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Psychedelic pattern research - Yayoi Kusama

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Psychedelic pattern research - Yayoi Kusama

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In the past five years, more than 5 million museum visitors have queued - and queued some more - for a brief glimpse of the work of Yayoi Kusama. The 89-year-old Japanese artist, who for the past 41 years has lived voluntarily in a psychiatric hospital, has had large-scale solo shows of her work in Mexico City, Rio, Seoul, Taiwan and Chile, as well as major touring exhibitions in the US and Europe. Last year, she opened her own five-storey gallery in Tokyo. The Broad museum in Los Angeles recently sold 90,000 $25 tickets in an afternoon to its Kusama exhibition, causing the LA Times to ask if the artist was now "Hotter than Hamilton?"

As the numbers have gone up, so the time that each visitor can spend in Kusama's installations - her immersive "infinity mirror rooms" of coloured lights, and painted pumpkins and polka dots that reflect for ever - has gone down. In 2013 the David Zwirner gallery in New York was restricting time slots to 45 seconds for each viewer. Five years on, visitors to the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC, who queued for more than two hours, were down to a brisk half a minute.

How did this happen? The most obvious single word answer is "Instagram". People - hundreds of thousands of them (see #YayoiKusama or #InfiniteKusama) - photograph themselves in Kusama's unique spacey wonderlands and share the results. Many modern art galleries are currently exploring the idea of exhibition as uploadable social media "experience". Kusama - in developing an idea she first presented in New York in 1966 - has already cornered the market.

This autumn sees more new work on display at the Victoria Miro gallery in London - only two years since its last open-all-hours event. The exhibition coincides with the UK release of a film about the artist's extraordinary life, Kusama: Infinity. The story of the making of the film is indicative of the ways Kusama's fortunes have soared. Its director, Heather Lenz, first tried to get the idea off the ground in 2001. She pitched the story to every production company she could think of and was told the same thing by all of them. Her idea was "too arty", Kusama had "no name recognition", and "no one wants to watch a movie about a woman artist". No longer.

Kusama boldly made the decision to leave Japan and go to New York while that was a pretty shocking thing to do.

Heather Lenz, director

Speaking on the phone last week, Lenz acknowledged that the smartphone-friendly nature of the work is clearly part of the attraction - but said that should only lead to a deeper understanding of Kusama's career.

"Most people have seen her work on Instagram," Lenz says, "but when they hear what she had to go through to achieve the success that eluded her for so long, they really connect with that. We did a few screenings and though most people knew the work, out of an entire audience only two people knew for example that she lived in a psychiatric hospital."

Lenz's film reveals how Kusama's life has been if anything more estranging than her obsessive work, and the ways in which one informs the other. It does it no harm as a tale of perseverance and triumph that it falls into neat chapters of Kusama's self-transformation.

In the first of these, Kusama's childhood, the curious seeds of the art world's favourite selfie-craze were sown. Kusama was born into a wealthy family in rural Japan that managed extensive plant nurseries, growing varieties of violets and peonies and zinnias to sell all over the country. From a very young age Kusama would carry her sketchbook down to the seed-harvesting grounds and sit among the flowers until, as in a fairytale - of the Grimm kind - one day she experienced the flowers crowding in and talking to her. "I had thought that only humans could speak, so I was surprised the violets were using words. I was so terrified my legs began shaking." This was the first of a series of disturbing hallucinations - she calls them depersonalisations - that haunted her childhood.

Those episodes seem to have been connected to the dislocations of her home life. Kusama grew up in a deeply unhappy family. Her father was a philanderer and her mother sent Kusama to spy on him with his mistresses, though when she reported back, she recalls in her autobiography, "my mother would vent all her rage on me".

Her mother tried to stop Kusama from painting - tearing the canvas from her hands and destroying it - insisting that she studied etiquette in order to make a good arranged marriage. Kusama kept on drawing. It was her way of making sense of her hallucinations: flowers from the tablecloth that enveloped her and chased her upstairs; sudden bursts of radiance in the sky. "Whenever things like this happened I would hurry back home and draw what I had seen in my sketchbook... recording them helped to ease the shock and fear of the episodes," she recalls.

Many of the motifs that have become her trademarks were, apparently, rooted in this practice. The first pumpkin Kusama saw was with her grandfather. When she went to pick it, it began speaking to her. It was the size of a man's head. She painted the pumpkin and won a prize for it, her first, aged 11. Eighty years on, her largest silver pumpkin sculptures sell for $500,000.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, when Kusama was 13, she was conscripted to work in a factory that produced fabrics for parachutes. In the evening, she painted intricate flowers over and over. The local paper, in a notice of her first exhibition, reported her producing 70 watercolours a day.

Seeing stills of Kusama's early life in Lenz's documentary - her hair cut straight across her forehead, photographed among flowers - makes a stark and moving contrast to footage of the artist at work in her studio now. The same slightly bulbous eyes peer out from under a red wig as she joins up her dots with a magic marker, chewing her lip like a child. "To me," Lenz says, "Kusama's childhood trauma was instrumental in her work not just because of her difficult family, but also because of her society and the nightmare of the second world war."

Lenz came to understand these pressures more keenly because while making the film she herself married into a Japanese family and learned the history of her husband's grandfather, killed by the bomb at Hiroshima, and her mother- and father-in-law who had an arranged marriage. "That gave me a greater understanding of her childhood," she says. "The expectations of the time for a young lady, an arranged marriage, kids. Kusama boldly made the decision to leave Japan and go to New York while that was a pretty shocking thing to do."

That second chapter of Kusama's journey began when she first encountered the work of Georgia O'Keeffe in a bookshop in Matsumoto, her home town. She found O'Keeffe's address in New Mexico and wrote to her for advice about how she could make her way in the New York art world, sending some of her own intricate watercolours of surreal vegetal forms and exploding seed pods. O'Keeffe replied, puzzled at first why anyone, let alone a young woman in rural Japan, might want to do such a thing, but the curiosity developed over several years to a kind of mentorship. "In this country an artist has a hard time making a living," O'Keeffe replied. "You will just have to find your way as best you can."

Yayoi Kusama at an artistic "happening" in New York's Central Park in 1969. Photograph: New York Daily News Archive/Getty Images

Kusama arrived in New York in 1958, aged 27, with a few hundred dollars sewn into the lining of her dresses, along with 60 silk kimonos and some drawings. Her plan was to survive by selling one or the other.

In her own account, she subsisted initially on scraps of food including fish heads scavenged from the fishmonger's rubbish, which she boiled for soup. She trailed her work around the city. "One day," she recalls in her autobiography, "I carried a canvas taller than myself 40 blocks through the streets of Manhattan to submit it for consideration at the Whitney Annual. My painting was not selected and I had to carry it 40 blocks back again. The wind was blowing hard that day and more than once it seemed as if the canvas would sail up into the air, taking me with it. When I got home I was so exhausted I slept like the dead for two days."

Her breakthrough works, the Infinity Net paintings, emerged from an earlier series of watercolours entitled Pacific Ocean, which she had made in response to watching the tracery of waves on the surface of the sea when she had flown for the first time from Tokyo. The nets she painted were made from a repetitive singular gesture of impasto in little loops, like interlocking scales; the longest canvases measured 30ft. One of these canvases sold in 2014 for $7.1m, a record for a living female artist. The first ones she sold to fellow artists Frank Stella and Donald Judd in 1962 for $75.

For a while, Judd and Kusama lived in the same building on 19th Street in Manhattan. "She would sit around my apartment and talk, or I'd go down there and we'd talk," Judd recalled in an interview in 1988. "She'd work right through the night, as far as I could tell. Most paintings were done in one shot. I don't understand how she could do that, but she would start in a corner and then go across."

One of the startling things about watching Lenz's film is the way that Kusama seemed to be written out of pop art history. There was a point in the 60s when she shared almost equal billing - and notoriety - with the likes of Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. Part of this eclipse seems to have been by design - Kusama has long claimed that her original ideas were appropriated by the Wasp-ish men around her and passed off as their own.

In 1963 she started making chairs and other objects covered, fungi-like, with white painted phallic forms made of stuffed fabric; her pièce de résistance was a rowing boat, complete with oars, that she and Judd rescued from a junkyard. It was presented in a box-like space, the walls, ceiling and floor of which were papered with 999 silk-screen images of the phallic boat. She saw it as her own private aversion therapy.

A waxwork figure of Yayoi Kusama at Madame Tussauds, Hong Kong. Photograph: VCG/Getty Images

"I began making penises in order to heal my feelings of disgust toward sex," she later wrote. "My fear was of the hide-in-the-closet-trembling variety. I was taught sex was dirty, shameful, something to be hidden. Complicating things even more was all the talk about 'good families' and 'arranged marriage' and the absolute opposition to romantic love... Also, I happened to witness the sex act when I was a toddler and the fear that entered through my eye had ballooned inside me."

There is a grim irony in this act of therapy in that her technique of "soft sculpture" appears to have been adopted by Oldenburg, and her repetitive wallpaper prints by Warhol. She despaired at the way the men around her found fame with her ideas.

Lenz's film seeks to expose that appropriation. "Every single Q&A I do I get a question about how much the allegations that these white male artists stole her ideas were true," Lenz says. "Obviously I checked all the dates and they all work out as she said. People who had degrees in art history still challenged this though; it was as if they don't want to shift their views. They know what they know, I guess."

Kusama found something like her ideal man in Joseph Cornell, the reclusive genius of the outsider art world, maker of surreal boxes of found objects, and a man who, then in his 50s, had always lived with his mother. Cornell became obsessed with Kusama, sending her a dozen poems a day, never hanging up from a phone call so he was there when she picked it up to dial. This was her only known romantic relationship, though "he didn't like sex, and I didn't like sex so we didn't have sex". He wasn't an easy man. One time she was at Cornell's house and they were sitting on the lawn. Cornell's mother appeared, struggling up the garden with a large bucket of water. She tipped the contents over them, at which Cornell clung to his mother's skirt and pleaded with her: "Mother! I'm sorry! Forgive me, but this person is my lover, please do not do such outrageous things."

After that episode Kusama cooled somewhat. She began her first experiments with mirrored infinity, in an octagonal room filled with stuffed phalluses, and became so depressed that on one occasion she jumped from her studio window (her fall was broken by a bicycle).

She lost herself in other ways as the 1960s progressed. For one piece in 1966 she walked though some of the rougher neighbourhoods of the city, dressed in full Japanese national costume: kimono, white painted face, her plaited hair fixed with flowers and carrying an ornate parasol. The odyssey is captured in photos. Partly Kusama wanted to present herself as an outsider. Partly she wanted to project her singular identity as far and wide as she could (she had a Warhol-esque mania for fame). She hijacked the 33rd Venice Biennale in 1966 with Narcissus Garden, a lake of 1,500 reflective balls in which the viewer's face was infinitely multiplied. She sold the balls for $2 each, "your narcissism for sale" read the ad, a gesture that foretold the artwork as selfie. The Biennale authorities stopped the performance, objecting to "selling art like hot dogs or ice-cream cones".

When the summer of love arrived, Kusama sought to position herself as a kind of high priestess of flower power, staging "Body Festivals" and "Anatomic Explosion happenings" in which she painted naked partygoers with polka dots. She took these happenings to sites around New York - opposite the New York Stock Exchange, on the steps of the Statue of Liberty - creating nude protests against the election of Richard Nixon and the Vietnam war. Jeanette Hart, one of her dancers in these performances, recalls how she first heard about Kusama from a friend, who said the artist would let Hart stay at her studio for nothing if she could paint her. "I was thinking 'portrait'," Hart remembers. "It never occurred to me that it meant literally 'paint me'." Kusama's happenings appeared on the front page of the Daily News twice in one year: "Nudies dance on Wall St and the cops don't pinch 'em."

A scene from Heather Lenz's new documentary, Kusama: Infinity. Photograph: Dogwoof films

On 25 November 1968 she staged - half a century ahead of its time - New York's first "homosexual wedding", for which she had created a "wedding dress for two". She sold polka dot fashion designs from a boutique, with holes to reveal breasts and buttocks, which cemented her notoriety not only in America but also in her native - and deeply conservative - Japan. She was the scandalous exile. Media interest in her work had shifted from serious critical attention to exposés in the tabloids where her name became synonymous with skin painting and orgies.

As the 70s backlash against 60s excesses began, and having become something of an outcast in New York, Kusama returned to Japan. She was deeply affected by the death of Joseph Cornell in 1972, and by her father two years later. She rented an apartment on the 10th floor of a tower block in Shinjuku, Tokyo, overlooking a large cemetery, and began to work on an elegy to Cornell in surreal collages. The hallucinations and panic attacks of her adolescence returned with full force, however, and she was hospitalised several times. In Lenz's film there is some footage from an art project that saw Kusama alone in a park in the city, submerged under a seething pile of silk, unable to escape. In March 1977 she admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital.

For some artists this might have been the end of things, but for Kusama it represented a new start. She found a way to manage her mania, and direct it toward her creativity. The hospital offered art therapy courses. She signed up, and never left.

Kusama does not do interviews, but in the course of researching this story I was invited to ask her three questions about her curious life by email. What do you say? This businesslike exchange went as follows: "Was the enormous recognition you have received relatively late in your career a surprise to you? Did you ever lose faith in it happening?"

"Long ago," Kusama wrote back, "I decided that all I could do was express my thoughts through my art and that I would continue to do this until I died, even if no one was ever to see my work. Today, I never forget that my artworks have moved millions of people all around the world."

What have been the advantages for you of living in a psychiatric hospital? How has it informed your practice as an artist?

"It made it possible for me to continue to make art every day, and this has saved my life."

How do you habitually begin your days in the studio? And how do you end them?

"I have been painting, drawing and writing from morning until night every day since I was a child. When I arrive at my studio in the morning, I put on my work clothes and start to paint straight away, and I work right up until dinner time. I don't rest. I am an insomniac. Even now, if an idea comes to me in the middle of the night, I pick up my sketchbook and draw."

Heather Lenz asked to film at Kusama's hospital but it was not possible, out of respect for the other patients. Having had this brief exchange with Kusama, I wondered what Lenz made of her curious regime?

"I think it was her choice - and that is in no way to belittle any of her traumas or her medical conditions. If you think about it, she had found this location where she was looked after and there was art therapy and it was close to her studio. She wanted to spend her time making her art - and here was a situation where she didn't have to worry about washing her sheets or cleaning the bathroom or cooking. It is not a bad arrangement. If you look at the history of art, a lot of successful men have had wives or servants do that for them also."

Kusama sleeps at the hospital each night and works in her studio across the road six days a week. She eats sushi from the local supermarket. She makes her own clothes. She apparently has little interest in the wealth that has come to her late in life. She has a small team of assistants in her studio, and gallerists who look after her interests in New York, Tokyo and London. Glenn Scott Wright, co-director at Victoria Miro, is one of them.

Visitors at Kusama's Kusamatrix exhibition in Tokyo, 2004. Photograph: Junko Kimura/Getty Images

Scott Wright recalls how he first saw Kusama's art at Modern Art Oxford in 1989. "I just walked in not knowing much about her and thought 'these are absolutely amazing'." He sought out more of her work at an exhibition at the CICA museum in New York later that year, the start of Kusama's triumphant resurrection in the city, curated by Alexandra Munroe. The first time Scott Wright encountered her in person was at the 1993 Venice Biennale, when she was granted the whole Japanese pavilion. He has watched her star slowly rise over the past 25 years.

"We had an Infinity Mirror Room at the first Victoria Miro show at Cork Street [in 1998] and practically no one came. The last show we had 80,000 visitors."

One reason for this success, he believes, is the need to make amends in some way for the fact that Kusama was never taken up by the art establishment like her male contemporaries. "She was doubly an outsider - a woman, and a Japanese woman. She just wasn't recognised in the way the white male artists were. In retrospect it is clear she was a very important figure both in minimalism and in pop art. Her work provided a link between the two, which was unique."

As well as that, he argues, Kusama has achieved the rare double of serious critical attention and immense popularity. "At the same time as the Tate retrospective was happening in 2012, including all this wonderful work from the 1950s and 1960s, she was launching a fashion range with Louis Vuitton, perhaps the biggest art and fashion collaboration ever, with thousands of shop windows. I think the nature of her work is that it has always had the capacity for universal appeal. Even from the early shows you could observe people of all ages opening up to it with a real sense of wonder."

Scott Wright goes to see Kusama regularly in Tokyo, probably three times a year. Generally the artist is painting when he arrives at the studio and he waits to let her finish before they discuss any business.

"She paints on a flat surface and sits in a chair, but she will get up and move around," he says. "She is not much interested in hearing art world gossip, she wants to talk about her own work."

I wonder how changed she is by success?

"She doesn't talk about it so much, but she says she always wanted Kusama to be everywhere, so she appreciates that."

The internet has granted Kusama that wish in ways she could not have imagined when she was sitting in her field of peonies as a girl. "I am determined to create Kusama world, which no one has ever done and trodden into," she once wrote. As a student of narcissism she would perhaps have been amused to hear that one visitor to All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins recently took that desire literally when he stumbled into and shattered a pumpkin while trying to capture a self-portrait in a mirror.
Yayoi Kusama: There will be a private view for readers of the Observer (the Guardian's Sunday sister paper) on 14 Nov. Details of how to apply for tickets will be published in the Observer next month The Moving Moment When I Went To The Universe, is at Victoria Miro gallery, London N1, 3 Oct-21 Dec. Free timed tickets: victoria-miro.com. Kusama: Infinity, is in cinemas/on demand from 5 October.

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Yayoi Kusama: the world's favourite artist?

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After spending the past four decades in a psychiatric hospital, her name written out of art history, Yayoi Kusama became an art-world phenomenon in the age of the selfie

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Starting life as a small mail-order business, Barbara Hulanicki's 'Biba' evolved into a style and retail phenomenon.

The daughter of a Polish diplomat, Barbara Hulanicki moved to London with her family after the Second World War. She began her career in fashion in the early 1960s, working as a freelance illustrator after studying at Brighton College of Art. Her husband, Stephen Fitz-Simon, was an advertising executive at the time, and could see that illustration was quickly being eclipsed by photography. He encouraged her to pursue her interest in designing, and in 1963 the couple launched Biba's Postal Boutique ('Biba' was the nickname of Hulanicki's younger sister, Biruta). Run as a mail-order business that produced set runs of stock, Biba offered Hulanicki and Fitz-Simon a low-risk means of testing the popularity of new designs.

The label scored its first major success in 1964, with a pink-gingham sleeveless shift dress and matching headscarf - a nod to the simple clothes Hulanicki's mother had made her when she was a girl. The dress was commissioned by Felicity Green, The Daily Mirror's influential fashion editor, who featured it in a sponsored promotion used to illustrate an article on women in business. It was anticipated that the dress would sell around 3,000 units, but once the feature was published, Biba received over 17,000 orders. With solid proof of a mass-market appetite for her fresh, youthful styles, Hulanicki had the confidence to open the first Biba boutique, in a former chemist's shop in London's Abingdon Road.

Women - mostly under the age of 25 - flocked to Biba to buy Hulanicki's 'Mod' clothes in the murky tones she soon became known for. Biba's aesthetic was inspired by decadent, bygone styles (particularly Pre-Raphaelite and Art Nouveau) in earthy colours like olive, rust and her favourite, 'bruised purple'. Where female fashions of the previous decades had emphasised the bust and hips, Hulanicki's short designs focused on the wearer's legs. Her outfits best accommodated women whose under-fed post-war bodies allowed them to squeeze into unforgiving dresses (stretch fabrics were yet to be invented), many of which featured Hulanicki's signature 'long and skinny' sleeves. By the middle of the decade, Biba had become one of the capital's 'must have' new labels. And word soon travelled: a 1966 edition of American news magazine Time promoted London as 'The Swinging City' and named Biba as "the most in shop for gear".

The key to Biba's success lay in its affordability. Fitz-Simon had worked out that if they kept prices well inside the maximum disposable weekly income of the average London secretary, they could accelerate the rate of repeat purchases. So the principle behind the Biba store was 'pile it high, sell it cheap', making it very different from other fashionable London boutiques that catered only for those with money. Hulanicki also had an eye for what ordinary girls liked, maintained a fast-changing supply of coordinated separates in a variety of colours. But it wasn't only students and young working women that appreciated a well-designed bargain - models, singers and TV celebrities (among them Twiggy, Cilla Black and the presenter of hip pop-music TV show Ready Steady Go!, Cathy McGowan) were also loyal Biba customers.

Shoppers also appreciated the unique atmosphere at Biba, which Hulanicki and Fitz-Simon had worked hard to create. Their store was filled with ornate Victorian furniture and antiques, was dimly lit for dramatic effect and - unusually for the time - offered a communal (and flimsy) changing room. They also hired young, approachable staff who looked and acted like the customers, and played loud pop music that leaked out onto the street. The retail experience was transformed. Shopping, very suddenly, became a social event. Many women from outside London made special trips to the capital just to shop at Biba.

In 1966 Biba opened a new store on Kensington Church Street, and later expanded into a former department store on Kensington High Street. Housed in this enormous Art Deco building (Hulanicki was a huge fan of the style), and diversifying into homeware lines, as well as running a restaurant and nightclub, Biba was now London's most renowned 'place to be'. Crucially, despite all the glamour of 'Big Biba', young people could still afford to go there and push through the crowds to secure the latest must-wear item - such as the knee-high boots, popular at the end of the decade.

Hulanicki lost outright control of the business in the mid-1970s when she and Fitz-Simon sold part of Biba to another UK fashion company, Dorothy Perkins. The Biba store closed in 1976. Hulanicki now lives in the US where she works as a retail and design consultant.

In this film, Hulanicki describes her early visits to the V&A as a student in the 1950s, and explains how key objects from our painting and jewellery collections inspired her iconic fashion designs.

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Starting life as a small mail-order business, Barbara Hulanicki's 'Biba' evolved into a style and retail phenomenon. The daughter of a Polish diplomat, Barbara Hulanicki moved to London with her family after the Second World War. She began her career in fashion in the early 1960s, working as a freelance illustrator after studying at Brighton College of Art.

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Perhaps the most influential artist of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso may be best known for pioneering Cubism and fracturing the two-dimensional picture plane in order to convey three-dimensional space. Inspired by African and Iberian art, he also contributed to the rise of Surrealism and Expressionism. Picasso's sizable oeuvre grew to include over 20,000 paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures,ceramics, theater sets, and costume designs. He painted his most famous work, Guernica (1937), in response to the Spanish Civil War; the totemic grisaille canvas remains a definitive work of anti-war art. At auction, a number of Picasso's paintings have sold for more than $100 million. The indefatigable artist has been the subject of exhibitions at the world's most prestigious institutions, from the Museum of Modern Art and Centre Pompidou to the Stedelijk Museum and Tate Modern.

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Perhaps the most influential artist of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso may be best known for pioneering Cubism and fracturing the two-dimensional picture plane in order to convey three-dimensional space. Inspired by African and Iberian art, he also contributed to the rise of Surrealism and Expressionism.

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Sustainable fashion forum - common objective

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Sustainable fashion forum - common objective

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Dolores's interest in fashion history dates from her teenage years when vintage apparel was widely available in thrift stores.

Youth Movement of the 1960s

Fashions of the 1960s reflected youth. From the child-like short skirts of the mid 60's to the costume type outfits of the hippies, clothing took on new lines, color, and a reflection of vibrant optimism mixed with an idealistic yearning for a new egalitarian society.

The introduction of The Pill encouraged women to seek a new kind of freedom. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 increased interest in African culture as well as interest in other ethnic groups. Western youth no longer saw themselves as a homogenized whole, but as a collection of tribes with a wide variety of interests and self created roles.

The 1960s was a time of social and cultural change, due in large part, to population demographics. According to the US Census Bureau, 36% of the US population was under 18 in 1960. A youth movement was underway.

The youthful population of the 1960s wore short skirts, geometric prints, and bright colors. From the casual sophistication of the early 60's, to the Pop Art and Op Art influences of the Mods, dress styles went through radical changes. Women had never shown so much skin. Men grew their hair long. Young people rejected traditional clothing until second half of the decade, a kind of style anarchy created a new Bohemian look introduced by the hippie movement. The photo at the above right shows a bride in a mini dress that flies in the face of tradition, her bouquet a simple handful of daisies.

Early 60's Fashion Icons

Post war designer Emilio Pucci introduced tapered Capri pants, and new lightweight clothing that was perfect for travel. His wrinkle-free silk jersey made in bold colors and vibrant color combinations created a new casual style with a youthful appeal.

Jackie Kennedy. The youthful first lady presented herself with a natural, yet sophisticated style in a manner that was classically simple. Mixing Parisian couture and a breezy, athletic American style, Jackie Kennedy favored boat-neck tops, trousers, and sleeveless dresses. Her formal attire lost the fussy look of the past, leaning toward clean lines and bright colors.

Audrey Hepburn, the muse of Herbert de Givenchy, became a fashion icon influential to this day. She was tall and thin following an era when the feminine ideal was curvy and robust. In her flat shoes and dancer's stance, she created a youthful new look without flash ornamentation that relied on a natural grace as depicted in her films Sabrina and Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Twiggy, a fashion model and muse for Mary Quant became a hugely famous figure in the early to mid 60's. Thin to the point of emaciation, her androgynous appeal became the slouchy, big-eyed portrait of a modern girl. Her short boyish hair, and exaggerated eye make up gave her a unique look recognisable to this day. (Twiggy appears in the vido above)

Jean Shrimpton, named Model of the Year by Glamour Magazine in 1963 was known for her long legs, pouty lips, and staight hair with bangs.

Carnaby Street Scene

Mary Quant and the London Fashion Scene

A new affluence combined with affordable tuition allowed more kids than ever to attend college. The egalitarian influence of the newly educated lower class mixed with the concept of the shared hardships during and following World War II, led to a youth movement no longer led by the elite. Young people rejected the snobbery of couture, and the restrictive conservation of the post war years.

In the Chelsea area of London, a haunt for artists and Bohemians, the Beatnik trends of the 1950s informed a look based on dancers' clothing, including short skirts, tights, and flat shoes.

Carnaby Street, a fashionable shopping district in London, hosted the emergence of new, independent boutiques that focused on bold new styles.

In 1955, Mary Quant opened her clothing shop called Bazaar, offering updated traditional styles and an informal shopping experience in a party-like atmosphere. Designing clothes that offered greater ease of movement, Mary Quant introduced simple tunic style dresses that rejected the structured tailoring of the fashion establishment.

She featured jewelry created by art students in radically new designs.

Her mini skirt was offered to young working women to enable them to run for the bus. And when gartered hose did not work with the short hemlines, she sold dancers' tights, then followed up with colored tights procured from theatrical manufacturers. Bright colors and fabric patterns taken from children's wear mixed with bold geometric prints, puffed caps, and knee high boots to create a modern new look - Mod style.

The Kinks have a bit of fun with fashion

1960's Fashion and The Abolishment of Dress Codes

In Britain, young working class men began to adopt historical clothing based on Edwardian designs. From Edward VII's nickname, the Teddy Boys wore long, fitted jackets with velvet collars, brocade vests, and drainpipe trousers. Mods wore tight fitting suits, grew their hair out like the Beatles and zipped around town on motor scooters. Rockers based their style on an American James Dean look with leather jackets and motor cycles.

Young men and women began to reject the dress codes of a conservative past when the elite establishment ruled fashion. People no longer dressed according to social position or time of day.

And while the British dressed up, Americans dressed down. Jeans, once the uniform of cowboys and farmers, became the symbol of a new laid back kind of freedom. College students who no longer saw themselves as an elite class dressed for the common cause, breaking down social position identified by manner of dress.

Jeans became the signature clothing item of the youth movement. The once plain work garment evolved into sailor style bell bottoms that came, no longer just in blue denim, but in a rainbow of colors, often featuring embroidery and appliqued designs.

The Hippie Movement and Fashion

In the Haight - Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, a group of young professionals, artists, and musicians began to adapt a new Bohemian life style. Like the Aesthetics of the 19th century, the new Bohemians rejected the dehumanizing effects of mass production and consumerism, as well as the roles dictated by society.

Embracing an alternative way of living,the early hippies dressed in theatrical costumes, and recycled clothing, often based on historic costume and folk dress. Wearing vintage clothes, or remaking garments out of old fabric, the hippies created a unique look based on individuality, creativity, and fantasy.

They incorporated ethnic fashions and military surplus into curious combinations. Gypsy scarves and skirts, Middle Eastern kaftans, traditional African garments and fabrics, Indian prints, Native American influences mixed with the fringe jackets of American pioneers to create an unstructured look that was both exotic and frivolous.

The whimsical independence of hippie style threatened the fashion establishment. Men grew their hair long. Women could no longer be told what to wear. Social position no longer dictated how a person dressed.

While hippie style introduced a new, ecological sensibility, the style eventually went mainstream. Hippie type clothes were worn by the wealthy elite and, eventually, became a mass produced fashion trend that went against everything the original hippies stood for.

Psychodelic Style

The use of drugs introduced an alternative perception. LSD created a heightened appreciation of color, texture, and line that informed fashion of the late 1960s. Colors bled into other colors and the geometric shapes of the early decade melted into amoeba patterns, vibrant swirls, and Indian paisley.

An essential component of the hippie style of the second half of the 1960s, psychodelic fashion often mixed with the tribal and folk costume clothing of the Haight - Ashbury scene. African patterns and clothing design, popularized after the Civil rights Act, introduced tie-dyed fabrics and loose, comfortable dashikis.

A stereotype emerged - a young person in an Afro hair style, wearing a tie-dyed shirt, peace symbol, and bell bottomed jeans, the quintessential mass marketed hippie, a look that pops up every Halloween.

While psychodelia quickly lost steam due to over saturation, the Bohemian fashion trend of the hippies made frequent comebacks that still influences fashion today. The long hippie style peasant skirts led to the maxi skirt, a short lived ankle length hemline that quickly died out, but brokered an end to the dictation of hemlines by the fashion establishment.

Hair, Makeup, and Jewlry of the 1960s

Hair
The early 60's saw bouffant hairdos that were less exaggerated than in the late 50's. A soft, slightly pouffed bob, or shoulder length flip was teased out at the tip for volume. Even the Mods, with their sleek hairdos kept a bit of lift in the geometric cut bobs like the one worn by Mary Quant.

A smooth sleekness gave way to long, straight hair, worn with or without bangs or in a center part. Wavy haired and curly haired young women had their hair straightened or ironed it flat at home.

Hippie style encouraged a natural look that included long, straight hair as well as long, curly or wavy hair. Very curly African hair was allowed to grow in a natural fashion, cut slightly in a rounded form into an Afro. Young men grew their hair long, or allowed curls to grow naturally.
Makeup
Makeup ran the gamut from the minimalist cosmetic style worn by Audrey Hepburn, to khol rimmed eyes of the Mods. While 50's makeup highlighted the lips, makeup of the 60's paid special attention to the eyes with large false eye lashes, and the exaggerated eye makeup worn by Twiggy.

Hippies generally eschewed cosmetics, but enjoyed face painting for special events, displaying images of daisies, rainbows, and other natural themes on their cheeks or foreheads. Body painting turned the entire body into a canvas. Unlike the tattoos of today, body art of the 60's washed off.
Jewelry
Jewelry went from the conservative, lady-like pearl (or faux pearl) necklaces of the 50's toward a variety of styles. Mods preferred obvious costume jewelry made of chunky plastics in bright colors.

As the more Bohemian look of the late 1960s went mainstream, an eclectic variety of jewelry included long beaded necklaces, stacked silver bangles, woven leather bracelets, large stone rings, beaded head bands, hooped and intricate dangle earrings. Flowers were often worn instead of jewelry, or worn in a wreath on top of the head. Daisies were the predominant flower choice.

Shoes of the 1960s

Young women of the early 1960s wore flat shoes, and low heeled pumps. Later, knee high boots came into the mix, appearing in vinyl as well as leather. The tall, thin boots came in light shades and in colors. Later, wider, lower cut boots were called Go-Go Boots and were often featured on popular dance shows on TV.

Young men wore low cut boots with Cuban heels, and zipped or elastic sides. Rockers and Americans who favored Western styles wore cowboy boots or motorcycle boots.

The hippies often went without shoes at all. Sandals came in Gladiator styles and flip-flops. Huarches, a Mexican sandal with a woven leather top which had been popular for some years was commonly worn by hippie types. Boots were popular as well as clogs and Doctor Scholls wooden soled sandals.

1960's Style Today

The whimsical freedoms of 1960s styles still influence the world of fashion. The comfort and freedom of movement that was popularized then is a concept that never really went away. Any day, you can see girls in mini skirts and knee high boots. Clogs have become even more popular and come in many styles. And the Bohemian style of the hippie movement has made several comebacks which include psychodelic floral designs and the kaftans that were featured in the 2012 Spring Fashion Week.

Modern fashion shows and collections reflect the alternative styles of the 1960s, presenting a myriad of hemlines, trouser types, color blends, and clothing shapes.

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Fashions of the 1960s: Mods, Hippies, and the Youth Culture

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Dolores's interest in fashion history dates from her teenage years when vintage apparel was widely available in thrift stores. Fashions of the 1960s reflected youth. From the child-like short skirts of the mid 60's to the costume type outfits of the hippies, clothing took on new lines, color, and a reflection of vibrant optimism mixed with an idealistic yearning for a new egalitarian society.

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We all know sublimation printing only works well on synthetic fibres like polyester. However polyester fabric on its own isn't very eco-friendly, even their materials are made from recycled water bottles. If the polyester clothes don't end up in a landfill, they'll end up in the water streams as microplastics. Hanrun held a large-scale publicity event to appeal people save our ocean last year.

From textiles industry, what we can do is ensure the process of making clothes should be as green as possible.

This method of applying colour to the fabric is the ecological lifeline for the synthetic fibres. That's because it is possible to colour them while making zero negative impact on the environment.

With dye sublimation, you will use 5 ml of water-based ink to dye 1 kg of recycled polyester clothes as opposed to traditional dyeing that uses up to 200 l for the same amount of clothes.

Not only that but you wouldn't use any harmful substances along the way. Also, the sublimation ink penetrates the fibre on a cellular level and doesn't wash away. Therefore, it's more effective than traditional dyeing.

If you are planning to make promo wear or sportswear , dye sublimation is ideal for you, because these product are more often than not made from synthetic fibres.

To use this colour application method, you need two machines - How Does Dye Sublimation Work?
dye sublimation printer and a textile calender for sublimation.

Dye sublimation printers use special inks and special heat-resistant paper. The reverse images are printed on the paper.

Textile canlender for sublimation is essentially a powerful heat press that helps the "magic of sublimation" happen. It is "fed" with both the paper and the fabric.

In it, the inks from the paper change their physical state from solid to gaseous and transfer to the fabric. When in the fabric, the inks go back to solid-state.

This way, the inks bind with the fabric on a molecular level and can't be washed away.

As a pioneer of this industry, Hanrun has dedicated to environmental protection and sustainable development ever since we were found. We use new environment-friendly and non-polluting materials. Every process is strictly controlled and tested to ensure quality. We value envirmental protection as much as our customers form all over the world. We all pursue the harmony of development and preservation across all operations.

Email: info@hanrunpaper.com
Whatsapp:0086 189 3686 5061
Address: No.10 building, Baijiahui Innovation Community, 699-18 Xuanwu Avenue, Nanjing, China

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Your Eco-friendly Choice-Sublimation Printing -Hanrun Paper Industrial Co.,Limited-We all know sublimation printing only works well on synthetic fibres like polyester. However polyester fabric on its own isn't very eco-friendly, even their materials are made from recycled water bottles. If the polyester clothes don't end up in a landfill, they'll end up in the water streams as microplastics.

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Working with pattern repeats in industry

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Working with pattern repeats in industry

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There’s a trend emerging in the textile design industry, and as much as I’d tried to, I just don’t like it. Over the years the industry has become more competitive, and along with that an increasing number of agents and studios are requiring that patterns be in a seamless repeat. Why? Each studio ha…

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DRx FARMAxY FOR LN-CC Unisex Shaman 2.0 Pants in Blue | LN-CC

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DRx FARMAxY FOR LN-CC blue Shaman 2.0 Pants in upcycled materials made in United States . Discover & shop online on LN-CC.

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15 Trends from the 1960s That Are Still Everywhere in Fashion

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Sequined pailettes, denim mini skirts, and more.

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29 Game-Changing '60s Fashion Trends We Still Love Today

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Click in to see the biggest fashion trends and style icons from the '60s, from miniskirts to space age-inspired pieces.

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Allison Willoughby - skirts as art installations

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Allison Willoughby - skirts as art installations

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Since 2001, I was known as Skirtgirl. For a long time, every day, I made skirts, for people or installations.

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How much volume to add?

Think about how much volume you are wanting to add to the pattern overall. You may want to do this by eye (just cut along the line and then spread until it looks as though enough volume has been added), or by an exact amount. If you are just opening up a hemline, I would say that doing it by eye is fine. But if, for example, the hip-line of a pattern is too tight and you are spreading the pattern to accommodate this, then I would suggest finding an exact amount so that you don't get any surprises.

If you have found an exact amount, you will need to divide this figure by four, as the volume will need to be distributed between the four pieces that make up the skirt pattern (front right, front left, back left and back right). Then divide the number again, by the number of guidelines you have on your pattern piece.

For example, if you would like to add an overall 30cm to the hemline, you will be adding 7.5cm to each pattern piece. If I was to add this to my pattern used as an example, I would divide this 7.5cm by my three guidelines, meaning I would open up each guideline by 2.5cm.

Cut and spread

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Throwback Thursday: Adding volume to a pattern - In the Folds

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Think about how much volume you are wanting to add to the pattern overall. You may want to do this by eye (just cut along the line and then spread until it looks as though enough volume has been added), or by an exact amount.

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About - Lazy Oaf You must be logged in before you can use the wishlist! Return any item, or exchange for a different size within 60 days of receipt. Simply fill in the returns form and post item back to us. Ensure goods are unused, in original packaging, with all labels attached.

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Born in 1914 to one of Florence's oldest families, Emilio Pucci, the Marquis of Barsento, became a fashion phenomenon in the 1950s with a trailblazing vision that continues to reverberate today.

Although he relinquished a private life of aristocratic leisure, the Marquis was nonetheless crowned 'The Prince of Prints' by the international fashion press who were smitten by his bold, new designs and radical approach to fashion at the time. A major influence in contemporary fashion, Pucci's legacy continues to be a major force behind the birth of the 'Made in Italy' style and a milestone in Italy's sportswear concept.

HOW IT BEGAN

An avid skier and athlete, who travelled between his family's regal palazzo in Florence, the mountains of Switzerland and the glamorous resort island of Capri, Emilio Pucci naturally embodied the post-war, jet set glamour which captivated a new generation of modern, active women. His fashion career began unexpectedly in 1947 when he created a streamlined ski outfit, which was revolutionary with its sleek, tapered trousers and hooded parka, and was photographed on the slopes of Switzerland for Harper's Bazaar. He then opened a boutique on Capri dedicated to simple, yet beautiful resort clothing that embodied the island's natural beauty and refreshingly bright colours. The novel concept of designer ready-to-wear was a hit with the island's sophisticated clientele who had instant access to wearable yet chic clothing. Later, his designs were prized by world-renown female icons, including Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, Jackie Kennedy, and Gloria Guinness, as well as Madonna, and Nicole Kidman.

THE REVOLUTIONARY DESIGN

Prior to Pucci's arrival on the design scene, women were constricted by rigid, structured clothing that utilised heavy padding, corsets, and petticoats to unnaturally confine the body. Contrary to his design contemporaries, Pucci was driven by the desire to liberate women, granting them unprecedented freedom and movement. His simply designed dresses, pants and tops featured free-flowing lines that followed the natural curves of the body. Pucci designs had the allure of couture, but were shed of all the impractical weight, volume, layering and, most importantly, cost of haute couture creations. Additionally, Pucci offered a total vision that ranged from dresses and underwear to linens, handbags, perfumes, and rugs, and gave an expanded group of consumers access to designer goods for the first time.

A BRILLIANT COLOURIST

Inspired by exotic cultures and by the natural landscapes of the Mediterranean, Pucci brought luscious, bright colour to his designs in an unparalleled way. A sophisticated fusion of colour, lemon yellows, bougainvillea pinks, frosted lilacs, azure blue, and almond green became the hallmark of Pucci design. The effect was glorious, joyful, and perfectly captured the new mood in fashion. Instantly recognisable, Pucci's colour combinations exude energy and emotion and allow the designs of the clothes themselves to remain relatively simple.

A KALEIDOSCOPE OF PRINTS

In the 1950s Pucci began developing his signature prints, graphic, abstract designs, which swirled in a kaleidoscope of colour. The organic forms pulsing with geometric patterns mimicked contemporary art forms, but were inspired by the world around him, which included Sicilian mosaics, the heraldic banners of Siena's Palio horse race, Bali Batiks, and African motifs. It was the first time that such optical illusions had been incorporated into clothing and the effect was highly original, not to mention extensively copied in the years to come. Each print carries the designer's name 'Emilio', in tiny hand-written form, marking the debut of a designer's name as an external logo.

UNPRECEDENTED FABRICS

Working closely with expert fabric manufacturers in Italy, Pucci revolutionised the clothing sector by pioneering free-moving, stretch fabrics. Eschewing the heavy, rigid fabrications that were still largely in circulation in the 1950s, he developed and patented several original fabrics such as silk stretch jersey and cotton jersey. Both fabrications, the result of intensive technical research, allowed Pucci garments to be weightless, unlined, and wrinkle-proof, the precursors for a modern, travel-friendly wardrobe.

CONQUERING AMERICA

Working out of his grand palazzo, the designer began showing his collections to the international press and buyers in Florence in 1951. He became an instant hit with American retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus who were enthralled by the explosive colour and the wearability of his simple designs. The effortless, elegant clothing, which took women from day to evening and from jets to seaside cocktail parties, perfectly captured America's new sportswear sensibility and complemented the glamour of the high-rolling, jet set crowd. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, the brand rose to popularity amongst the country's wealthiest and most stylish women.

SPECIAL PROJECTS

Pucci used his design talent in a variety of non-fashion projects. These include creating futuristic uniforms for Braniff International Airlines flight attendants, the logo for the Apollo 15 space mission, porcelain tableware for Rosenthal, Spring Mills bath towels, the 'Piume' print for Qantas airlines, and the interior of a Ford Lincoln Continental Mark IV, as well as Cappellini furniture projects and a 300-foot hand-painted sail for Wally Yachts. The more recent projects include the Illy Art Collection as well as the Pucci book published by Taschen.

In the 1990s, Pucci prints experienced a surge in popularity, and as the world's fascination with the brand rekindled, Emilio's daughter, Laudomia Pucci, began to take over her father's business. In April 2000, an alliance was formed between the Pucci family and LVMH, with the French luxury group acquiring 67% of the company. In a short time the company has built a global store network, and soared once again on the international fashion stage.
READ MORE
A&E Guide To Milan Fashion Week FW18

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Prince Of Prints: The History Of Emilio Pucci - A&E Magazine

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Born in 1914 to one of Florence's oldest families, Emilio Pucci, the Marquis of Barsento, became a fashion phenomenon in the 1950s with a trailblazing vision that continues to reverberate today.

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We pride ourselves on producing small sustainable runs of collections, acting against fast fashion. Producing two seasonal collections a year sets the design team at a slower pace, allowing us time to research then source sustainable fabrics and manufacturing methods. We are committed to creating quality garments, which last and can be worn season after season.

As a brand, we are on a journey towards sustainability and are conscious of our environmental impact.

We do not under any circumstances use leather, down, feathers, exotic skins, mohair, mulesing, wool or angora, making all our products vegan. Along with making a conscious effort concerning animal welfare, animal agriculture impacts global Green House Gas and emission.

From VOL.15 - SS'20 all our garment bags are 100% biodegradable,

These are plastic-free and made from 100% compostable bio-based films. That means it'll disintegrate completely, leaving no toxic chemicals behind, just like organic waste.

Two styles from VOL.15 - SS'20 are made from recycled polyester (water bottles to be

exact!) meaning the full garment and packaging made from 100% recycled fabrics.

Using new e-flow technology which uses 800 LT per 100 garments of water whereas traditional method uses 8.000 LT. per 100 garments e-Flow technology is the sustainable textile solution to transfer chemicals onto garments made of any fabric. Conventionally water is used as the carrier and, at the end of every cycle, that water, still brimming with chemical products, goes to waste.

e-Flow technology can accomplish a considerable number of finishing effects with the highest quality, a minimal amount of water and zero discharge. This is why e-Flow technology is the only one certified as ecological by an independent laboratory.

Print placement:

For VOL15 SS20 we have chosen to avoid print placements. This is where the print is engineered to the garments shape, which creates a lot of fabric wastage. By using repeat prints each garment is unique as the placement is always different. We are very conscious of our fabric consumption and will avoid wastage wherever possible.

Carbon footprint

We recognise the importance of minimising our negative impact on the climate. We consider all logistics and transportations of goods, choosing slower but less impactful methods always, such as sea freight over air fright which uses significantly less emissions - these methods have long lead times, contributing to what is becoming known as 'slow fashion.'

Primarily we're an

e-commerce retailer and on average, e-commerce uses about 30% less

energy than traditional retail spaces. A business can use a lot of stuff, we manage our

impact by only purchasing the bare minimum (no frills.) We prioritize products with

recycled-content, and opt for solutions that are biodegradable or recyclable.

We pride ourselves on producing small runs of each collections, acting against fast fashion.

Our aim is to avoid wastage. We recycle or donate our textile scraps and samples

whenever possible. Zero waste is our goal.

We put product first-how and where we make it matters. To ensure there's no unfair or unsafer labour that goes into making our clothes we do a screening all of our suppliers, we require that suppliers meet our standards for: social responsibility, safe working environment better materials and manufacturing methods.

We aim to seek partners and suppliers who share a common vision of sustainability,

accountability and transparency.

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ABOUT THE BRAND | LONDON | HOUSE OF SUNNY

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We pride ourselves on producing small sustainable runs of collections, acting against fast fashion. Producing two seasonal collections a year sets the design team at a slower pace, allowing us time to research then source sustainable fabrics and manufacturing methods. We are committed to creating quality garments, which last and can be worn season after season.

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Research into the Arts and Craft movement

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Research into the Arts and Craft movement

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The birth of the Arts and Crafts movement in Britain in the late 19th century marked the beginning of a change in the value society placed on how things were made. This was a reaction to not only the damaging effects of industrialisation but also the relatively low status of the decorative arts. Arts and Crafts reformed the design and manufacture of everything from buildings to jewellery.

Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.

In Britain the damaging effects of machine-dominated production on both social conditions and the quality of manufactured goods had been recognised since around 1840. But it was not until the 1860s and '70s that new approaches in architecture and design were championed in an attempt to correct the problem. The Arts and Crafts movement in Britain was born out of an increasing understanding that society needed to adopt a different set of priorities in relation to the manufacture of objects. Its leaders wanted to develop products that not only had more integrity but which were also made in a less dehumanising way.

Structured more by a set of ideals than a prescriptive style, the Movement took its name from the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, a group founded in London in 1887 that had as its first president the artist and book illustrator Walter Crane. The Society's chief aim was to assert a new public relevance for the work of decorative artists (historically they had been given far less exposure than the work of painters and sculptors). The Great Exhibition of 1851 and a few spaces such as the Refreshment Rooms of the South Kensington Museum (later known as the V&A) in the 1860s had given decorative artists the chance to show their work publicly, but without a regular showcase they were struggling to exert influence and to reach potential customers.

The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society mounted its first annual exhibition in 1888, showing examples of work it hoped would help raise both the social and intellectual status of crafts including ceramics, textiles, metalwork and furniture. Its members publicly rejected the excessive ornamentation and ignorance of materials, which many objects in the Great Exhibition of 1851 had been criticised for. For many years in Britain exhibitions mounted by the Society were the only public platform for the decorative arts, and were critical in changing the way people looked at manufactured objects.

Although it was known by a single name (one that wasn't in fact used widely until the early 20th century), the Arts and Crafts movement was in fact comprised of a number of different artistic societies, such as the Exhibition Society, the Arts Workers Guild (set up in 1884), and other craftspeople in both small workshops and large manufacturing companies.

Many of the people who became involved in the Movement were influenced by the work of the designer William Morris, who by the 1880s had become an internationally renowned and commercially successful designer and manufacturer.

Morris only became actively involved with the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society a number of years after it was set up (between 1891 and his death in 1896), but his ideas were hugely influential to the generation of decorative artists whose work it helped publicise. Morris believed passionately in the importance of creating beautiful, well-made objects that could be used in everyday life, and that were produced in a way that allowed their makers to remain connected both with their product and with other people. Looking to the past, particularly the medieval period, for simpler and better models for both living and production, Morris argued for the return to a system of manufacture based on small-scale workshops.

Morris was not entirely against the use of machines, but felt that the division of labour - a system designed to increase efficiency, in which the manufacture of an object was broken into small, separate tasks, meaning individuals had a very weak relationship with the results of their labour - was a move in the wrong direction.

Like many idealistic, educated men of his era, he was shocked by the social and environmental impact of the factory-based system of production that Victorian Britain had so energetically embraced. He wanted to free the working classes from the frustration of a working day focused solely on repetitive tasks, and allow them the pleasure of craft-based production in which they would engage directly with the creative process from beginning to end.

Morris was himself inspired by the ideas of the Victorian era's leading art critic John Ruskin (1819-1900), whose work had suggested a link between a nation's social health and the way in which its goods were produced. Ruskin argued that separating the act of designing from the act of making was both socially and aesthetically damaging. The Arts and Crafts movement was also influenced by the work of Augustus Pugin (1812-1852). An interior designer and architect, Pugin was a Gothic revivalist and a member of the Design Reform Movement. He had helped challenge the mid-Victorian fashion for ornamentation, and, like Morris, focused on the medieval period as an ideal template for both good design and good living.

In the final decade of the 19th century and into the 20th, the Arts and Crafts movement flourished in large cities throughout the UK, including London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. These urban centres had the infrastructure, organisations and wealthy patrons it needed to gather pace. Exhibition societies inspired by the original one in London helped establish the Movement's public identity and gave it a forum for discussion. Members of the Arts and Crafts community felt driven to spread their message, convinced that a better system of design of manufacture could actively change people's lives. Between 1895 and 1905 this strong sense of social purpose drove the creation of over a hundred organisations and guilds that centred on Arts and Crafts principles in Britain.

Progressive new art schools and technical colleges in London, Glasgow and Birmingham encouraged the development of both workshops and individual makers, as well as the revival of techniques, including enamelling, embroidery and calligraphy. Arts and Crafts designers also forged new relationships with manufacturers that enabled them to sell their goods through shops in London such as Morris & Co. (William Morris's 'all under one roof' store on Oxford Street), Heal's and Liberty. This commercial distribution helped the Movement's ideas reach a much wider audience.

A particular feature of the Arts and Crafts movement was that a large proportion of its leading figures had trained as architects. This common culture helped develop a collective belief in the importance of designing objects for a 'total' interior: a space in which architecture, furniture, wall decoration, etc. blended in a harmonious whole. As a result, most Arts and Crafts designers worked across an unusually wide range of different disciplines. In a single career someone could apply craft-based principles to the design of things as varied as armchairs and glassware. Arts and Crafts also had a significant impact on architecture. Figures including Philip Webb, Edwin Lutyens, Charles Voysey and William Lethaby quietly revolutionised domestic space in buildings that referenced both regional and historical traditions.

Although the Arts and Crafts movement evolved in the city, at its heart was nostalgia for rural traditions and 'the simple life', which meant that living and working in the countryside was the ideal to which many of its artists aspired. Increasingly, many left the city to establish new ways of living and working, with workshops set up across Britain in locations including the Cotswolds, the Lake District, Sussex and Cornwall. All these places offered picturesque landscapes, an existing culture of craft skills and, importantly, rail links for access to patrons and the London market.

Arts and Crafts makers based in rural communities both revived craft traditions and created employment for local people. This kind of development meant that the Movement endured longer in the countryside than in the city, and had a more significant impact on the rural than the urban economy. Significantly, the Arts and Crafts community was open to the efforts of non-professionals, encouraging the involvement of amateurs and students through organisations such as the Home Arts and Industries Association. And it also created an environment in which, for the first time, women as well as men could begin to take an active role in developing new forms of design, both as makers and consumers.

In Europe the honesty of expression in Arts and Crafts work was a catalyst for the radical forms of Modernism, whereas in Britain the progressive impetus of the Movement began to lose momentum after the First World War. Under the control of older artists it had begun to withdraw from productive relationships with industry and into a purist celebration of the handmade. Some organisations sympathetic to Arts and Crafts ideals did survive, particularly in the countryside, and the original Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society mounted regular shows up to and beyond its 50th anniversary in 1938. In 1960, t he Society merged with the Cambridgeshire Guild of Craftsmen to form the Society of Designer Craftsmen, which is still active today.

Discover more about Arts & Crafts.

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Discover the origins of the Arts and Crafts movement and how its reformist principles helped changed the way society looked at manufactured objects

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House of Hackney - Story behind collection

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House of Hackney - Story behind collection

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From Aloe to Zebra Grass-and with over 1,000 plants to explore-find every plant in the alphabet within our comprehensive A to Z index.

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The 7 Most Beautiful Sets from Wes Anderson Movies - Galerie

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With his tenth feature, The French Dispatch, currently in production in France, Galerie took a look back at Anderson’s most beautiful sets.

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With temperatures reaching record heights this year, everyone is doing whatever they can to escape the scorching summer heat. And when it comes to escaping the heat, sometimes simply finding a shadow can be a godsend. That's where awnings, umbrellas and canopies come into play.

Instead of erecting a plastic canopy like they usually do, the Spanish city of Malaga came up with a more creative and environmentaly friendly way. Three years ago, the city's Department of the Environment hired local crochet teacher Eva Pacheco who along with her students created a massive colorful canopy that runs along Malaga's shopping district. Pacheco and her students add new material to the existing sunshade each summer, and it currently covers an area of a whopping 500 square meters.

Check out the stunning colorful canopy in the gallery below!

More info: Ayuntamiento de Alhaurín de la Torre

Spanish crochet teacher Eva Pacheco along with her students created a colorful canopy in the shopping district of Malaga

Image source: ElMundoOk

The project was started three years ago and Pacheco and her students add new material to it every year

Image source: Ayuntamiento de Alhaurín de la Torre

The canopy runs 60 meters in length and covers an area of 500 square meters

Image source: ElMundoOk

See more pictures of this colorful canopy below!

Image source: Ayuntamiento de Alhaurín de la Torre

Image source: ElMundoOk

Image source: ElMundoOk

Image source: Ayuntamiento de Alhaurín de la Torre

Check out the crocheted canopy in this walking tour video!

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Spanish Artists Decorate The Shopping District In Malaga With A Colorful Crocheted Canopy | DeMilked

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With temperatures reaching record heights this year, everyone is doing whatever they can to escape the scorching summer heat. And when it comes to escaping the heat, sometimes simply finding a shadow can be a godsend. That's where awnings, umbrellas and canopies come into play.

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#craftcore tag used on WGSN

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The Crafts Council Directory is one of the most visited areas of our website, attracting 178,000 website visits in 2019. In addition, members benefit from promotion across our social media channels, and it's the Crafts Council go-to for media referrals, maker case studies and professional opportunities.

Our new-look directory is easy to use, with the ability to upload multiple projects, images, videos and documents. Tag your work to reach website visitors searching by discipline and location and to potentially be featured by the Crafts Council editorial team who run regular promotions to help members gain visibility and reach a new audience.

Create a profile

Join the Directory for just £5 per month and you'll gain access to the Crafts Council's sizeable audience of buyers, collectors, craft enthusiasts and fellow makers.

Your profile can include:

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We are pleased to offer an exclusive eight months of free membership to recent graduates. Registration must be within five months of graduating from college or university. To see if you are eligible, please email directory@craftscouncil.org.

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A searchable database of over 900 leading craft makers from across the UK

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The potential for combining technology and traditional craftsmanship

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The potential for combining technology and traditional craftsmanship

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The development of technology makes possibilities of creation unlimited today. Printing, scanning, sculpting, and milling in 3D generate more and more innovative ideas. Fine art artists incorporate new technologies into their studio work, and computer graphic designers bring their projects to life in a physical form. They experiment and learn to navigate digital components, showing their real applications.

Lately, many sectors of the creative industry have evolved thanks to development of digital technologies

Since the industrial revolution, technologies have changed, and their products have amazed many. As a result, traditional methods of producing items were mechanised and subjected to mass production. Although they have often aroused the fear of new, they have always been the engine of progress. The current "[...] fear of new technologies is the cultural context of modernity. In the past, the steam engine was haunted, and today it is artificial intelligence", says Ewa Klekot, anthropologist of art. In recent years, many sectors of the creative industry have evolved as a result of the dynamic development of digital technologies. Artists and designers are looking for alternative methods of creating new products and improving existing ones.

Digital technologies and man

Digital technology in craftsmanship is seen today as an extension of the craftsman's hand by combining traditional manufacturing methods with digitally produced materials.

Both manual and digital processes require experimentation and are perfected through experience, knowledge and skills. In the past, sweaters were knitted, or patterns were transferred onto paper, shoemakers made shoes, potters rolled vases and plates. Today, robots use an algorithm to incorporate complex structures from copper wire, and 3D printers construct furniture from recycled materials.

Even though times change, one thing remains constant - MAN is always at the heart of craftsmanship. Notwithstanding that innovation is essential, it is crucial to maintain traditional craftsmanship techniques. Without them, a designer or artist would not be able to develop in their specialised areas. Using new technology to enrich (but not replace) traditional techniques is part of what writer Lucy Johnston has described as " digital handicrafts ".

Can craftsmanship and technology work harmoniously?

As Ewa Klekot says, "The juxtaposition of craftsmanship and technology is an artificial construct that cannot be defended. Technology is part of the craft. But the artisanal method of production differs from the factory one. However, the distinction is not based on the presence or absence of technology. It's not that there are machines in the factory and not in the workshop. Machines are everywhere. Here and here, the knowledge of the body is needed [...]".

Even though handmade items are still respected, and artisans are appreciated for their talent and effort, in a technology-driven world, many manufacturers are abandoning traditional craftsmanship. It's a shame because a large part of the design language that interior designers and artisans are looking for still applies to conventional manufacturing techniques.

Technology and craftsmanship - opinions of design community

How does the design community compare these two sides of the spectrum in today's advancement, and is one more important than the other?
Yet not being opposed to the use of technology but combining with technology. We like to utilise technology but in collaboration, or in communication with something kind of old fashioned, handmade and artistic. And this is for me, the future of the world of lighting and design.
2. Sarah Evans, Head of Channel Marketing at Hansgrohe, takes a similar view:
Craftsmanship and Technology absolutely have to be interlinked. Our beautifully crafted products are useless if they don't work and for us it's all about providing an experience. All the technology of our products is hidden behind the design of the piece. Because you can't see it but it works so well, that creates the experience.
3. Martin Kellaway, the commercial director in Lincrusta, says:

With the arrival of 3D technology, or additive printing, we're now of course able to make an emboss from the various resins that are available on the market. From our point of view the biggest gain is probably not so much on cost, but on time. Our objective is to be able to reduce the time of engraving from anywhere up to six months or more, down to maybe as little as a month.

Although the company Lincrusta uses the most beautiful steel rollers from the 1870s to create traditional wallpapers, it has decided to take a step towards technology, which does not detract from the fact that craftsmanship is still important to it, and the product still remains in the hands of artists.

4. Shezad Dawood, an artist and filmmaker, talks about artistic techniques in Brinton's loom technology:
A lot of people have said that taking something from a painted medium, into this sort of high-tech technology, would be difficult. But in a sense, apart from being able to use 32 colours, the automation of the looms hasn't changed in 200 years. That was quite fascinating, that you're working in this way that feels entirely new and contemporary, but actually has a whole historical tradition to it.
Craftsmanship - the modern definition

Nowadays, as machines begin to replace manual labour, craftsmanship is becoming a moot point.

Modern designers talk about the need to update its definition. It is generally an approach based on tradition, material sensitivity and manual techniques. What results from it are objects that are characteristic,unique and aren't mass produced despite their digital origin. In fact, the marriage of 3D printing and craftsmanship marks a return to pre-industrial values where creative intelligence and creative skills went hand in hand.

Printing in 3D, more accurately understood as additive manufacturing, creates objects by applying material layer by layer. Additive manufacturing, referred to as the third industrial revolution by technology authors like Paul Markillie, was first used as a tool for prototyping directly from computer-generated models. Especially in the case of furniture design, there is a radical departure from traditional thinking about the material, its formation and connection.

3D technology in the art of creating furniture

There is already a worldwide trend among furniture designers who make them softer to the touch and look. Natural materials such as leather, wool and wood are becoming common again. This trend involves abandoning plastics and metals that still fill our offices and commercial spaces.

In the production of furniture, a process of drawing an object is of great importance, in which the 2D technology is being replaced with additive manufacturing. The 3D printing process typically produces a rough, uneven, or ridged surface finish that is generally sanded. To take advantage of additive manufacturing to create forms with subtle irregularities, some designers, such as Australian Berto Pandolfo, chose not to do so, giving their furniture characteristics the imperfections associated with handmade items. In the same way, he chose the form of a river stone in place of the traditionally turned wooden legs of the table. Rather than regard these surface "imperfections" as accidental or mismatched, he used them as an opportunity.

British furniture designers John Makepeace and Gareth Neal met at COLLECT 2019, a modern craftsmanship fair, to talk about its current character in the context of technological innovation. They both agree that it is the craftsman's understanding of the material and the design vision that defines the build quality. The master craftsman's intuitive skills still derive from a deep understanding of the material. If the crafting process and tools are less decisive, the use of digital technology does not compromise the workmanship itself.

Does digital production carry an element of craftsmanship?

Gareth Neal has specialised in the production of wooden furniture since the late 1990s. From the beginning, he was fascinated by how digital technology can be used in both the design and the manufacture of furniture. He thinks that the use of digital technology offers the possibility of more excellent connectivity between industries and disciplines. In his work, he wanted to use the best properties of wood.

One of his latest designs is the Trine Chair series, which uses the basic structure of the chair and its anthropomorphic properties to provide excellent support for the spine. Thanks to the materials engineering, the chair's robust construction perfectly combines the beauty of the English oak with light, sculptural forms. In another chair design, Gareth used a Krüger 6-axis robotic arm programmed to chop and carve a block of green oak. As a result of the cracking, the grain of the wood remained visible, and hand-carved elements added "imperfections". As a result, the chair looks neither digital nor handcrafted.

According to Gareth, modern crafts using digital technology should be accepted and valued as such. We need to think differently about machine-made objects and how amazing they are as an extension of the hand Makepeace adds: The benefit of digital technology is that it allows us to understand the material more fully

3D technology in the creation of textiles

When the word craftsmanship is used in textile design, most people think of traditional woven rugs, hand-embroidered flowers and repeating patterns. All these associations represent craftsmanship. What can happen when craftsmanship, textile design and technology collide?

Anna Neklesa is one of the textile designers learning to use technology to create innovative fabrics. She believes there is plenty of room in this field to rediscover them. Her Living Cotton is a non-woven fabric produced by modifying the molecular structure of pure cotton. It is interactive and reacts to human skin and moisture by changing its shape.

Another designer and engineer who innovatively transformed craft techniques is Ryan Mario Yasin. In the Petit Pli design, Yasin used the traditional pleating technique to cope with the development of young children. The pleats allow the fabric to stretch up to seven times its original size. A light and waterproof material enable little ones to move freely.

Gravity Sketch is an intuitive computer-aided design tool that allows to create 3D models in virtual reality

Design engineer Oluwaseyi Sosanya, on the other hand, drew on experiences and ideas from various fields of art to challenge the traditional view of weaving. He created Gravity Sketch - an intuitive computer-aided design tool that allows you to create 3D models in virtual reality. Using his engineering knowledge, he constructed the 3D Weaver, a loom that can create various woven patterns. "Different fabrics can be used at different stages of the weave, and the density and pattern can be altered throughout", says Sosanya. He is currently researching how to apply this weaving method practically. Tailored shoes are one of the first potential uses.

"With this [weaving system] you can pre-programme the density. At the ball of your foot, you may want a denser material. Right at the arch of your foot, you might want a softer material. At the heel, you might want a denser material. You can have that in one go [...] There is an intersection between these two technologies to achieve something which weaving has never done before."

How to price a digitally manufactured item?

British sculptor Sarah Myerscough asked two designers, Gareth and Makepeace, how technology has influenced the perceived value of an object.
According to Gareth, the use of digital technology is often viewed in a negative light, but he adds. "The time and cost of digital manufacturing is expensive and consequently makes the object more expensive."

And Makepeace says: "The value of an object is determined by the intimacy with the material, the process and the concept. This will not change, regardless of time and progress. Indeed, it will remain the cultural foundation of all crafts". And next: "In order to be successful in the industry, we need to be progressive, and we need to embrace the technology that is available to us. [...] New technology is not only available to us, but it presents endless possibilities to set ambitious goals and new standards. There should not be a competition between hand-made and machine-made, rather both should be solely seen as a celebration of the tools and the craftsman's achievement", adds Gareth.

There is no craft without technology

As Dr Ewa Klekot says: "A craftsman creates with his body. He uses the full potential of his movements and senses, interacts with materials, tools and devices to achieve the desired result. [...] A basketball player who weaves wicker baskets has his own technology. A potter who makes clay pots, too. The man who split flint had his own technology, which was very complicated, requiring sculptural spatial thinking, now reserved for a narrow group of people. It is no different with a designer-craftsman when he teaches a robotic arm to knit copper wire [...]."
We have gathered centuries of knowledge about traditional crafting and craft techniques and are now lucky to have a whole range of digital tools to help artists make their ideas a reality.
Sources:

1. Technology in contemporary craft | Craftsmanship Soul

2. Themes/Innovation: When craft and technology collaborate | Insights

3. The 'digital handmade': how 3D printing became a new craft technology

4. Craftmanship V Technology

5. The innovators: the 3D weaving machine putting new heart into soles

6. Jak nowe technologie wspomagają tradycyjne rzemiosło | Ewa Klekot - SWPS

7. Technologie materiałowe / Centra Badawcze POB / Strona główna

8. The innovators: the 3D weaving machine putting new heart into soles

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Digital technology and traditional craftsmanship - can we combine them?

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The development of technology makes possibilities of creation unlimited today. Printing, scanning, sculpting, and milling in 3D generate more and more innovative ideas. Fine art artists incorporate new technologies into their studio work, and computer graphic designers bring their projects to life in a physical form.

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The Impact of Digital Imaging on Printed Textiles

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The Impact of Digital Imaging on Printed Textiles

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1. Cathy Treadaway (2004) Digital Imagination: The Impact of Digital Imaging on Printed Textiles, TEXTILE, 2:3, 256-273, DOI: 10.2752/147597504778052720

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4 Most Common Dilemmas of an Artisan Made Brand - Eco Warrior Princess

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Thinking about starting your own artisan made ethical fashion brand? Read about the challenges of ethical fashion entrepreneur Mari Gray of Kakaw Designs.

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Digital Crafting and Crafting the Digital 

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Digital Crafting and Crafting the Digital 

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Article and research findings - Cathy Treadaway

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ResearchGate is a network dedicated to science and research. Connect, collaborate and discover scientific publications, jobs and conferences. All for free.

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What's in a name? The all-encompassing term 'slow fashion' spans everything from fair trade to carbon offsetting, circular design to cruelty-free approaches. Fashion consumers are growing ever more conscious about the environmental and ethical credentials of their purchases and brands are responding. Retail giants have begun offering 'aftercare' - mending services - as part of their sustainability drives. Others are championing the use of biodegradable or vegan fabrics and cleaning up their packaging act. In honour of Earth Day, we celebrate some of the UK's slow fashion labels that are advocating provenance above profit, and transparency above trends.

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8 sustainable fashion brands you need to know

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What's in a name? The all-encompassing term 'slow fashion' spans everything from fair trade to carbon offsetting, circular design to cruelty-free approaches. Fashion consumers are growing ever more conscious about the environmental and ethical credentials of their purchases and brands are responding. Retail giants have begun offering 'aftercare' - mending services - as part of their sustainability drives.

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Ethics and sustainability in fashion - key consumer findings

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New report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion urges the Government putting an end to exploitation and environmental harm
London, 12th July 2021 // The APPG for Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion (ESF APPG), co-chaired by Catherine West MP and Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey, release Cleaning Up Fashion Report.

Cleaning Up Fashion examines how the Government and other supportive actors can help amplify sustainability in action, recognising and supporting the work of pioneers and putting an end to exploitation and environmental harm. The report offers clear, evidence-based recommendations that deal with the causes and symptoms of a sector with massive market responsibility, that clothes us all and is global in its economic, environmental and social significance. The ESF APPG hosted a number of parliamentary evidence sessions exploring the issues, as well as conducting a survey with over 110 respondents ranging from business leaders to consumers.

Cleaning Up Fashion addresses the combined issues of worker exploitation, climate change and offers sustainable solutions to support sector transformation towards net zero and the levelling up agenda.

Policy recommendations and findings based on a series of parliamentary evidence sessions and survey research we have 5 recommendations to Government and 2 for industry which we believe would support the Government's levelling up agenda, the Green Action Plan and commitment to net zero, with stronger legislation to address worker exploitation and environmental impacts across supply chains.
Recommendations

1. Collective action for net-zero Emissions

2. Resourcefulness for waste elimination

3. Expedite Modern Slavery Act legislative changes and introduce a garment adjudicator

4. Support for UK manufacturing and skills development

5. An overhaul of the current civil service system to provide a sector lead expert approach, rather than each sector working across multiple Whitehall departments

6. Tax Incentivising and funding to support onshoring of fashion manufacturing

7. Measures of success for a just transition and wellbeing economy

Catherine West MP and Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey, Co-chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion: In light of the global pandemic and the evidence we have heard: from non payment of Bangladeshi factory workers, the Uyghur crisis with its implications on cotton manufacture and closer to home the Leicester scandal with its impacts on our fast fashion sector. This report outlines the escalating concerns and issues impacting the supply chain. The report also highlights the unsustainable consequences of the overproduction of garments and outlines the opportunities for a just transition towards a future wellbeing economy. This would support businesses to be more sustainable, workers to be paid fairly for their labour and scope the possibilities for innovation to support greater circularity of finite resources. In the lead up to COP26 we believe this was never more important or timely.

Dilys Williams, Professor Dilys Williams, Special Adviser to the ESF APPG and Head of the Centre for Sustainable Fashion: Tinkering at the edges of change is not an option for a sector as critical to lives and livelihoods as critical in economic, environmental and social terms as fashion. Whilst there is a high level of awareness of the role of this sector in achieving climate justice, with clear actions that can be taken; a joined up approach across Governmental departments is needed and this needs to lead to action across industry and its infrastructure. We are not starting from scratch here, UK pioneers who demonstrate that sustainable prosperity can be achieved are already changing the paradigm: their criteria for success, based on social, economic, cultural and environmental prosperity, needs however to be recognised by the UK Government. That way the licence to do harm is taken away and the licence to prosper is re-defined.

Tamara Cincik, CEO & Founder, Fashion Roundtable: Cleaning Up Fashion, not only highlights the key issues facing the sector, it offers a roadmap to transform the sector and change policy to support success. We outline the haemorrhaging of the Earth's finite resources to feed the monster that is escalating and utterly unsustainable over production of clothing, the race to the bottom on payments to garment workers and the need for a united coherent strategy from the Government in line with their commitment to net zero and eradicating modern slavery. This is an incredible piece of work that brings together many actors in a complex system. Something we are in a unique position to enable. Based on hearing evidence from a series of experts, our survey data and our unique work with Parliament, Government, brands and businesses, Cleaning Up fashion offers an opportunity to turn insights into action. Fashion is a fantastic, creative industry to work in, but it needs cleaning up, fast, if we are to support future talent, pay workers fairly, end the climate crisis and indeed have any future at all.

Fjolla Kondirolli, Economics Researcher, Fashion Roundtable: The garment industry is one of the biggest employers worldwide, and it is a source of income for millions of people in developed and developing countries. Yet, it is characterized by poor working conditions, low pay and unpaid work, and job insecurity. Covid-19 has exposed the fragile position of garment workers in the fashion industry supply chain. Transparency on supplier lists, wages paid, and responsible purchasing practices is paramount to keeping fashion firms accountable in the public's eyes when it comes to these workers.

Laura Gibson, Head of Sustainability, Other Day: There is a clear need for improved collaboration and knowledge sharing throughout the fashion industry in order to rapidly advance the systemic change needed to decarbonise the supply chain and promote the equitable distribution of responsibility between stakeholders. This report highlights clear recommendations for how to improve the environmental and social sustainability of the UK Fashion industry inline with the aims of the Sustainable Development Goals and the hopes of a Just Transition.
ENDS Notes to editors Cleaning Up Fashion report can be downloaded online from Fashion Roundtable
Cleaning Up Fashion was authored by Fashion Roundtable, secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion (ESF APPG), with written contributions from; Professor Dilys Williams, Special Adviser to the ESF APPG and Head of the Centre for Sustainable Fashion and Laura Gibson, Head of Sustainability, Other Day.

The report aims to outline the complex current issues, both environmental and ethical, facing the global supply chain on a national and international level, looking both at UK based micro brands (MSEs) and larger internationally renowned brands. The report explores long term sustainable solutions, with key recommendations for both policy makers and business leaders. These recommendations, if actioned, would not only mitigate against the potential suffering of garment workers at the bottom of the supply chain everywhere from Leicester to Xinjiang; they would also address the escalating impacts of the fashion industry on the environment's finite resources, as a consequence of consumer choices based on an unsustainable and untransparent fashion business models.

The ESF APPG received over 110 submissions to this inquiry, ranging from industry leaders to consumers, through an industry survey and written evidence. It also heard oral evidence from: Basic Premier, Labour Behind the Label, Anti-Slavery International, University of Leeds, Denim Expert Ltd, Traidcraft, King's College London, University of Leicester, Corporate Justice Coalition (previously CORE), the UK Anti-Slavery Commissioner Dame Sara Thornton, First Mile, The Ethical Fashion Initiative, University of Manchester, Dublin City University, Awaj Foundation, Human Trafficking Foundation, Centre for Social Justice, ASOS, TRAID, University of Nottingham's Rights Lab, HURR Collective, Birdsong, Fashion Enter, Compare Ethics, Make It British, Protection Approaches, Uyghur Human Rights Project, IndustriALL Global Union, Worker Rights Consortium, World Uyghur Congress as well as several academics and experts. This report makes specific and direct reference to research carried out to investigate the aims, values and working practices of fashion micro and small (MSE) businesses embedding sustainability within their enterprises. We engage on a regular basis with Governmental departments, including the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Home Office on sustainability, business opportunities and labour exploitation in the fashion industry.
Key findings from ESF APPG's survey are as follows:
72% of respondents self-certified at the top level of concern about the climate crisis

24.5% of respondents self-certified at the top level of concern about the impact of COVID-19 on their business

43% of respondents chose the top level of concern when asked how problematic they believed the issue of Modern Slavery in the UK was.

53% of respondents expressed a clear preference for a focus on onshoring.

30% noted the benefits that onshoring could provide but recognised the complexity of such a move for the impacts both in the UK and globally.

33% of respondents explicitly mentioned Government action when asked what changes need to be made to work toward a more sustainable future in the fashion industry.

58% of responses highlighted an industry recommendation.
Notes to editors:
The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ethics and Sustainability (ESF APPG) was launched in 2011. The ESF APPG is co-chaired by Catherine West MP and Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey. Members include: John McNally MP, Karen Bradley MP, Caroline Nokes MP, Baron Vaizey of Didcot, Lord Young of Norwood Green, Claudia Webbe MP, Siobhan Baillie MP, Caroline Lucas MP, Dr Lisa Cameron MP, Sharon Hodgson MP.

Fashion Roundtable is an advocacy organisation that supports the fashion industry and Government to shift towards a more representative, equal and sustainable future. We ignite effective discourse between fashion industry and policy leaders; Front Row to Front Bench.

Fashion Roundtable is the secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion and also the secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Textiles and Fashion chaired by Dr Lisa Cameron MP.

All reports available online at Fashion Roundtable
https://www.fashionroundtable.co.uk/reports
For our news updates, please opt into our newsletter

For more information:
www.fashionroundtable.co.uk
E: admin@fashionroundtable.co.uk

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APPG for Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion: Cleaning Up Fashion Report - Fashion Roundtable

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Cleaning Up Fashion examines how the Government and other supportive actors can help amplify sustainability in action, recognising and supporting the work of pioneers and putting an end to exploitation and environmental harm. The report offers clear, evidence-based recommendations that deal with the

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Researching how artisanship is being successfully preserved in communities

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Researching how artisanship is being successfully preserved in communities

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Anyone with an interest in fashion, no matter how remote, is familiar with the description label "handmade". This familiarity increases if you are part of the sustainable fashion community because in this circle, the tag represents more than just a higher price. It additionally stands for care, durability and a commitment to the environment.

Now as the name implies, "handmade items" are products made or created manually. As opposed to mass production which is widely churned out by machines, handmade items are the products of artisanship; the art of slowly and deliberately working with one's own hands. When it comes to fashion, working in the manner described (slowly, deliberately and personally) is not only good for you, it is great for the environment too. Slow fashion is one of the "pillars" of sustainable fashion as consumers are called on daily to buy more of handmade items rather than fast fashion products.

In the face of mass production and its consequent rock bottom prices, true artisanship in the fashion industry seems to be dying out. Artisanal items and products appear to be more of a collector's item than actual products (think about how often you use that handmade purse you bought on your last trip to Thailand) and in most cases, true artisans are already well past their prime. Since it is a widely held belief that slow fashion is a vital pillar of sustainability, one might infer then that artisanship in its own right is indispensable to the future of the fashion industry.

A Chinese woman makes traditional cloth. Photo by Agathè Yosefina.

And if artisanship is this valuable to sustainable fashion, then efforts to rekindle its dying embers and develop its art should be consistent as well as deliberate. Put differently, we cannot afford to leave the mastery of this craft to chance. It should mean more to us than some product you stumble upon in an obscure village on a trip to some third world country or the other.
How then do we preserve true artisanship in fashion?
My visit to Akwete, on assignment, provided certain insights on tested methods to achieve this. By way of a brief explanation, the Mkpuru Akwete is a fabric, hand-woven on hand-built looms by the Akwete women of Abia State, in South Eastern Nigeria. The Akwete industry has achieved remarkable longevity and mass market penetration because these women employ the following methods to preserve their art for posterity. And since these tips work for them, I daresay they would come in handy in the sustenance of artisanship on a global scale.

Economic viability

The first step to this preservation is to ensure that handmade fashion items are economically viable. Put differently, consumers should actually want these items so that artisans can continue to produce them. If the profits they make from sales exceed their costs, then this would be an indication that their final products was worth more to the consumers than the factors of production that went into their creation. The sales income is the means to sustain the business. Any other profits they make are simply the means to expand their trade.

A fabric store in Peru. Photo by Peter Livesey.

The economic viability of an artisan's craft often determines whether it will survive or die off. For instance, one of the women I spoke with relayed that she had been in the Akwete weaving business for 60 incredible years. With the proceeds from her sales, she built a house for her family and trained all five of her kids to tertiary education levels. This more than any other factor guaranteed that she kept producing the most amazing designs holding copyright of six designs. As she deftly summed it up, ' as long as there are customers, we are here'.

Business training

The next step is to equip the new generation of artisans with modern business skills. Many ethical artisanal brands have sprung up in recent times but somehow, they only seem to be seen when an eco-lifestyle company launches in a developed country (the US for example) while selling products handmade in say, Peru. Teaching them modern business skills will enable the artisans and their families to explore these global opportunities for themselves and will enable them to build their crafts into world business brands.

The older women I chatted with in Akwete relayed with amusing degrees of pride, how the mastery of WhatsApp in their old age has made huge difference in their sales. In keeping up with the times, their sons and daughters had gifted them with smartphones and so they very quickly began to post their fabrics on the app. This is one step away from buying Facebook or Instagram ads like many international start-ups and if these women can do this, imagine how far their daughters could take the trade if they were business savvy too.

Appreciation of art and tradition

The final step, I think, is to ensure that the next generation appreciates the art. It is important to pass on to our kids that artisanship isn't synonymous with poverty and pity. For instance, mine is a community of carpenters and wood workers. The name of my community directly translates as "the children who uproot huge trees" because back in the day, our original settlers manually felled huge trees and carved various utilities out of them. As a boy, I was taught to appreciate all facets of the wood art and I am so grateful for this.

Even though I live far from home now, I own a saw and a hammer and I've constructed some of my furniture myself. Even though I have a law degree and despite the fact that I probably wouldn't build world-class items to sell on the international market, I will always value the strength of the wood, and I will always hold any carpenter I meet in high esteem. This, more than anything guarantees the survival of artisanship. The Akwete weaving has survived because from childhood, women are initiated into the intricacies of the art and use their skills create sustainable livelihoods for themselves and their community. During holidays and after school hours, young girls literally learn at their mothers' feet because the community recognizes this as the best way to preserve its heritage and empower the next generation of women.

As we stride towards sustainability as the future of fashion, it is important that we remember that modern fashion is just that; modern. There was a time that mankind created clothes without harming the earth. It is important that we step back and find that relationship once again.
Never miss our posts. Sign up for our weekly newsletter and receive our free sustainable lifestyle guide when you do. Recommending reading: Photo of a woman making a hat in Vietnam. Photo: Quang Nguyen Vinh from Pexels.

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Slow Fashion: Developing Artisanship for a Sustainable Fashion Industry

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Since it is a widely held belief that slow fashion is a vital pillar of sustainability, one might infer then that artisanship in its own right is indispensable to the future of the fashion industry. So how then do we preserve and develop true artisanship for a sustainable fashion industry?

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Fanfare - a label as an example of how craft/hand skills facilitate a space for repurposed and up cycled clothing. Tackling waste and environmental impacts.

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Fanfare Label is an independent sustainable fashion house leading the way for circularity and positive change. What others see as waste, we see as a starting point...

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Considering the future of Textiles and the potential of combining digital production and traditional techniques by hand

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circularity, fiber design, future craft, bio materials, Textile Prototyping Lab, material futures

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Future Textiles – Digital Crafts

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6 Designers Explain Why Craft Still Matters In A Digital World

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“Craft is more than just a way of making things; perhaps it’s a way of thinking.”

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Amy Winters - Textiles as intelligent soft surfaces

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Amy Winters - Textiles as intelligent soft surfaces

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Currently I am researching how craft has also become something which is exercised in the digital realm and have been exploring where craft sits in a digital world.

Reading 'Crafting textiles in the Digital Age'

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July 17, 2019

.These artisanal ethical fashion brands display incredible craftsmanship
By Neesha Gill

Once upon a time in fashion, the making of clothing was a labour-intensive process that involved specialised workers cutting patterns, sewing, and putting buttons onto garments. Because it took so long to create fabrics and piece together clothes, they were considered quite a precious commodity.

The average person would have only a few items in their wardrobe, and would mend whatever ripped or showed wear. Items were passed down through families and refashioned for fit and style to new owners. And of course no one would ever dream of throwing clothing away after a few wears, even the wealthy!

Industrial production changed all that, and also homogenised the handiwork that once made all clothes and accessories so unique-their embroidery, embellishments, prints and dyes for example. Today, even if an accessory or piece of clothing seems to be 'made by hand', chances are it's actually machine made, and there are thousands of replicas in the market.

There's been a backlash to this cookie-cutter approach to fashion, and an increasing number of niche brands are now working with talented artisans more than ever, with the specific goal of not only creating something as individual as the wearer, but also to revive lost traditions, and provide artisans with a steady income.

These inspirational ethical fashion brands below are good examples of what this looks like.

8 Ethical Fashion Brands with an Artisanal Touch

Kayu's accessories are handmade using indigenous techniques that have been passed down through the generations in Malaysia. This 'Kamber' bag is made from organic cotton-voile decorated with a charming hand-blocked botanical print. It's topped with hexagonal handles, which are carved from recycled wood.

Inspired to preserve and cultivate the traditional crafts that surrounded her as a child, Jamie Lim launched California-based bag brand Kayu. Often taking days to complete, each style is made entirely by hand in limited quantities by artisans in the Philippines. We love the playful use of embroidery.

Kayu works with artisan workshops in the Philippines and Malaysia to create its bags using traditional loom and handweaving techniques.

Sustainable fashion designer Bibi Hanum specialises in creating women's clothing using handwoven textiles called ikat. These traditional fabrics have been made by artisans in the Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan, for centuries, and typically, they include tribal-like prints in 3-5 colours, and the fabric is cut into loose fitting, almost kaftan-like dresses, jackets and gowns.

Other products the label offers include quirky home accessories like throws, cushion covers and wall hangings, and bags, scarves and clutches.

Oaxaca is one of Mexico's most famous regions for artisanal production, and Manos Zapotecas incorporates the centuries old traditions and outstanding artistry of the Zapotec people who are native to this area.

While many big name brands have badly exploited the native weavers, embroiderers and leather workers in the region, paying them very little for their work then going on to sell the fashion they create at ridiculous prices, Manos Zapotecas always ensures a fair, steady wage is paid.

Their vibrant handwoven wool bags include a variety of Aztec and tribal designs that truly reflect the heritage of the region, and if you're looking for an ethical fashion brands with an artisanal touch that doesn't cost a small fortune, this is the one for you - bags start at $49.

We love this brand because it travels the world seeking out the best artisanal traditions, then ensures the skilled hands who create the bags, jumpers and jewellery that it sells are fairly waged. While the brand may be most famous for its Moroccan Berber bags (they sell antique bags and help teach modern Berbers the ancient craft of making them), they have recently branched out into Ecuadorian knits, and jewellery from bijou designers.

This ethical jewelry collection below was designed by Adèle Dejak, and was inspired by African shapes, textures and traditional techniques. The Kenyan made, cutting-edge pieces sit perfectly between artefact and high fashion statement designs.

From Palestine to India, Thailand to Uzbekistan, Mochi seeks out the very best craftsmanship from every corner of the globe. Thanks to the colourful fabrics that define the brand, one-off embellishments, and a certain worldly hippy chic connotation that comes with wearing these pieces, Mochi has become one of the most popular artisanal ethical fashion brands around.

VOZ means 'voice' in Spanish, and this sustainable luxury brand aims to give a voice to indigenous women around the world. Of all the artisanal ethical fashion brands, this one well be our favourite due to the high quality of both their materials and designs.

Founded in 2012 by Jasmine Aarons, VOZ empowers artisans creatively, culturally and of course, economically, through a collaborative business model that highlights and supports traditional textile making arts. The brand's main education centre is located in Chile, where they work with fairly waged Mapuche women to create stunning ponchos, blouses, trousers and other garments from natural, sustainable materials.

Model-turned-designer Liya Kebede is proud of her Ethiopian roots, and wanted to find a way to not only showcase the talent of her people, but to help them develop economically, too. So she founded one of the prettiest artisanal ethical fashion brands around! Today, LemLem is a conduit for preserving the centuries-old weaving techniques of her native land, and simultaneously creates jobs for local artisans.

LemLem incorporates locally sourced, non GMO cotton to create floaty dresses and stylish kaftans that have won the hearts of the likes of Leandra Medine and Eva Chen, as well as countless ethical fashionistas.

Main image: Mochi

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July 17, 2019 .These artisanal ethical fashion brands display incredible craftsmanship By Neesha Gill Once upon a time in fashion, the making of clothing was a labour-intensive process that involved specialised workers cutting patterns, sewing, and putting buttons onto garments. Because it took so long to create fabrics and piece together clothes, they were considered quite a precious commodity.