This JOIN Collective Clothes workshop at De Appel is part of a series of workshops by Anouk Beckers in which everyone is invited to make a piece of a garment.

The base of JOIN Collective Clothes is a modular clothing system that consists of four different shapes which can be combined into a full outfit (a sleeve, a top, a trouser leg and a part of a skirt). At the end of the workshop, the results from the participants are joined into one complete outfit. The process of the workshop is playful, but at the same time it critically questions the characteristics of the fashion system exploring ownership, identity, (intellectual) property, production methods, alienation, mystification and value creation in fashion together.

Initiator Anouk Beckers on JOIN Collective Clothes: “What if we open up the fashion system and explore it as a non-fixed entity, a system where people can playfully join in, where everyone is invited to create fashion together?”

The fashion industry focuses mostly on designer status, brand identity, commodities as magical results of invisible processes and an adoration of values such as originality and ‘the new’. And although it is often perceived as something that is not for everyone, fashion surely is a collective practice. By making and wearing clothes together, the design and research project JOIN Collective Clothes proposes fashion as a collective practice. Besides joining one of the workshop, an easy-to-use open source can be downloaded at www.joincollectiveclothes.com/manual. The pieces made by various makers from all over the world form an ever-growing collection that can be seen on the JOIN Collective Clothes website.

JOIN Collective Clothes is an initiative by Anouk Beckers in collaboration with graphic designer and art director Beau Bertens.