Versatile Academy #4: The Power of Storytelling with Priya AhluwaliaVersatile Academy #4: The Power of Storytelling with Priya Ahluwalia

One of the bigger challenges in the fashion industry is post consumer waste. In Rotterdam only, 2 million kilos of textile waste are gathered every year by Opnieuw Goed, the company responsible for sorting the city’s textile containers. Currently, 9% of the material from the containers can be re-used locally. The majority of the gathered textiles is still exported and frequently ends up on the African continent. The stories linked to these secondhand clothes, and the impact they have in the Global South, remain largely intangible for its original owners.

How can stories such as these play a role in generating change in fashion? And what are impactful ways of sharing them?

Yophi Ignacia and Esther Muñoz Grootveld, co-founders of Fashion in Flux, will be moderating the evening. Preceding the interview with Priya Ahluwalia, they will have an inspiring conversation with Rotterdam-based brand agency The Young to share their vision on storytelling, specifically linked to responsible fashion. Throughout the event, The Patchwork Family, a young performative, upcycling fashion collective of Dutch makers, will activate the foyer area of New institute with a custom fashion performance.

The Power of Storytelling is the last in a series of four public events of Versatile Academy, a programme that aims to bridge the gap between small scale fashion labels and textile sorting and recycling companies. During six months, four fashion makers are challenged to dive into the sorting and recycling process, and rethink the ways we find, sort, value and reuse second hand textiles locally.

Versatile Academy is an initiative of Rotterdam-based fashion brand Versatile Forever and is organized in close collaboration with platform Fashion in Flux. The project is supported by sorting- and recycling company Opnieuw Goed, Creative Industry Fund NL and Gemeente Rotterdam. The Power of Storytelling is a pre-event for the Dutch Sustainable Fashion Week 2024 in Rotterdam.

Organized by Versatile Forever in collaboration with Fashion in Flux

Supported by Opnieuw Goed, Nieuwe Instituut, Gemeente Rotterdam, Creative Industry Fund NL

• 19:00 Doors open | Performance by Patchwork Family in the foyer
• 19:30 Live conversation with The Young Agency by Yophi Ignacia and Esther Muñoz Grootveld in the Auditorium
• 20:10 Short break | Performance by Patchwork Family in the foyer
• 20:30 Online interview with Priya Ahluwalia by Yophi Ignacia and Esther Muñoz Grootveld in the Auditorium
• 21:30 Q&A with the audience in the Auditorium
• 22:00 Drinks in the Nieuwe Café | Performance by Patchwork Family in the foyer
• 23:00 End of programme

Priya Ahluwalia is a fashion designer, filmmaker and founder of multi-award winning fashion brand Ahluwalia. Inspired by art, music and literature, much of the work created by Ahluwalia goes beyond her collections and includes collaborative campaigns, books and films. Through her namesake brand, Ahluwalia shares stories inspired by her dual Indian-Nigerian heritage and London roots and lifestyle, and explores the life of vintage and dead-stock materials, using textile techniques to give them a new life.

The Young is a Rotterdam based global agency for brand development. They help brands to unlock their emotional power through immersive research, tangible strategy, imaginative design and communication. Their client base includes global brands such as Footlocker and Gucci, as well as local change makers such as Nen Xavier and C.Cruden.

The Patchwork Family is a community of recent fashion graduates, united in their unwavering support for one another throughout every step of their creative and commercial development. They believe in community over competition, want to lower the bar of entry for young designers, and give sustainable design talent the stage they deserve. They have collaborated with organizations such as Depot of Boijmans van Beuningen, Humanoid, Club Church and Fashion For Good and Fashion Revolution.