In August 2006, a group of young fashion designers from the Netherlands traveled to the coastal city of Fortaleza, in Northern Brazil. They spent four weeks, working with Brazilian designers and sewers on a clothing line for Palmas Fashion (clothing company from Palmeiras Fortaleza).

What many people don’t know is that the FASHIONCLASH spirit originates from this project. Ten Dutch designers were selected to work with ten Brazilian designers.

Dutch designers: Alei Verspoor, Bazilia Gomes Diaz, Branko Popovic, Fabienne de Moulin, Franciscus van der Meer, Mascha van Wely, Nawie Kuiper, Stefanie Klompenhouwer, Tineke Hopman, Ursula Pelt.

Brazilian designers: Ana Leopoldina SimÃµes Marques, Bruna Guesdes, Catarina Paiva Carneiro, Cristina Pereira Kapazi, Faradiba Lima do Nascimento, Jordao Tome Menezes, Luziara Monticelo, Maria Targlana A. Rocha, Raquel de Aquiak Cordeiro.

After the project Branko Popovic, Nawie Kuiper and Els Petit joined forces with photographer Lisa Klappe to organize an exposition ‘FASHIONCLASH Brazil’ which was presented in the headquarters of DSM in Sittard and Heerlen in 2007. This exhibition showcased the collections, photography (by Lisa Klappe) and the documentary that was created within this project.

The success of this collaboration inspired Nawie Kuiper, Els Petit and Branko Popovic to officially launch the FASHIONCLASH Foundation in 2009 and the very first edition of FASHIONCLASH Maastricht 2009.

Nowadays the leading forces behind FASHIONCLASH are Nawie Kuiper, Laurens Hamacher and Branko Popovic.