The second edition of the Arnhem Fashion Biennale is open! The biennale programme unfolds at several venues in Arnhem, turning the city into a hub of fashion throughout the month of June. More than 10,000 m2 of fashion experiences have been created under the theme of ‘Arnhem Fashion Biennale 2007 is Happy!' The biennale's artistic director, Piet Paris, puts it in a nutshell: ‘The event is twice as long, we're twice as big, and twice as wonderful!' Programme highlights include the longest catwalk in the Netherlands, the ‘Fashion with a Mission' show, the biennale shows (14 and 17 June), and the ArtEZ graduation shows (28 and 29 June).

The biennale programme is spread across three main venues: the Arnhem Museum of Modern Art (MMKA), the Rietveld Building of the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts, and De Steenfabriek, a former brickworks on the banks of the Rhine. A pleasant promenade interconnects these three key locations. The multitude of participating designers and artists is an exciting combination of renowned couturiers and more autonomous fashion designers, ranging from established haute couture names such as John Galliano, Lanvin, Viktor & Rolf and Maison Martin Margiela to independent designers that include ThreeAsFour, Cassette Playa, Henrik Vibskov, Rodarte, Cathy Pill, KIND, Sandra Backlund, Peter Pilotto, Romain Kremer, Basso & Brooke and Bernhard Willhelm. The fashion biennale is devised and programmed by the internationally renowned fashion illustrator Piet Paris and his co-curator JOFF.

The Arnhem Fashion Biennale presents the latest international developments in fashion design every two years, informing, surprising and inspiring professional visitors as well as the broader public. Exhibitions, fashion shows, films, workshops, performances, publications and symposia turn the spotlight on fashion design as well as the socio-cultural aspects of this applied art. Arnhem Fashion Biennale is a meeting place where leading creative talents, the fashion industry and the broader public can encounter each other. The fashion biennale is an initiative of the City of Arnhem and ArtEZ Institute of the Arts. Fortis is the main sponsor of Arnhem Fashion Biennale 2007, and Essent, PricewaterhouseCoopers and G-Star are valued partners.

More than 10,000 m2 of fashion experiences
The Arnhem Museum of Modern Art (MMKA) is the heavenly portal to the main exhibition: ‘Welcome to the world of Happy Fashion'. The museum forms the backdrop for a fairytale exhibition that transports the visitors to a place of joy and happiness with rainbow roses, musical boxes, butterflies and fountains.
Visitors leave this part of the exhibition via the gardens of the museum to continue the fashion adventure in the Rietveld Building of the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts, where workshops for an international contingent of post-graduate fashion students are being held throughout the month. There is also an exhibition about illustration and fashion design, and in the film ‘The future of happiness', students from ArtEZ's MA course in Fashion, Design and Strategy offer their insight into the fashion of the future.
Visitors then catch a ferry across the river to the beating heart of the biennale, De Steenfabriek, where the world of a new generation of designers unfolds in a great expanse of industrial heritage. Clothing and art are exhibited in a continuum of landscapes, the surfacing visitors walk on transforming from washing powder via mattresses via mirrors to bird-seed. De Steenfabriek also provides the stage for a series of lectures, ballets specially choreographed for the fashion biennale by Introdans, the ‘You Wear It Well' film programme by fashion journalist Diane Pernet, a pop music and performance programme with international acts, and a colourful array of fashion shows.

Arnhem goes Neapolitan for a month
The ‘happy fashion' vibe is also palpable in Arnhem city centre. The fashionable invasion of the city centre includes the open-air exhibition, ‘The washing lines of Naples'. Inspired by laundry hung to dry above the alleyways of Naples, more than 100 laps of cloth have been pegged to steel cables above Arnhem's shopping streets. The London-based ‘Fashion in Film Festival' has programmed a special selection of films to be screened in the Focus Filmtheater Arnhem. The highly popular ‘longest catwalk' of the inaugural biennale made its return in the guise of ‘The Never-Ending Catwalk': a spectacular, 1.5-kilometre fashion parade through the heart of the city. This second edition of the biennale is truly for everyone! Exuberant and cheerful public events receive the same emphasis as the presentations for the professional public.The price of admission for the three main venues is €8.00.