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Yamuna Forzani www.instagram.com/yamunaforzani/

The Utopia Ball X Fashion Show

By 31-08-2022

Every year, Dutch Design Awards (DDA) honours the best Dutch designers and their most impressive and groundbreaking projects. Various disciplines, viewpoints and solutions are judged in light of the impact they have on our society. Dutch Design Awards thereby gives a boost to the profession as a whole. The best Dutch design, viewed in perspective and placed on a pedestal.

DDA nomination 2022 | Fashion
Yamuna Forzani is a fashion designer, art director, organiser and member of the current Dutch ballroom scene – a community by and for trans BPOC people and non-binary and queer people of colour. In 2018 she came up with the concept of The Utopia Ball x Fashion Show: a traditional ballroom competition with an added fashion show. The concept has since grown to become an alternative platform that celebrates and strengthens the (fashion) talent of young designers and this community. In 2021, the Utopia Ball was held in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam as part of Rotterdam Pride, co organised with Seven Angels. During this ball there was a fashion show with designs from members of the Dutch and Parisian ballroom communities: Timothy Scholte, Michelle TSM, Augusto Junior and Miidorie.

Expert jury
Yamuna Forzani designs more than a fashion collection; she designs events and experiences, for and by the trans and queer community. A ‘third space’ where people who are excluded from many other places feel at home and can exhibit their talent. Fashion is always about identity and movement, and Forzani shapes this with quality craftsmanship. In organising the Utopia Ball at the Kunsthal, she takes ballroom out of the niche market and connects with a much wider audience. Forzani thereby touches upon the essence of fashion as empowerment. The event is the product, but the community as an ecosystem that celebrates everything that is different, is what makes this so topical.

For more information about the nominees and the DDA Awards Show you can visit www.dutchdesignawards.nl.