Fashion designer Bas Kosters awarded with Cultuurfonds Mode Stipendium

By

Shomara Roosblad

Published
Apr 16, 2018

Dutch fashion designer Bas Kosters has been awarded with a Cultuurfonds Mode Stipendium. The €50,000 prize is the most prestigious fashion award in the Netherlands.

Kosters, who is the eighth recipient of the Cultuurfonds Mode Stipendium, received the prize on Friday 13 April, during a reception at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. He said: “The Cultuurfonds Mode Stipendium symbolizes a new and important step in my career.”

Angélique Westerhof, director of the Dutch Fashion Foundation and consultant to the Cultuurfonds, shared the jury report: "In times where we want to embrace diversity, the committee cherishes Dutch diversity especially, and this recipient is the personification of this diversity.” In addition, the jury committee praised the scope of the oeuvre of Koster’s work in the relay of talents that preceded him.

The Cultuurfonds Mode Stipendium initiated at the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds in 2011 thanks to an anonymous patron. The stipend consisted of  €50,000 euros and a poodle-shaped trophy designed by Ted Noten. The Cultuurfonds Mode Stipendium assists designers to take the next step in their career. The prize was awarded to Kosters by Ronald van der Kemp, who had received the Cultuurfonds Mode Stipendium in 2017.

Previous recipients of the prize are: Jan Taminiau (2013), Iris van Herpen (2016), Ilja Visser (2011), Francisco van Benthum (2012), Truus and Riet Spijkers (2013) and Youasme Measyou (2015).