Angelique WesterhofAngelique Westerhof (1969, Vorden, NL) is co-founder and current director of the Dutch Fashion Foundation and the Fashion Institute Arnhem. She studied Political Sciences in Amsterdam and in addition to her academic studies, took language courses in French and Italian in Brussels and Perugia. An Erasmus scholarship enabled her to study cinematography in Rome.

Westerhof made politico-cultural radio magazines and was correspondent/producer of fashion TV programs for international broadcasting companies working between Paris, Milan and Amsterdam. She was fashion editor for the leading fashion magazine DUTCH, fashion director of magazine ChiQ, of which she was also co-founder. She also was a contributing editor to the Sunday Times in London.

As pioneer and one of the key members within the Dutch fashion world, Westerhof is the main architect of the development of the favorable fashion climate prevalent at the start of the Nineties. As an accomplished networker, she maintains close ties with governmental organizations, academies and post-doctoral courses, agents, museums and galleries and professional organizations all over the world.

To widen fashion’s public and commercial appeal in The Netherlands, Westerhof established the Dutch Fashion Foundation. During the last five years, it has grown into an organization that bolsters the economic, social and cultural role of fashion at national and international levels. Based in Amsterdam, DFF manages a network of the most talented Dutch fashion designers and is a key figure in the creative network of photographers, graphic designers and fashion artists.

With the Dutch Fashion Foundation, Westerhof introduces Dutch fashion into the international market and sets up contacts between the best of Dutch fashion talents and the international fashion scene by organizing the Dutch Touch campaign with the support of the Dutch Ministry in cities as Paris, New York and Milan. The latest project of the Dutch Fashion Foundation is the program of the Mercedes-Benz Dutch Fashion Awards organized in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz, where an international jury will choose the Dutch designer most likely to succeed in bringing his/her label onto the international market.