Photography by Paul Allister except for bottom left by Ellinor Stigle and bottom right by Sean Michael
Local Wisdom, the ongoing fashion research project exploring post-growth fashion and the ‘craft of use’ has just finished another year of global activity in which it gathered over four hundred portraits and stories from the public about ways in which garments are used. These ‘use practices’, captured in nine countries, show that many resourceful and satisfying ways of living and engaging with fashion are already known to us.
The hundreds of tales and practices of garment use bring to life the realisation that whilst garments are sold as products; we live them as a process. And to use them ‘well’ we need to design for, and finesse, the underlying conditions that foster the skills of ‘user-ship’ not just ownership. Many of these user-ship skills are on display in these stories and portraits that can now be found on the Local Wisdom website. They are often akin to craft practices, that is to techniques developed over time through iterative and reflective acts, and reflect a view of fashion that extends into the time and life world of users.
The Local Wisdom use practices of resourceful and satisfying use of garments are organized into twenty two categories that exemplify ideas, behaviours and activity such as flexible thinking, intensive use, never washed and a value for the ‘patina of use’. These stories show the dynamism, intelligence and practical skills that users bring to their relationship with garments. They also challenge the dependency of the fashion industry on the economic logic of growth based on increasing material throughput and propose alternative modes of fashion provision and expression rooted in sustained attention to tending and using garments not just creating or buying them.
Local Wisdom conceived and led by Dr Kate Fletcher and is based within the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at London College of Fashion. The next phase of the Local Wisdom project is to mobilise the ‘craft of use’ as the basis and inspiration for design projects in seven centres of high fashion consumption spread across three continents in the UK, USA, Canada, Denmark, Australia and New Zealand. This work will be presented and open to dialogue at a special event in March 2014. For more information or to receive information about future events see localwisdom.info
It’s our third year of running the Better Lives lecture series and this time we’ve paired up with LCF resident psychology Dr Carolyn Mair to devise four sessions exploring Psychology’s links with Fashion.
Our focus will be on Judgment and Wellbeing.
Speakers taking part will include Cosmopolitan’s Woman of the Year 2012: Natasha Devon (Body Gossip), Dilys Williams (Director at CSF), Dr Kate Fletcher (Researcher, CSF), Frances Corner (Head of College, LCF) and Caryn Franklin MBE (Fashion Commentator).
More information is available at the following link where you can also sign up to attend any or all of the free sessions: http://betterliveslectures.eventbrite.co.uk
The Local Wisdom project will be in Melbourne this Saturday, 23 March to gather more tales and images of the creative and ingenious practices associated with using garments. This will be the final shoot of a year of touring that has included Kolding, San Francisco, London, Vancouver, New York City and Wellington and will kick start our design collaboration with students and researchers at RMIT University of Technology. More information can be found at http://localwisdom.info
Let anyone in Melbourne or Victoria know to come and share their insights with us!
We’ll be at:
The Melbourne GPO
350 Bourke Street
11am until 4pm.
What should you bring to be photographed?
Perhaps you have a garment that…
• Is easily repairable
• Is worn regularly and has never been washed (and isn’t leather!)
• Is enjoying a third, fourth or fifth life
• Surprises you each time you wear it
• Shows or tells the story of how it’s been used
• Is worn in ways that defy the producer’s values
• Is adapted over and again in order to meet changing needs
• Has interchangeable parts that can be worn in different ways
• Is shared between people
• Connects you to others
• Is worn in response to changing economic and environmental concerns
• Is made up of interchangeable pieces that can be worn in different ways
On 3rd March 2013, Dilys Williams, Director Centre for Sustainable Fashion, and Lainey Sheridan-Young, Natalie Theo, Rosanna Falconer and Lou Stoppard met to discuss the Kenzo Womenswear AW13 catwalk show in London.
The brand, launched in 1970 by Japanese-born designer Kenzo Takada, has undergone a complete transformation in the last two years since Opening Ceremony founders Humberto Leon and Carol Lim were appointed as the new creative directors in 2011. As Rosanna Falconer, Head of Digital at Matthew Williamson said, this has given a unique opportunity to revive the brand through developing successful collections from a buyer’s perspective.
Dilys was able to bring a unique viewpoint to the discussion, sharing ideas about the relationship between designer, product, and wearer, and the new role of the designer.
“The role of the designer in communicating something that has often been very personal has really changed, and a lot of new designers are really understanding the importance of communicating as part of the creativity… it’s part of the creative process and I think you see that with these guys [Kenzo].”
When asked about the culture of the ‘It’ piece, Dilys observed that “people aim to create an identity to their work which is something that goes beyond just the cut and the make of it, the whole ethos of their brand.”
Dilys perfectly summed up the show when she said “fashion is an intuitive thing, it’s not a mathematical process.”
“They’ve brought together great people working with them and hopefully that’s what will keep it looking fresh all the time.”
You can find out out more about the show and the day here.
University of the Arts London Green Week 2013 Film
As we are in the middle of Green People and Planet Green Week watch the short film below to see some of the most exciting, creative practice exploring sustainability at the University of the Arts London. Focusing on the impact of ecological issues, it highlights the vital role creatives have to play in sustainability and features Dilys Williams, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Fashion:
UAL’s Green Week takes place 4-8 March during which the Centre for Sustainable Fashion will be running a full timetable of events, to be released next week.
On 24th January 2013, LCF hosted a ‘Dinner of Ideas’ that staff at CSF had dreamt up and organised.
This was an event intentionally without agenda and over a meal, allowing the invited research community from across University of the Arts London to steer their own conversations. They were asked only to consider one thing: what can we as researchers offer the world?
The dining tables were decorated with spot and cross pattern paper on which elements of the ensuing conversation could be documented. The event opened up opportunities to shape future projects by connecting like minded individuals.
Thank you to everyone that took an evening out of their time to road test this novel way to choreograph interactions across UAL! Its success has led to talk of making such informal discussions a regular occurrence within the research calendar.
Marks & Spencer and Oxfam are opening a two-day pop-up charity store in the M&S flagship store at Marble Arch, for 24-25 January. The pop-up shop will offer the public a chance to buy rare vintage M&S pieces as well as clothing donated by celebrities simple by ‘shwopping’ an item of their own. ‘Shwopping’ is a concept derived by M&S and Oxfam to encourage people to donate or ‘gift’ unwanted clothing that will go on to be re-used, transformed or recycled. Sarah Farquhar, Head of Retail Brand for Oxfam, said:
“Oxfam shops are full of hidden treasures and we have regular shoppers who turn up week in week out to get their hands on the latest donations. But this time we are doing the rummaging for them; bringing the best of the shwopped items we have received over the last few months plus exciting celebrity donations straight to the public instead. It will be really exciting to see people browsing Oxfam clothing in the middle of an M&S store.”
CSF and M&S installation ‘Beautiful Layers’
In support of the ‘Gift Away, Don’t Throw Away’ campaign the Centre for Sustainable Fashion has created three installations for the M&S Shwop Shop which can be found on display inside the Marble Arch store now. The three installations; ‘Transformation’, ‘Beautiful Layers’ and ‘Gift it Away’ are designed to encourage a new culture of ‘gifting away’ instead of throwing away, to draw on existing resources instead of wasting limited ones. You can see these installations in the Marble Arch store from today until January 25. Donators who visit the Shwop Shop will be able to tell the story around their gifted item and throughout the two days a tweeter in residence will be capturing the stories behind the clothes and broadcasting them via @shwopping.
The Local Wisdom project arrives in Canada and New York this month kicking off our projects with The Emily Carr University of Art and Design and Parsons The New School for Design. If you are in either of these locations please do take this opportunity to contribute to the project by telling the story of how you use your clothes and be photographed wearing your garment. See below for dates, times and locations.
Vancouver
Saturday 19 January 2013
10:00am – 4:00pm
1399 Johnston Street, Vancouver, BC V6H 3RN
New York
Saturday 26 January 2013
10:00am – 4:00pm
2 West 13th Street (Corner of 5th Avenue)
New York, NY 10011
What should you bring to be photographed? Perhaps you have a garment that is…• Is easily repairable
• Is worn regularly and has never been washed (and isn’t leather!)
• Is enjoying a third, fourth or fifth life
• Surprises you each time you wear it
• Shows or tells the story of how it’s been used
• Is worn in ways that defy the producer’s values
• Is adapted over and again in order to meet changing needs
• Has interchangeable parts that can be worn in different ways
• Is shared between people
• Connects you to others
• Is worn in response to changing economic and environmental concerns
• Is made up of interchangeable pieces that can be worn in different ways
We are delighted to invite you to UAL’s Research Degrees Open Evening 2013!
Hosted by University of the Arts London, this is taking place at London College of Fashion on the 29th of January 2013 from 18:15 – 20:15.
It is an opportunity to find out more about the degrees offered across the six colleges whilst meeting staff and students involved with the research degree programme.
Cross-discipline collaborations, people and ecology centred thinking, design practice and artistic communication underpin CSF’s thinking and are inherent in our innovative working methods.
Current PhD students cross a number of boundaries including working in relation to design for lower impact in clothes maintenance, design for longevity and clothing with embedded technology related to wellbeing.
Location: Rootstein Hopkins Space (Centre + East), London College of Fashion, 20 John Princes Street, London W1G 0BJ
If you would like to attend to find out more, please RSVP to: researchdegrees@arts.ac.uk
Centre for Sustainable Fashion recently hosted the first in a series of events aimed at fashion educators to discuss and raise the profile of design for sustainability in fashion education.
The first event, a debate questioning ‘What is the role of fashion education in our changing world?’ involved key fashion educators and activists engaging in a lively debate to find ways in which we can explore fashion education, to improve student experience and foster sustainability throughout the curriculum.
The panel was chaired by Nina Stevenson – Education & Curriculum Development Manager, CSF and included:
Dilys Williams – Director, CSF
Kate Fletcher – Reader in Sustainable Fashion, CSF
Gemma Robertson – Graduate Recruitment Manager, ASOS
Lesley Raven – Senior Outreach Coordinator, LCF
Frankie Moloney – Students’ Union Vice President for LCF
We should be looking at fashion education as an exploration of self in connection to place, through the practice of fashion, and as a forum for self-contemplative work:
‘Time spent in fashion education can be a precious and vital place for change at a profound level – if it is about education of the person, through practice of fashion that really is relevant to time and place.’ Dilys Williams
‘Universities can be hierarchical in their knowledge structure – they value industrial knowledge above all else, which doesn’t give space for self-contemplative work.’ Kate Fletcher
From a student’s perspective, ‘fashion education is integral to finding like-minded people and creating networks and there is great value in the experience of those teaching.’ Frankie Moloney
Part of this networking value was highlighted in creating university and business dialogue through placements. ‘Working with a broad range of companies gives a strong overview of the industry, and showcases the creativity that can be nurtured in a university context.’ Gemma Robertson of ASOS explained. ‘Networking and attending events ensures you will make an impression and recruiters will remember you’, she continued, highlighting the importance of a genuine understanding of the role and market level being applied for, having recruited approximately 96 graduates in the past six months.
Within a university setting, there is ‘the need to promote collaborative working and creative thinking in education models, to create a community of practice to enable continuous improvement.’ Lesley Raven
‘We need to engage our imaginations in the ingenuity needed to get us beyond the tweaks at the edges that are obviously not making enough of a difference to how we live– fashion gives us an opportunity as it should be a barometer of change relevant to time, people and our natural world, upon which we all revolve.‘ Dilys Williams
The discussion then moved to the audience for insightful comment and probing questions. When asked about allowing space for thought, experimentation and balance within curriculum, Kate responded, ‘most of the world focus is on narrowing peoples perspective on things. Within sustainability it’s almost a progressive broadening you need. The challenge is to get people to become experts in a synthesis where they put things together instead of taking them apart.”
This challenge is being addressed within Centre for Sustainable Fashion through initiatives such as MA Fashion and the Environment at the London College of Fashion, which was that same night awarded the Ethical Fashion Forum Source Award for Educational Innovation. The course was set up five years ago by Dilys Williams as a vital part of the development of the Centre’s work, to engage a multi way flow between the research and consultancy practitioners in the centre and burgeoning creative sustainability led postgraduate students. Susan Postlewaite, now course leader of the programme is currently collating this year’s graduate work for exhibition during London Fashion Week in February 2013.
The evening provided rich and diverse discussion regarding fashion education and set an agenda for future work, which will be continued through the network, for which details will be posted in the new year.
‘We need to encourage people to foster a sense of balance. It’s at the heart of a set of values that are different, and us showing that fashion can be different. Education is for life, not for a moment or for a score card.’ Kate Fletcher
The evening concluded with a final comment from a recent graduate, Alina Moat, ‘the best thing about the MA Fashion & Environment course is that normally courses are designed primarily around the idea of success. This offered the opportunity for failure – meaning showing that you can learn from mistakes and build on them; it’s not just built on society’s idea of success.’
You can track commentary and join in the debate on Twitter by searching #TransformFashion
