On November 20, 2025, FashionTEX showcased what the future feels like at the Fabrique des Lumières in Amsterdam: luminous, dynamic, and boundless. Together with Future Front Row, they created Europe’s most extraordinary holographic fashion show, a moment where fashion is no longer made of fabric, but of light, digital form, and pure expression. The collections, developed by emerging talents from 11 European partner universities, were not presented on a traditional runway. Instead, they floated as holographic avatars across a transparent screen, so realistic that one forgot they didn’t originate from the analog world. “It’s fascinating to see how fashion becomes pure light,” says Cristiano Caraciani, Director of the Amsterdam Fashion Academy, describing the magical effect of this presentation.

Where creativity breathes digitally: the MAKERSPACE Schneeberg

The origin of these visionary designs lies in the MAKERSPACE Schneeberg, a two-week international residency program by FashionTEX in the Chemnitz 2025 European Capital of Culture region. Here, the students worked exclusively digitally for the first time. They experimented with CLO3D, virtual material libraries, VR/AR technologies, and innovative smart textile tools. For many, this work was a boundary-pushing experience—intense, challenging, and transformative. And when they later saw their digital models as life-size holograms, they spoke of a moment that changed their understanding of fashion forever, as August Oster, a fashion student at the Amsterdam Fashion Academy, describes his experience in the FashionTEX project. For him, fashion can be emotional, even without ever having been sewn.

The Fabrique des Lumières, a space that makes fashion shine

In Amsterdam, this digital design found its perfect platform. The Fabrique des Lumières, the largest immersive art center in the Netherlands, was transformed into a monumental projection landscape. Here, art and technology merged into a stage where avatars glided like real beings across the brightly lit catwalk. “Fashion becomes a medium of the future here,” says Caraciani. “We are witnessing how digital skills expand creativity—and how Europe is showcasing its design prowess.”

A Milestone for Fashion Education in Europe

The holographic runway show is part of a whole year of FashionTEX, which is bringing digital transformation to European fashion education. As early as the beginning of November, students presented their physically crafted designs, accompanied by their digital avatars, in Chemnitz, the 2025 European Capital of Culture. In Amsterdam, it became clear where this path leads: to a future in which fashion is reimagined – free, digital, networked, and full of emotion.