Saturday 19 October 2024, Wardrobe Revolution Weekend

14:00 - 17:00 BST (British Summer Time)

Online Symposium, hosted on Zoom

Our connection to clothing is deeply personal. Garments accompany us through life, offering warmth and protection while reflecting our inner selves outwardly as we navigate various experiences and environments. We cherish our clothes, altering, mending, and transforming them as our tastes and trends evolve. Recycling and reinventing garments is a longstanding practice, but today, the delicate balance of our relationship with clothing is under greater scrutiny as we confront critical climate challenges. This October, the Selvedge Wardrobe Revolution Weekend will offer a powerful response to the environmental and social damage wrought by the textile industry and fast fashion. Twenty speakers will share their insights on addressing the Crisis in our Wardrobes

The roster of speakers includes textile practitioners, academics, historians, activists, filmmakers, designers and artists, each of whom approaches the environmental crisis from different perspectives and enriches the event with their unique story. The theme of this year's event is Things We Learnt on a Carpet at Kindergarten:

• Look after each other
• Put things back where you found them
• Don't take more than you need

The following speakers will be joining us to discuss the future of a sustainable world of textiles:

Alexandra Kehayoglou
Alexandra Kehayoglou is a visual artist who primarily works with textile materials. In her Buenos Aires studio, she combines textiles, sculpture, and installation to create intricate pieces. Kehayoglou is deeply interested in production processes that merge art and craft, developing functional works that are complete art pieces, where the knowledge of materials, technique, and the spectator are inseparably intertwined.

Her pieces are crafted from surplus materials using the hand-tuft technique, manipulating a machine on vertical frames to insert each stitch by hand. This meticulous process is both physically demanding and technically precise.

Kehayoglou’s work often reflects memories of various native landscapes she has visited and aims to preserve. Her renowned pastizales (grasslands), fields, and shelter tapestries present sublime realities for the viewer to contemplate or utilize. Each piece is unique, featuring textures, weaves, and colour palettes that will not be repeated. Drawing from an ancient family tradition, Kehayoglou breathes new life into the craft of hand weaving.

Follow: @alexandrakehayoglou

Clare Press
Clare Press is a global expert on sustainable fashion. Her podcast Wardrobe Crisis, based on her 2016 book of the same name, is now in its 10th series with 2 million downloads. She also co-hosted the UN’s Ethical Fashion podcast for three series.

A former magazine journalist, Clare pioneered the role of sustainability editor at Vogue. She is the author of Rise & Resist: How to Change the World, and is currently directing her first documentary. Her fourth book, Wear Next, Fashioning the Future, was published this year.

Follow: @mrspress

Claudia Martinez Mansell of Kissweh
Kissweh is an embroidery studio based in Lebanon and Los Angeles. Their goals are: to be a contemporary source of exquisitely designed and timeless products inspired by the rich folk art of traditional Palestinian needlework motifs; and to allow skilled craftswomen living in the refugee camps of Lebanon to earn a fair living from their artisan skills.

Women in historic Palestine traditionally embroidered their clothes and home accessories when preparing their trousseau, or kissweh. The traditional folk motifs were passed down from generation to generation were associated with the villages and regions they came from, and reflected the dreams and aspirations of the women who embroidered them. The needlepoint motifs represented fauna, trees, gardens, precious objects, and religious beliefs, and reflected everyday village life, rural scenes and a respect and love for nature. The names of some motifs are a witty glimpse of daily life: for example, ‘chickpeas and raisins’, ‘bottom of the coffee cup’ or ‘old man’s teeth’. Coming from a land of pilgrims and of spice and silk trade routes, these motifs have a rich history of symbolism and influences from around the world.

Follow: @kissweh

Patrick Grant of Community Clothing
Patrick began his career in textiles at Norton & Sons on Savile Row in 2005, where he revitalised the 200-year-old tailoring house by returning to its roots of exceptional hand tailoring using the finest natural cloths from esteemed British mills, many of which he continues to work with today. In 2009, he relaunched the British designer ready-to-wear brand E. Tautz, earning the Menswear Designer of the Year award at the 2010 British Fashion Awards. In 2015, he saved the 160-year-old clothing manufacturer Cookson & Clegg in Blackburn, Lancashire, from closure.

In 2016, Patrick founded Community Clothing with a clear vision: to make exceptional quality everyday clothes from the best natural materials in outstanding British factories, and to simplify the business model to offer these clothes at great value prices. This approach ensures that everyone can afford high-quality, ethically, and sustainably made clothing while contributing to the economic prosperity and pride of local textile-making communities.

Follow: @community_clothing

Isobel and Phoebe of Pico Goods
Pico produces everyday organic cotton essentials with full traceability back to the source. Founded in 2016 by friends Phoebe and Isobel, Pico combines their diverse backgrounds and interests in tailoring, fibres, food, fashion, and farming. They have conducted extensive research in India and the UK, visiting organic and local fibre producers, ginners, spinners, weavers, and dye units at both industrial and cottage scales.

Pico's underwear is crafted from organic cotton sourced from farmers' cooperatives in India and produced by Girish and his small team at Mila, a solar-powered factory in Tamil Nadu that pays a living wage. This year, Pico has launched an exciting research and development project, supported by the University of the Arts London and the British Council, to create fully compostable underwear.

Robert Meeder
Global Innovator in Fashion, Design, and Sustainability Leadership. Robert Meeder stands as a global thought leader in the dynamic interplay of craft, fashion, design, and sustainability. His expansive 20-year career spans both industry and academia, marking him as a sought-after professor of practice and senior expert. Meeder's expertise extends to his role as a visiting lecturer and a senior expert advisor to European delegations, along with his valuable contributions as a mentor to start-ups. He is currently Co-Founder of The Institute of Future Creations and Chief Innovation Officer at Selyn Exporters (Sri Lanka).

Follow: @rob_co

Ramesh Menon of Save the Loom
Save the Loom is a nonprofit community group to revive, restore, and restructure the handloom industry in India. An open forum of individuals with a deep sense of pride in handmade work towards preserving arts and crafts.

Follow: @savetheloom_org

Safia Minney
Safia Minney, MBE, is an award-winning social entrepreneur & internationally
recognised for the company she founded, People Tree, a pioneer of sustainable
and Fair Trade fashion. She led the business as Global CEO for 20+ years in Japan & Europe. In 2022, Safia launched Fashion Declares, a bottom-up, industry-wide movement to promote a rapid shift towards a Just Transition and regenerative fashion future. Safia is a leader in sustainability and Modern Slavery and an international speaker on sustainable supply chains, climate action and Fair Trade. Safia is an executive coach and author of 9 books including; ‘Slave to Fashion’, campaigning to eradicate modern-day slavery in the fashion industry and ‘Slow Fashion - Aesthetics meets Ethics’. Safia recently launched Real Sustainability to promote sustainable living and leadership and joined other business leaders to form a network of businesses to declare a Climate, Ecological & Social emergency: www.businessdeclares.org.

Follow: @safia_minney

Sel Kofiga
Sel Kofiga is the founder of Kumfo Domfo (formerly known as The Slum Studio), a Ghanaian brand that creates wearable art pieces with clothing waste sourced in Accra. Its model of sustainability applies circularity, regeneration, and ethical standards to art-making and is informed by a reflection on human geographies and the socially produced nature of space. The garments are material maps of multiple journeys and the realities that they come across and contribute to shape.

Follow: @kumfodomfo

Cancellation policy
All orders for online talks are non-refundable.