen and De Bijenkorf: discover costumes from the Stadsparade Helden, created by local fashion designers.
- Bonnefantenmuseum: the museum invites the young generation of performing artists, students of Toneelacademie Maastricht, to respond to the exhibition Cooking from the Fridge: an entire floor of surprising, thought-provoking and layered presentations, featuring a mix of painting, photography, film and video, installations and sculpture.
About FASHIONCLASH Festival
FASHIONCLASH Festival is an annual fashion manifestation and springboard for makers who operate at the intersection of fashion, performance, visual art and social design. They question the status quo and show how fashion can function both as an art form and as a societal instrument. The programme is compiled on the basis of open calls and co-productions, in collaboration with various (inter)national partners and communities. With its focus on talent development, boundary-pushing work and active audience participation, FASHIONCLASH contributes to an inclusive, multivocal and future-oriented fashion practice. The festival is accessible to a broad audience through ticket sales and free programme components.
Watch the aftermovie of the previous edition here:
Instagram: @fashionclash_festival | @fashionclash_foundation
FASHIONCLASH Festival is made possible in part by the support of Province of Limburg, Municipality of Maastricht, Dutch Creative Industries Fund (Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie), Fonds Cultuurparticipatie, Cultuurfonds (in part thanks to the E.G. Bakker-Swart Fonds), VSB Fonds, Meester Koetsier Foundation, Townhouse Hotels, The Social Hub, ENCI Maastricht, Bureau Europa, Centre Céramique, Blanche Dael, Art of Colors, Living Things, S.A.C.59, Galerie Post + García, Jan van Eyck Academie, FashionUnited, Kaltblut Magazine, Chapeau Magazine, Curation Hour, Marketing Maastricht and many other partners.
