We hear it all the time: fashion students are overwhelmed by overproduction and the ruthless churn of creative directors at the big luxury houses. How can they forge a creative path without contributing to the problem? If they decide to operate outside the system - crafting extravagant one offs, for example, or only making to order - how will they survive financially? What is the point of fashion if you can’t wear it?

Ane Lynge-Jorlén is the Danish fashion academic behind Alpha, a fashion incubator for directional design talent from the Nordics. The Alpha showcase at Copenhagen Fashion Week is always exhilarating, but as you will hear that's not all they do - they've got a big exhibition coming up in Norway's National Museum at the end of the year, and they do a bunch of industry mentorships working with the likes of The Row, Browns London and 1 Granary.

But really this interview with Ane is about, as she puts it, "fashion's cultural value" - fashion is technically in the realm of applied art, as opposed to the fine one. But whatever you want to call it, fashion as artistic expression has value beyond the commercial. Can you wear it on the bus? That depends on how daring you are. Ane probably would!

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