April 30, 2009 by amucklow
Here at CSF we are thrilled that Professor Lucy Orta’s work is really pushing boundaries and challenging ideas about climate change and fragile ecosystems. There are lots of exhibitions coming up, so try and check one out.
Professor Lucy Orta is delighted to announce two new exhibitions that draw upon the current research focuses of Lucy + Jorge Orta - climate change and fragile ecosystems. Here the artists utilise art as a platform to investigate environmental issues and to promote a new sustainable drive for our contemporary society.
OrtaWater – Antarctica Village No Borders 17 March – 17 April 2009, DSM Unlimited, The Netherlands.
The exhibition by Lucy + Jorge Orta coincides with the launch of DSM’s 2009 sustainability report and it represents the starting point for a new commission in 2010. The base of this unique collaboration between Royal DSM and Lucy + Jorge Orta is the shared focus on the pressing issues confronting our world, which involve securing sustainable energy supplies, combating climate change and providing balanced food supplies and health for the global population. In the two DSM offices in The Netherlands, the artists present the ongoing project OrtaWater, focused on the worldwide shortage of water, and Antarctica, which stands up as a new utopia, drawing attention to the current climate of migration and the refugee status in which many people throughout the world find themselves.
GREEN PLATFORM. Art Ecology Sustainability 24 April – 19 July 2009, CCCS – Centro di Cultura Contemporanea Strozzina, Italy.
This group exhibition adopts a complex critical view based on an interdisciplinary approach to the issue of the environment, in the dual sense of a crisis in our thermo-industrial society based on non-renewable sources of energy and of an ecological crisis caused by pollution and by the worrying overheating of our planet. Ecology is not thus explored just in terms of an environmental approach, but rather it is investigated through its philosophical, psychological, environmental, financial and social implications.
Upcoming Exhibitions May 2009
Return to Function 1 May – 22 August 2009, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, USA.
OrtaWater 5 – 11 May 2009, Motive Gallery, Vienna Art Week, Austria
Dress Code 7 May – 25 July 2009, ISELP Brussels, Belgium
Pot Luck 22 May – 19 July 2009, New Art Gallery Walsall, UK
April 29, 2009 by amucklow
Those lovely people at the Ethical Fashion Forum have just launched a great competition that is open to all fashion designers who have been in business for less than 3 years, designing Womenswear or Women’s Accessories.
Picture from EFF website, with thanks
The competition will seek out and promote inspirational emerging design talent. Entries will be judged on the basis of outstanding design and product quality, as well as social and environmental innovation.
Winners will have an opportunity to show at Estethica in September 2009 or at Pure in August 2009. The winners will also receive business support from an expert consultancy team. The winner last year – Christopher Raeburn, was featured in the Guardian yesterday, so the stakes are high and the press coverage for the winner is fab.
Applications will close on 29th May 2009 so hurry. Click here to enter.
The competition will also be getting a big mention at one of the best events of the Go Green Week next week (see below for more details) Fashion forward: creating an ethical label. This workshop will explore how can you create a label that looks good, but is also good to the environment? ECCA and the Centre for Sustainable Fashion(that’s us!) present fashion design businesses that are sustainable throughout from their manufacturing processes and materials, to marketing methods and aim communicate and promote their ethical processes to their customers. Hear from experts on how you can take advantage of the opportunities and benefits available to ethical fashion labels.
To book your place, please click here.
April 28, 2009 by amucklow
This is a F A N T A S T I C O P P O R T U N I T Y for 6 students to volunteer at London’s NEW exclusive vintage fashion, accessory & textile fair. Clerkenwell Vintage Fashion Fair will take place on Sunday 10th May from 08.00am til 18.00pm. It will feature 35 top dealers from all over the UK,Ireland, Paris & Barcelona selling wearable vintage and designer pieces from the 1800s-1980s to recycle &revamp in modern times… It’s a treasure trove for inspiration and that the place to find the perfect little number to wow the crowds.
This is the perfect opportunity for those with a REAL passion for vintage. A chance to learn invaluable organisational skills, people management, the art of buying & selling vintage apparel, display & tailoring.
Call Savitri: 07980 270 307 ASAP for more information.
April 27, 2009 by amucklow
University of the Arts Student Union is launching its very own Go Green Week on Friday. There are going to be lots of events including film screenings of The 11th Hour and An Inconvenient Truth. There will also be workshops on how to live green and how to create an ethical label. Not to mention a swapping party and a charity shop disco.
The aim of the events is to raise awareness amongst both staff and students and to get the university to commit to 5 GO GREEN objectives laid out in the Green Charter:
1. Sufficient recycling facilities should be available at all Arts London Sites and all Halls of Residence, with consideration also given to specialist recycling e.g. textiles, wood at relevant sites.
2. At least one aspect of all courses at Arts London should have Sustainability in the learning outcomes, whether this is in the form of a ‘Green Module’ or is integrated into the curriculum.
3. Arts London should switch to a Green Energy Provider who supports the development of new carbon-free and renewable energy sources for the future.
4. Arts London should commit to a continuing programme of sustainable IT development with the aim of reducing overall energy use and pollution.
5. Arts London should provide Bike storage facilities at all sites and showers should be installed on all main sites.
For a timetable of events, click here and let us know what you think about any of the events.
April 23, 2009 by amucklow
Tuesday 28th April will see the launch of swapping site Posh-Swaps allowing users to swap, buy and sell second hand, vitage and restyled-recycled clothes. It is completely free to register, swap, buy and sell – a great alternative way to buy and sell second hand. Posh-swaps was set up in response to the growing awareness of the environmental impact of fast fashion and the need for stylish affordable fashion for those on a budget.
April 22, 2009 by amucklow
Impactt have released an new report – Getting Smarter: Ethical Trading in the Downturn
Impactt has been working in ethical trade for 10 years, enabling companies to improve working conditions in their supply chains in a way that brings clear business benefits to both ends of the chain. Impactt’s approach is change-focused, innovative and practical.
The report focuses on how the recessions and all that entails meant that 2008 was a challenging year. The situation poses obvious but important questions for companies: how should they tackle the challenges of ethical trade and labour standards in a downturn? Is work on upholding labour standards an optional extra to be discarded when times are hard? Or have ethical issues moved to a point where they are considered core to operations?
Impactt strives to find creative ways to improve working conditions in supply chains to bring clear business benefits; we have developed case studies on 4 key projects from the year that do just that:
- Bangladesh Ethical Factory: A model for sustainably increasing wages and reducing working hours.
- Practical Child Labour Solutions: Building consensus on effective child labour remediation – getting working children back to school.
- Building Local Capacity: Expanding the capacity of local organisations to work with employers and employees to improve labour practices.
- Better Buying: Integrating ethical trade into the core operations of business.
The report also presents the findings from Impactt’s assessments of 98 production sites during the year to August 2008, which draws on testimony from 1,500 workers in 11 countries.
To download the report click here.
by amucklow
What with this recession and all, there has been a surge in interest in the charity shop sector. At the beginning of the year The Guardian reported that due to the increasing popularity of trawling through the rails at the local charity shop the shops were appealing for more donations. It seems charity shops were one area of the economy experiencing a boom.
The Sunday Times Style also featured an article pin pointing all the best shops around the country, saving your leg work for you.
The next series of Mary Queen of Shops, will also see Mary Portas giving some charity shops top tips for pulling in the punters.
If you have a favourite charity shop that you don’t mind disclosing then let us know.
by amucklow
There will be an exciting and unique half-day symposium on April 30th in London, exploring how top sports brands engineer performance into their products. Speakers will include representatives from Adidas and Speedo, and experts who create the materials and designs that support the health, well-being, performance and style of the world’s leading athletes.
For more information or to book tickets, click here.
by amucklow
LCF graduate Rohan Kale is one of the emerging designers taking part in Eureka night- a chance to explore emerging innovation in fashion design at the Design Museum on Friday 24th April.
Highlights include a talk on intellectual property and how this is becoming increasingly relevant for today’s designer, an open forum with the designers discussing their work and role in fashion and a special presentation by shoe designer Rosemary Wallin.
The event is curated by The Mushrooms Group in partnership with Let Them Eat Cake magazine and Hussein Chalayan and complements the Hussein Chalayan: From Fashion and Back exhibition running at the Design Museum until 17th May.
Doors open at 6pm and runs til 10pm.
Contact: tickets@designmuseum.org for more details.
April 21, 2009 by amucklow
Get yourself down to Spitalfields Market today, tomorrow and Thursday to see the very best in alternative fashion.
Alternative Fashion Week is unlike any other fashion week. Open to everyone and free to the designers to participate, the energy and atmosphere are palpable. Running for a full week with 15 shows a day, attracting audiences of over 10,000 and with a vibrant fashion market of wild and wonderful accessories, this event is a prime example of how imagination and resourcefulness can overcome a mountain of economic obstacles and promote sustainability.
In 1993 Spitalfields was a deserted, run down area with a huge empty market building. Today it is probably the most exciting cultural quarter in London with its markets, art galleries, shops, restaurants and bars attracting millions of visitors every year. Alternative Fashion Week has played its part in regenerating the area, raising its profile to a global audience and promoting hundreds of new designers.
This is fashion on the edge, risky, experimental, fashion for the future. It’s not about money or material success but inspiration and ideology, how to have designer fashion in the current financial climate, credit crunch couture, offering a world of real opportunities. Alternative Fashion Week provides that vital stepping stone between the graduate shows and the mainstream fashion industry.
Alternative Fashion Week is concerned to raise environmental awareness and actively supports recycling and ethical sourcing. Each year a growing number of collections supports these themes.
Every year Alternative Arts has to raise the funds to produce Alternative Fashion Week. This year we are supported by Rescue Cream, Hammerson and the Spitalfields Estate. We are also supporting a local charity the Spitalfields Crypt Trust who will be taking up a collection at each show.
