Emmanuel House X NTU is a practice research collaboration between a homeless charity in Nottingham and Year One, Level 4 BA Fashion Design students from Nottingham Trent University. The resulting garments and film highlight and seek to mitigate the disparity between clothing waste and clothing poverty, through a participatory, human-centred, upcycled design approach.

Textile designers have the opportunity to select and use archival collections to develop contemporary designs. The Design Library in New York is an example of a such a company offering source material that professional designers or brands might choose to pay to make use of. Student designers need to be encouraged to exercise responsibility when exploring global cultures in the appropriate appreciation and use of historical textile resources. As in many universities, designers within the BA (Hons) Fashion Textiles course are introduced to the responsibilities of social design at the beginning of their course. Through such study students consider inclusivity and diversity, social responsibility and sustainability as fundamental to developing their designer identity. This alternative poster/ installation will introduce the Art Cherie project, (Achieving and Retrieving Creativity through European Fashion Cultural Heritage Inspiration), a pilot online course aimed at professional/ student designers, that draws on digital archives as a design resource. The resource applies a mixed method research approach based on a methodology outlined by Jules Prown (1982) and Ingrid Mida and Alexandra Kim (2015) explored through demonstrations, case study examples and self-directed activities. Trend forecasting is introduced within the resource as a process of looking at wider social, cultural, political and economic factors occurring internationally at any given time and how these are applied to areas of the fashion industry. Consideration of cultural context as part of the research process seeks to avoid a Eurocentric approach. The alternative poster/ installation will include textile samples and research source data to illustrate how such a resource might be used within the curriculum to develop deeper understanding of appreciating and sharing cultural responsibility and support the development of responsible designers.

Fashion - an aesthetic and popular expression is contributing heavily in generating carbon footprint and polluting environment. Sadly, in the present times of climate emergency we cannot let our sense of aesthetics endanger the planet and our existence in turn. It is the need of the hour to explore sustainable fashion and aim for zero waste. Timo Risannen in his investigation about creating fashion without generating fabric waste explored 5 main techniques for zero/minimal waste namely – cut & sew, fully fashioned, jigsaw puzzle, cradle to cradle and A-POC. But like Olympics medalist, Peter Westbrook said “so much of our future lies in preserving our past!”, there is scope for an alternative by reviving from our ancestors, the art of fashion - a draped cloth. It was seen in history (Indus Valley/Egyptian/Greek/Roman) of clothing. A rectangular piece of cloth provides infinite possibilities, ‘one size fits all’, easy maintenance, easy storage and zero waste. It can be styled in numerous ways providing scope for personalization.

With aim at exploring the potential of draped clothing to be a wardrobe staple, an experiment was conducted inviting volunteers from social media to see if they could pull off a month with use of draped clothing in their everyday lifestyle. The participants were asked to use rectangular pieces of fabric styled as clothing. They could layer and use fasteners/belts/accessories. It was observed that the first challenge was to overcome fear of malfunction and ease for daily use. Overall feedback was positive and shows scope for consideration as a sustainable fashion option. The participant with prior knowledge of draping were better at coping. However, it was difficult to stay warm in cold weather. Thus, results have been compiled as a short film to see if the future of fashion can take a tangential turn towards draped clothing.

This project was built around celebrating body diversity. Images of people were translated into a work of textile art through digital printing and embroidery. Bodies and body positive messages were represented in a stylized manner and subjects were engaged in the design process to promote community engagement in the message.

The Kindred Bloom project was created for the ‘Wearing Justice’ exhibit on view at the Kent State University Museum 2019-20. As we acknowledge the 50th Anniversary of the May 4th Kent State shootings, we find the parallels between the student activists in 1970 and contemporary youth activists pronounced. In the 1970’s young passionate students demonstrated against the American war in Vietnam and Korea by holding rallies and demonstrations. At the time of Kindred Bloom’s conception, we were again witnessing the mobilization of youth activists, this time urging leaders to address gun safety legislation. Immediately following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting on February 14th, 2018, the media outlets were publishing images of children responding angrily to the lack of gun laws. Some images featured children with friendship bracelets which were inherently made in the innocence of youth, displayed on the wrists of these children. Currently, youth are holding rallies to gain the attention of those in power and working on digital platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to grow a community of support. Our collaborative response to Kent State University’s commemoration of the May 4th event is a conceptual installation in which we imagine the youth activists of today utilizing folk-art-inspired art previously employed by their youth activist counterparts in the 1970’s to embellished their clothing to both communicate support and create/reinforce community.

A dynamic range of new denimwear including Qipao jumpsuit, Modern Cycling Dress, Biker Set, Engineered Denim Gear were co-created by 4 matchup of fashion designers and bike commuters in Hong Kong. This collaboration serves as a practice-based example of fashion activism giving rise to innovation over ordinary products for specific community group.

This piece visually illustrates how inexpensive fashion garments are made using sweatshop laborers who are often underserved peoples with little opportunity to demand better working conditions. By sewing a garment with paint-covered hands on transparent fabric, the marks left behind illuminate the skill and dexterity required of a garment industry worker and the need for transparency to hold the industry accountable for unethical labor practices.

The burqa is a controversial garment that evokes contradicting views from the Muslims and non-Muslims based on their socio-cultural and religious views. This installation aims to create awareness of the different perspectives on the burqa and have an amicable dialogue on this highly debatable subject.