Backstage at KABK’s graduation show

The Royal Academy of Art of the Hague stands as a large brick building, ribbon windows flowing on its façade, an inner courtyard with mysterious student-made installations, a maze of stairs and inner levels. But when you zoom in you get Room PC0.003 — a long room with its view set on the courtyard’s trees, fit for holding the annual graduate show of KABK’s Textile and Fashion Department — which is exactly what it has brilliantly done.

Ahead of the actual show, everything was happening in every other room of the Academy: dresses go through last-minute tears, models wait around with paper clips in their hair, meticulous over-the-knee boots are tied to the top — but most importantly, the graduates were preparing. All of this unfolding under the heat of a late May evening, rainbow popsicles in the hands of the (very fashionable) masses.

Between intricately layered feather pants, flowy yet sleek see-through stained dresses, naturally textured earth-tone drop-crotch pants, neon blade motifs as pins and charms, toe-exposed sculptural heels, argyle collage dresses, and front facing fabric masks — the graduate designers are channelling every last thread of pre-show nerves into something electric.

Glamcult went to catch all the action backstage, before the final polishes, where stress may reign but everything always ends up working out for the best. And spoiler: it did. Slide through our backstage report for a closer look at the next generation of fashion design talents redefining what fashion can look and feel like. Consider this your first glimpse at the names you’ll want to remember.