The Driving Force of Pride

This talk was given at .

About Martijn van Strien (NL)

The worlds of fashion and science might be assumed to be on 2 opposite ends of the universe, but Martijn van Strien is well on his way to assemble them together into one perfect harmony.

This fashion designer graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven, specialising in textile design and trend forecasting, with not one but two graduate projects—‘Threads for Cockaigne’ and ‘Dystopian Brutalist Outerwear’—that received international praise and recognition. The first one inspired by the craftsmanship from Medieval tales, and the other exploring the future and ‘sustainable’ adaptation of textile design.

After working for Bruno Pieter’s label 'Honest' in Antwerp, he moved to Rotterdam, where he started his own studio in 2014. Van Strien tries to combine fashion design with modern technologies in order to bring innovative ideas into the world of fashion. He tests radical different approaches to garment design, production, and consumption, to change our perception and open possibilities for a more sustainable industry. In 2015, he started the Post-Couture Collective, an open-source project that spawned the first maker-space community for garments, providing people with the chance to produce their own clothing using lasercutters and 3D-printers. Merging science, architecture, and style, Martijn van Strien is the living proof that standing still is never an option in fashion.