Daniëlle Bruggeman inaugurates as associate professor of Fashion and Sustainability at Radboud University

Daniëlle Bruggeman today delivers her inaugural address as extraordinary professor of Fashion and Sustainability at Radboud University in Nijmegen. Bruggeman has been a lecturer in Fashion at ArtEZ since 2017 and also teaches in the master’s programme Critical Fashion Practices. She is also a member of the NewTexEco programme team. In April 2024, she was appointed extraordinary professor at Radboud University’s Faculty of Arts. Her appointment marks an important step in the cooperation between ArtEZ and Radboud, which jointly aim to approach sustainability from the perspective of art and science.

Inaugural address: attention and solidarity
In her speech “Stitches of Care: Practising Solidarity through Fashion”, Bruggeman argues for a shift in the fashion industry, from a consumption-driven system to a focus on attention and solidarity. “Fashion does not always have to be about creating new products, but can also, for example, be about repairing existing garments with an eye for the stories they carry,” Bruggeman said. She stressed the importance of fashion as a means of human connection, where clothing is not just a product as it is often treated in the fast-paced industrial system, but above all a social and cultural carrier of meaning.
We need to look beyond the transactional, industrial approach of the capitalist fashion industry and create space for alternative ways of making and wearing fashion.”

Book Practising Solidarity
At the oration, she will also present the book Practising Solidarity, a publication she co-authored with Troy Nachtigall, also a programme member of NewTecEco, and other fashion makers, artists and scientists. The book explores how fashion can contribute to sustainability and solidarity and offers alternative approaches that go beyond the current industrial mindset of the fashion industry. It aligns with Bruggeman’s vision of redefining fashion as a practice of care and responsibility.

Collaboration between ArtEZ and Radboud University
Bruggeman is looking forward to the collaboration: “I look forward to bringing art and science and practice and theory closer together”. Her work as lecturer in Fashion at ArtEZ and her new position at Radboud University provide the space to further shape fashion research and education with an emphasis on sustainability, solidarity and ecological responsibility.