CFA - CONTEMPORARY FASHION ARCHIVE

The CFA - Contemporary Fashion Archive is an international project addressing contemporary fashion design. Six renowned European fashion institutions join forces to establish a unique information network, which detects and presents current positions and developments in fashion design. This information network consists of an Internet platform with a digital archive and local documentation centres located at the different institutions of the partners in question.

Collections and projects of international curated fashion and accessories designers will be presented who work experimentally and innovatively such as Helmut Lang, Walter van Beirendonck, Martin Margiela, Viktor&Rolf or BLESS. The ever increasing connections between fashion design and neighbouring creative fields such as photography, industrial design, graphic and web design, styling, architecture and contemporary music are highlighted and documented. In addition, relevant institutions, magazines and exhibitions are presented.

Since May 2002, the CFA has been set up as a European cooperation project. It has been awarded funding as an exemplary project in the area of fashion by the European Union in the context of the Commissions' culture program Culture 2000. The grant has been based on the project's clever use of modern communication technologies for the aesthetic world of fashion and design.


Contemporary Fashion Design - New Media - Networks

The role of the so-called new media in fashion has created a new position in the field of visual culture since the mid 90ies, dramatically expanding the scope of design of fashion designers. Its use has reinstated fashion's position within the arts as a field of experimentation and created a vehicle for a new range of aesthetic, conceptual, technological and cooperative practices. Consequently, the visual mediation and presentation of fashion has changed drastically: it no longer is mediated exclusively through the object of the "garment", but involves the use and inclusion of new media and extensive international networks.

Contemporary fashion designers are increasingly forming solid alliances with neighbouring disciplines and thereby acting as catalysts for a wide range of artistic cooperations. Examples are the development of the counter for the shop of Walter van Beirendonck by Marc Newson, Marc Borthwick`s video for the presentation of a collection by Martin Margiela or the cooperation of the Austrian designteam _____fabrics interseason with musicians for the presentation of their collections.

As a consequence, a timely ascertainment of the subject demands a reaction to new working methods as well as the fundamental change of perception and reception of contemporary fashion design. It is paramount that all means employed by fashion designers are included. In this sense, the concept of the CFA - Contemporary Fashion Archive distinguishes itself from the structures of other existing fashion collections.


Selection - Research - Presentation

The CFA - Contemporary Fashion Archive will collect, archivate and present information on designers, their recent collections, projects and networks. As the archive's curators, the cooperation partners are responsible for the selection. The emphasis and governing guideline lies on designers that have set trend-setting impulses for the development of fashion design.

The networks of these designers, the connections and cooperations with adjacent disciplines such as photography, styling, industrial design, graphic design, web design, architecture, theory, electronic music, as well as agents such as fashion institutions, training posts, museums, press agencies, exhibitions and magazines will also be documented. By showing these international networks of persons and institutions, the CFA - Contemporary Fashion Archive simultaneously acts as a cooperation project of the renowned fashion and educational institutions involved.

The researched and gathered material will be accessible worldwide through an online platform and locally through the documentation centres of the cooperation partners. Official language of the archive is English, relevant basic information and profile texts will be available in German, French, Dutch and Italian, as well. Among the collected information are texts, visual, video, audio and digital material, as well as documentation of artistic work such as books, catalogues and media coverage. The research is conducted in direct contact with the selected designers and in collaboration with libraries, fashion institutions and museums.


Potentential CFA users

The CFA content is directed towards all interested in culture, art and fashion, the broad public and experts: fashion designers and creatives from adjacent fields, institutions and training posts in fashion and persons active therein, fashion professionals, students, academic experts and journalists.


Project Partners

Unit F Association for Contemporary Fashion, Vienna (A)
Unit F association for contemporary fashion is a Vienna-based information-, communication- and co-ordination point for fashion designers, the corporate world, science and culture. Unit F defines fashion as a cultural discourse, as well as, an economic factor. Central to all activities of Unit F stands the mediation of contemporary fashion design and the promotion of Austrian fashion designers.

Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London (GB)
Central Saint Martins is one of the most important and traditional training posts for contemporary fashion in Great Britain. Aside from the renowned fashion classes, the college is also highly respected as an educational facility and scientific research institution in the fields of applied arts, fashion, graphic and 3D design, theatre and performances, as well as, interdisciplinary arts.

Flanders Fashion Institute, Antwerp (B)
The goal of the Flanders Fashion Institute is to promote and further establish the Belgian fashion scene. In September 2002, the ModeNatie building was opened: a unique fashion institute housing a fashion college, a museum, a library, an archive, a forum, and the Flanders Fashion Institute which had an substantial role in the planning and execution of the ModeNatie. This building offers a unique platform for students, designers, fashion aficionados and the entire industry.

Fashion Institute Arnhem, Amsterdam (NL)
The Fashion Institute Arnhem is a mobile training post for young designers, as well as, an information hub for Dutch fashion design. By exposing their master class to the business reality of the fashion industry, students learn the hard facts of professional life first hand and thus are given an insight to the dynamics of the international fashion world while still in training.

University of Applied Sciences, Pforzheim (D)
In 1978, the traditional University of Applied Sciences saw the founding of a fashion curriculum. Soon an international profile was established. Right from the start a clear goal of the fashion class was to train highly qualified designers who are flexible enough to incorporate adjacent areas professionally as well as creatively.

Festival International des Arts de la Mode, Hyères (F)
Since it's founding 15 years ago, the annual festival held in the small village of Hyères in the South of France has established itself internationally as a stepping-stone for up and coming designers from all over the world. Within this time span, over 250 first collections and the same number of designers from all over the world have been presented. The Festival Hyères regards itself as a catalyst for creative energy and has evolved into an event frequented by insiders from all areas of the fashion industry.

Associated Partners:
University of Applied Arts, Vienna (A), Fashion Institute of Technology, New York (USA), Musee de la Mode et du Costume, Paris (F), MoMu, Antwerp (B), Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp (B), Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim (D), Studio Artista, Budapest (H), Oumou Sy, Dakar (SEN), Discipline, Tokyo (JAP).