The RSA will be hosting an event exploring the notion of “design-hacking” a term used to offer alternatives to traditional design, production and partcipation. This event will be chaired byScott Burnham (author of the RSA Design & Society pamphlet on design-hacking) and invites Dr Otto von Busch “haute-couture heretic and DIY- demangogue”.
Dr Otto Von Busch recently completed a PhD which combined a series of projects and experiments to explore fashion activism. His approach invites participants to actively engage in the fashion system and he has created a digital platform called >self_passage< which offers open source projects and proposed solutions. This is an excellent resource for designerspractitioners, researchers and fashion DIY enthusiast’s.
Event Description
As brave designers embrace this new frontier spirit. Design jam sessions of professional and amateur in cities and festivals all over the developed world unlock a creative energy that has, in fact, been ever-present in favelas and rural villages where necessity has always been the mother of invention.
Is design-hacking merely another post-modern phase in the history of design, or does it reveal a civic ingenuity and resourcefulness that a century and a half of industrially-fed consumerism has masked?
I have just booked tickets and really look forward to attending this event. I will update a new posting to summarise the proceedings.
Fashioning Now, changing the way we make and use clothes is an exhibition and symposium at University of Technology, Sydney 28 July – 28 August 2009. The exhibit features innovative research projects from Australian and International practitioners including three members of staff and research from LCF Prof Helen Storey MBE, Dr Kate Fletcher and Jennifer Shellard.
Fashioning Now addresses all stages of the clothing lifecycle exploring the production and use of garments and addressing how and why they become discarded. The work has been submitted in an array of different mediums from garments,textile objects, time based art, photography and fashion illustration. The designers have used upcycling techniques, zero waste production, slow fashion, bespoke services, traditional craft and many more methods to present a series of sustainable solutions and poise scenarios for further research and development.
Visit the Fashioning Now website which hosts information about the event, the exhibitors and their work. Case studies are available to download and the website will be updated regularly making is a valuable resource for those with in an interest in sustainable fashion and textiles.
Gok’s Fashion fix is back! I enjoyed the customisation theme of season one as Gok presented tips and tricks showing how to adapt high street clothing to create bespoke looks.
The new season explores new approaches taking viewers on a journey towards creating the perfect capsule wardrobe of interchangeable pieces selected to co-ordinate. This considerate approach encourages us to apply more rigour to our fashion consumption. Gok’s new mantra of buy less and wear more demonstrates that investing in clothing chosen to co-ordinate can create maximum looks with minimal pieces.
It’s a good mantra and it challenges us to question do we really wear everything in out wardrobe?
I also like the subject of high street v high fashion as Gok battles it out each week to style high street fashion to compete against high end designer fashion.
To compete against bespoke tailoring and luxury fabric he styles and adapts high street fashion on a budget by cutting, stitching, pinning and tucking. All looks are styled and paraided on the catwalk at the end of the show with the audience voting for their favourute looks.
The show is packed with lots of tips and tricks to activly engage with fashion to maximise the efficiency of our wardrobes by creating looks to suit our body shape and styled to accommodate our daily functions. The customisation themes encourages DIY practice and with an increase in sewing machine sales there is a growing trend in make do and mend.
Visit the fashion fix website for further info
The Guardian and The Observer have launched DIY ethical fashion: Make your own designer clothes and accessories.
They have collaborated with designers to create step-by-step “how to” guides illustrated with beautiful photographs taking the maker on a journey of marking out, cutting and sewing to create bespoke fashion and accessories.
Allowing you to make your own:
Celia Birtwell stencil print bag
Jade Jagger bracelet
Stephen Jones hat
Vivienne Westwood dress
This offers insights into the design process and allows consumers to create bespoke goods at affordable prices. The hands on approach also allows us to engage in craft and DIY at a time when we are questioning our consumption, providing an alternative to mass produced goods that don’t cost a fortune.
Trendy-workshop.com is co-founded by Tristan de Montebello, a french fashion platform designed to allow users to design their own clothing and share their designs with other users within the trendy workshop community forum.
Image of IDEO/Prada Collaboration
Do you every spend hours deciding what to wear? I spend hours trying on clothing on only to discard it and try something else on, then something else, and something else etc… only to resolve the problem by wearing the original garment!