OHIM DEBUTS WITH “THE WAYS OF WATER” AT THIS YEAR’S AMSTERDAM FASHION WEEK
words NATALIE GAL
This year is all about celebrating the city that gives us our home. A city that has shaped us, embraced us, and carried us. To honor Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary, OHIM has created a multimedia event titled “The Ways of Water.” The title already speaks volumes. As creative director Noukhey Forster puts it: “The Ways of Water showcases how agile Black fashion professionals are. Like water, we maneuver and flow.” The event is open to the public and will be held on September 2 at 7:00 PM, at De Hallen Studios (Studio 2).
images curtesy of OHIM and FLORIAN JOAHN
That image of water feels right. Water is never still. It bends, it adapts, it makes its own paths and yet also connects everything it touches. That same energy is carried in the stories this event will highlight, individual journeys of Black creatives, artists, and fashion professionals living and working in Amsterdam today.
The evening will also feature a special film by Creative Director Noukhey Forster in collaboration with film director Florian Joahn, focusing on these themes of heritage, migration, and the transitions between cultures. It is about the beauty of exchange, when cultures do more than just meet but actually merge into something new.
Because that’s Amsterdam. This city is a melting pot where cultures exist side by side in proximity. At the heart of this project are the personal stories, lived experiences and future visions shared by Afro-Dutch fashion professionals. Their voices have been translated into a fashion collection and a film – translating lived experience, ideas and future visions into visual narratives. The project seeks to create space for their voices, perspectives and concerns, while archiving these narratives so they remain part of the city’s history – not only for the next 750 years, but far beyond.
Our city has that gift, a distinctive ability to make people feel at home while never losing its own identity. Of course, we see this in other places too, London, New York, Paris, Berlin, all great cultural centers. But Amsterdam has its own intimacy. Maybe it’s the small scale, maybe it’s the history of openness, maybe it’s something we can never fully explain. Reasons line up if you want to analyze, but personally, I prefer to just sit with it. To feel it. That warmth, that delicious acceptance. The simple truth is that judgment here is not directed at love, but always at hate.
images curtesy of OHIM and FLORIAN JOAHN
And that’s why OHIM exists. It is a platform built to give space, to amplify voices that have so often been ignored, erased, or silenced through histories both unreasonable and cruel. Fashion and art are their mediums, because fashion and art carry memory, identity, and yes, resistance. They are also the things that bring us joy and passion, which is why this work aligns so deeply with us at Numéro Netherlands.
So we celebrate. On September 2 at 7:00 PM, “The Ways of Water” takes place at De Hallen Studios (Studio 2), Hannie Dankbaarpassage 18. Not to forget the afterparty, in collaboration with The Gang Is Beautiful, a space to release, to dance, to celebrate, to feel free together in the way this city has always encouraged us to do. The event is open to the public, so we are looking forward to see you all there.
Amsterdam is turning 750 but that does not mean it’s “complete”. The story of this city is still being written, and re-written by us, today.
