Community as brand infrastructure: Nada van Dalen and Rotterdam’s independent creative scene

Positioning is the asset – fashion designer Nada van Dalen, photographer Ari Versluis and stylist Ellie Uyttenbroek examine what independence means in a globalised fashion system

Independent fashion on the rise

The industry is recalibrating both production and consumption. While multinational luxury groups lose ground—especially in personal goods—smaller labels gain visibility through sustainable and inclusive practices valued by younger shoppers. For more than a decade, Rotterdam‑based designer Nada van Dalen has preserved her creative and business autonomy.

Raised in an artistic family in Dordrecht, van Dalen experimented early. Her collections fuse hardcore aesthetics, existential unease, curiosity about the psyche’s darker side and the ordinariness of daily life. In a culture that hides flaws and promotes unattainable ideals, her garments “allow losers to be losers,” giving wearers permission to embrace imperfection. Past collections include Love It When You Hate Me, inspired by hate groups worldwide, and lines centred on infamous serial killers and mental disorders—each probing the limits of ready‑to‑wear.

Halte Charlois: fashion as social practice

Alongside her label, van Dalen runs Halte Charlois, a project that records and supports the Charlois district in south Rotterdam. Still largely untouched by gentrification, Charlois hosts working‑class families, artists, migrants and long‑time Dutch residents in affordable housing. Through interviews, photography and film, Halte Charlois documents daily life and seeks to tighten neighbourhood ties. Van Dalen plans a local production house to help residents launch brands or manufacture clothing on their own terms. She also stages Charlois Fashion Week, offering independent designers a platform outside the circuits of Paris, Milan, London and New York.

Rotterdam’s texture: post‑war trauma and the urge to rebuild

The city’s streets, central to van Dalen’s work, also shaped Versluis and Uyttenbroek, who began their Exactitudes project in 1994 by photographing the dress codes of distinct social groups. All three creatives are drawn to Rotterdam’s directness and modern architecture—symbols of resilience after wartime destruction. “Building and rebuilding is part of our DNA,” Versluis says. With Europe’s largest port outside Asia, the city is dominated by labour rather than the intellectual class that typifies Amsterdam.

That outlook informs their practice. Van Dalen is inspired by Rotterdam’s ethnic mix: “It reflects who I am—the prints, shapes, ideas and faces in my work. You might meet local football hooligans or sit next to pristine professionals at the same café.” She singles out the Polish community and its eastern‑European visual language as a particular influence. Versluis and Uyttenbroek’s post‑punk background leads them to pursue unvarnished imagery, resisting the heavy post‑production common today.

Community as brand infrastructure

Versluis and Uyttenbroek argue that van Dalen’s strength lies in transparency. “Positioning is decisive for any independent label, and both the eponymous brand and Halte Charlois are embedded in their community,” they note. Van Dalen’s shows and campaigns feature “participants” rather than professional models—individuals who share her values. More than a hundred people regularly occupy Rotterdam’s streets during her presentations, asserting both individuality and local belonging.

For three decades Versluis and Uyttenbroek have used semiotics to decode how clothing and behaviour signal identity. A key shift since the early 1990s is the racial diversity permeating every social stratum. “Nada’s casting mirrors contemporary pluralism: people from many backgrounds who feel at home where they live,” they say. “Welcoming the world while rooting yourself locally is essential—and a brand that can express that will survive.”

Subcultures, social media and global exchange

Exactitudes emerged when post‑industrial cities were still healing from war and information was scarce. “The only fashion reference we had was i‑D magazine, so we walked the streets, documenting styles and meeting people,” the duo recalls. Their method blends art and sociology, questioning uniformity and individuality through dress.

Subcultures remain active. While they thrive in large cities, a desire for self‑defined style is also growing in smaller centres. Recent fieldwork underscores social media’s role in linking creatives worldwide and circulating ideas that challenge dominant culture. Yet amid global reach, Versluis and Uyttenbroek observe renewed appetite for local autonomy and for creative independence from market pressures.

The price of independence

Van Dalen resists seasonal cycles, releasing collections of varying scale made locally. The goal of sustainability collides with high production costs, limited financing and the complexity of short supply chains. Consumers face overload: relentless product drops and marketing saturate attention. “There is a shift,” Versluis says. “The current fashion model is in decline, and with sustainability finally unavoidable, editors must rethink their relevance.” Uyttenbroek adds that many young people love fashion but distrust the industry behind it.

Van Dalen warns that moral superiority can read as elitism. Fast fashion persists not only through ignorance but because affordable sustainable options are scarce. Creatives, from photographers to stylists, constantly balance ethics with livelihood. “It’s seldom a simple yes or no,” Versluis and Uyttenbroek agree. Success today, they conclude, comes from independent thinking, accountability and readiness to challenge established systems.

Biographies

Nada van Dalen studied fashion design at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, graduating cum laude before founding her label in 2007. In 2010 she was nominated for the Hyères Fashion & Photography prize, and in 2021 she took part in De Volkskrant’s Zomeratelier.

Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek have collaborated since 1994. Their Exactitudes archive systematically documents social identities and has expanded from Rotterdam’s multicultural streets to cities worldwide since 1998.

Nada Saves, Exactitude by Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek: