fashion

“It is a story about a long night, about everything that disappears during the day and only comes out after dusk.” Polish fashion designer Pat Guzik breathes new life into her garments by collaborating with visual artists, such as Aleksandra Waliszewska and Zbiok Czajkowski, whose dreamy and tongue-in-cheek works adorn the skirts, sweatshirts, jackets, and other ready-to-wear pieces by the designer.

Between November 14 and 16, 2025, the international and multidisciplinary FASHIONCLASH Festival once again descended upon Maastricht, the Netherlands. SWARM MAG’s co-founder, Kateřina, was kindly invited to be a member of the jury awarding the best fashion film at the festival’s 17th edition. We also dispatched the other co-founder, Markéta, on a little delegation to accompany her and glean the strongest currents and tendencies in contemporary young fashion design and performance art. Together, they now present their highlights from the three-day event.

Georgian designer Lado Bokuchava, the founder of the eponymous fashion label, describes his upcoming Spring/Summer 2026 collection as “exploring the contrast between sophistication and unease”, among other things. In the interview with Lado, we went over finding femininity in unusual things, the timeless appeal of horror cinema, and the vision he wants to bring to our shared fashion ecosystem.

Fashion designer Alicia Gu weaves mythology from grief and renewal, creating garments that pulse with vulnerability and ceremonial power. Discover how childhood magic, ecological loss, and the death of the last unicorn shape her romantic approach to fashion as living storytelling in today's interview.

If you were to guess that the self-described “esoteric designer”, Stjorn Revali, behind the label Storrveldi, was profoundly influenced by Sergei Parajanov’s The Colour of Pomegranates, you would be right. Her garments are intricately made, sprinkled with iconographic imagery and symbolism, heavy cotton lace, and Eastern European nostalgia. With the designer, we talked about the right to demand authenticity, separating the want from the need, imbuing photoshoots with storytelling, and more.

“[My] pieces aren't about hiding the body; they’re about making the internal cosmic.” Fashion designer Layla Dian Jin’s generous, sometimes even sculptural silhouettes feature striking elements covered in gold foil against dark fabric, and browsing them feels like stumbling upon scattered golden nuggets in the dark sand of a cold stream. The designer sat down with us to talk perspective shifts, the silence of empty spaces, micro and macro scales, and more.

“How many times are gaps filled in a narrative to paint a specific picture?” asks Berlin-based fashion designer Elodie Carstensen regarding semi-mythical historical figures, whose stories have been told by all but themselves. In the interview with the designer, we discuss Jeanne d’Arc, marrying golden statues, and creating all-powerful beings out of the women wearing her clothes.

On her unorthodox journey from pathology to fashion design, Sumeyya Donmez arrived at the preferred creative tool of expression: the time-intensive and unpredictable process of salt crystallisation. Reminiscent of clothes swept into the ocean at high tide, Sumeyya’s collections sit somewhere between a garment and a sculpture. Read more about the symbolism of salt, savouring slowness and waiting, and how actually wearing the clothes sometimes isn’t the point in the in-depth interview with the designer.

Under the inspired hands of Czech jewellery maker Tereza Otáhalíková, golden foliage creeps, twists, turns, and blooms, adorning hands, necks, ears, hairdos, and clothes. In the interview with the craftswoman, she talks the processes behind her dainty floral and organic shapes, how a piece gains depth and meaning through placement and context, researching a distinctive style, and more.

“Imperfection feels authentic, touching, and full of history.” Polish fashion designer Karolina Pieniążek toys with the semantics, definition, and perception of “ugliness”. Her garments are sometimes adorned with false teeth or locks of hair, and a replica of a two-headed lamb serves as an accessory. Far from anyhow gory and macabre, though, her looks carry an enchanted and ethereal air, rooted in memories and oneiromancy. Enjoy the interview with the designer below.

“Woman portrayed as something unreal and unnerving is still very common.” The moodboards of Zuzanna Kordiukiewicz, a Polish fashion designer and jewellery maker, are filled with uncanny and eerie textures and shapes. The collection to which they gave birth, Chimera, is inspired by the fever dreams and rapturous visions of surrealism, often portraying female figures severely distorted and hybridised with other lifeforms. We invite you into her creative process.

The Epitelio collection by Lorenzo Seghezzi draws inspiration from the sensations of body and gender dysphoria—deeply impactful experiences that shape one’s relationship with their corporeal form. Through bold sartorial storytelling and intricate, haute couture corsetry, the garments explore the altered perception of self and the discomfort many transgender and queer individuals face daily, challenging both aesthetic and gender norms.

Polish fashion designer Monika Łuczak’s creations immediately draw the eye with their intricate corsetry and lacing, assymetrical cuts, and figure-hugging silhouettes. But the lore behind these fetish-reminiscent designs is steeped in feminist social commentary and reproductive injustice resistance. In the in-depth interview, Monika shared her intrigue with the narrative patterns of “female transgression and reprimand” abundant both in mythologies and religions, The Handmaid’s Tale, reaching creative freedom, and more.

Interviewing Carla Boré, a fashion designer based in France, was a pleasure for both the mind and the soul. Her textured, layered, ruffled pieces are reminiscent of objects one might find growing or shed on the fairy forest floor. They are, actually, as the designer notes, supposed to evoke moulting, thus “rebirth and self-reinvention”, embodying the fluidity and resilient adaptability of femininity. Plunge into her world below.

“The brand is my fragile soul whereas I am a forever servant of its social mission.” We’re delighted to see Irina Dzhus make a reappearance in Swarm Mag with yet another bold, layered, almost monochromatic, textured, versatile and theatrical collection, the SS25 line. We caught up with the Ukrainian designer to talk personal developments of being a war refugee, escapist urges, self-alienation from the fashion world, crafting icons, and more.

Working with every material and color, the Danish duo Smarch World investigates identities, tendencies and stories through their installations, performances, and hand-made wearable artworks. Read about their latest collection DIN DIN inspired by workwear, the ultimate uniform designed to last a lifetime, and how it came into being.

Finnish designer Sofia llmonen crafts her garments with freedom in mind. Freedom to express, to play, freedom to dismantle and reassemble again. Her generous silhouettes with strong mediaeval and renaissance undertones feature elaborate fastening and lacing methods that allow for instant modification of the garment in the spirit of modularity sustainability. Explore her work brimming with possibilities.

Each element of the newest collection of Eva Immerzeel, from material and shape to the texture of the loosely knitted overlays, was carefully and consciously selected to convey “the conflicting feelings one can have when struggling with making connections” and hopeful glints of hope in reaching out. More in the interview below.

Marlena Krawczyk’s REMEMBER collection stems from a physical place that, as she claims, has “taken root in her psyche”. The Polish fashion designer uses materials and porcelain-doll-like silhouettes that are meant to evoke the spirit of childhood spent in her grandparents’ home – a bit of a sensory journey to the nostalgia-tinged past. Plunge deeper in the interview below.

Alejandro Spano created the Clash universe as a place of curious exploration – be it of limitations, identities, or humanity. Over time, he has come to invite others to co-create this world, and that is where Itar Pas was born, and the universe hasn’t stopped expanding since. Delve into Alejandro’s world today to find out what Itar Pas is after, and how virtual worlds help express the previously unimaginable.