The inauguration ceremony of an international fashion design exhibition titled ‘Local International’ held on Tuesday, 23 April evening at the Gyantapas Abdur Razzaq Bidyapeeth, Dhanmondi premise. This exceptional exhibition will remain open to all until Sunday, 28 April every day from 12:00 noon to 8:00pm.

The exhibition presenting the results of the Fashion Design exchange projects between Bangladesh and Berlin since 2015. This project is initiated by Goethe-Institut Bangladesh, weißensee school of art and design berlin, Berlin University of the Arts, in cooperation with BGMEA University of Fashion and Technology.

In her welcoming speech, Dr. Kirsten Hackenbroch, Director Goethe-Institut Bangladesh said that finally, the exhibition ‘Local International’ is presented in Dhaka. The five days show offers a space for reflection and for planning new action: on the production and design processes of (local to global) fashion and on transcultural programmes as effective ways to build sustainable co-production and cooperation.’

Terming Bangladesh as one of the most important country in the fashion production, Prof Heike Selmer of the weißensee school of art and design berlin, said that the fashion designers now a days need to know where fashion is produced.’

Prof Valeska Schmidt-Thomsen, Berlin University of the Arts has expressed her optimism that the overall fashion scene from both Germany and Bangladesh will be highly benefited from this project.

Prof Dr Ayub Nabi Khan, Pro-Vice Chancellor, BUFT, highly praised the initiative to promote sustainability, fair- trade and design methods in this exhibition and heartily thanked Goethe-Institut and Bengal Foundation for organizing the event. As an appreciation of the exhibition, Prof. Khan said, ‘The works displayed in the exhibition by talented designers exhibit few solutions to these issues of existing practices of fashion business and offer future destiny of fashion designers role in achieving a healthy and environmental friendly planet.’

Inaugurating the event, Michael Schultheiß, Deputy Head of Mission, German Embassy recalled his memories for seeing parts of the ‘Local International’ exhibition in Weissensee (Berlin) in April 2016, he congratulated all the organizers of this exhibition for taking up such an issue, which is extremely important and very vital for the cooperation between Bangladesh and Germany.

Local International is an international cultural exchange program between Bangladesh and Germany focusing on sustainability and fair production methods within the textile industry.

From the year 2015, 48 fashion designers and fashion students from Berlin and Dhaka have been selected to participate in LOCAL INTERNATIONAL project. In lectures and specialised workshops, the participants were given an insight into the topics of sustainability, fair-trade and design methods, in order to develop their own creative approaches, concepts, products and collections. The result of these projects have been presented earlier in two exhibitions: local international I and local international II.

The project partners are Goethe-Institut Banglades, weißensee kunsthochschule berlin, Universität der Künste Berlin, in cooperation with the BGMEA University of Fashion & Technology (BUFT).

The Bengal Foundation and the Fashion Revolution are the exhibition partners.