+++ fully digitally developed collections +++ fashion made of light and motion +++ MAKERSPACE Schneeberg as a creative development lab +++
FashionTEX presents Europe’s most extraordinary holographic fashion show at Fabrique des Lumières Amsterdam
Amsterdam, 20 November 2025: FashionTEX, the European flagship project for digital fashion development and education, together with Future Front Row, has unveiled a runway experience that redefines the limits of what is possible: the “Future Front Row × FashionTEX Holographic Runway Show.” At the iconic Fabrique des Lumières in Amsterdam, the audience experienced fully digitally designed collections created by emerging talents from eleven European partner universities not on a traditional runway, but as impressive holographic performances that transformed fashion into a pure interplay of light, digital form, and motion.
“It is fascinating to see fashion become pure light,” says Cristiano Caraciani, Director of the Amsterdam Fashion Academy and initiator of the show. “This evening demonstrated how powerful the connection between digital and physical worlds can be, and which entirely new aesthetics emerge when fashion is conceived digitally from the very beginning.”
A European laboratory for the future of fashion: MAKERSPACE Schneeberg 2025
The showcased collections were created at MAKERSPACE Schneeberg, a two-week international residency program led by FashionTEX. Here, students from eleven European countries worked entirely digitally for the first time, using CLO3D, virtual material libraries, VR/AR technologies, and advanced 3D textile and smart-textile tools.
Many described their time in Schneeberg as “more intense than an entire semester.” One of the most moving moments for participants was seeing their digital designs later appear on stage as life-sized holographic avatars surprisingly realistic, aesthetically new, and more emotional than they ever expected.
Fabrique des Lumières: Where technology becomes art
In Amsterdam, this digital work reached its spectacular climax. The largest immersive art center in the Netherlands transformed into a breathtaking stage with its towering, high-resolution projection surfaces, allowing avatars to glide effortlessly across a holographic runway.
“The Fabrique des Lumières is a place where technology becomes art,” Caraciani emphasizes. “That is exactly what we wanted to make visible: fashion as a medium of the future—no longer bound to fabric or material. This show makes it unmistakably clear how essential digital skills will be for the next generation of fashion designers.”
A milestone in the FashionTEX year
The holographic show represents a major highlight of the FashionTEX annual program. Earlier in November, students had already presented their physically crafted garments in the European Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025, accompanied by their digital avatars on a large screen. Amsterdam built on this concept and showed the direction the industry is headed: toward hybrid presentation formats, digital collaboration, and a new European creative culture.
About FashionTEX
FashionTEX is an EU-funded higher education project dedicated to driving the digital transformation of fashion education. Its mission is to develop innovative teaching methods, collaborative approaches, and new digital competencies to prepare fashion design students for the industry of the future. Eleven universities from eleven countries including Italy, Latvia, Estonia, Croatia, Poland, Germany, Portugal, Ukraine, Lithuania, and the Netherlands work together on new curricula, digital tools, and hybrid learning environments. Key focus areas include 3D design, virtual collaboration, sustainability & circularity, and critical engagement with technological developments in the fashion sector.
Central to the project is the creation of local digital ateliers creative future labs where students can explore and experiment with technologies such as CLO3D, AR/VR, 3D scanning, and AI-driven design workflows. The initiative is complemented by the annual FashionTEX Festival, which showcases student work and fosters dialogue with industry, policymakers, and the wider public. Through its transnational approach, FashionTEX aims not only to modernize fashion education but also to establish a new European understanding of how the fashion of tomorrow is created. More information: www.fashiontex.eu
