the slow textiles group

On May 19th, Join Us for Organic Geometrics: A Fabulous Nature-Inspired Workshop!

2012-02-01T22:19:00.003Z

Learn to create digital files ready for fabric, leather and acrylic etching with stunning organic motifs, just like the latest haute couture textures at Versace:

Further details here.

Ann Demeulemeester's Film SS12 Short

2012-01-19T20:18:00.005Z

Here at the Slow Textiles Group we have been thinking about the importance of having a philosophy to your practice. Much like yoya or song, if there is a genre, a philosophy, a mindful context/style/framework to the work that you do, the thoughts that you develop and the sweat that you perspire, then the work has longevity and meaning.

If it doesn't have this, then it fades. The impetus has nothing to hold it in place.

Our role here is to illuminate the philosophy. That is our work. That is why we have created the Slow Design School, a place to learn, discover and feel out the philosophy.

The beauty of Ann Demeulemeester's video is in it's simple truth.

Remembering Alexander McQueen circa 1998

2012-01-16T14:04:00.001Z

Today we feel a nostalgia for early McQueen, in memory of the richness of his Autumn Winter colours, fabrics and textures and grandiose, crafted statements. There is a wealth of vision and depth of feeling that is timeless. As is the case with the best.

See some of the Slow Textiles Group members here!!

2012-01-09T10:05:00.002Z

Learn to print silk and exhibit with the Slow Textiles Group in 2012!!

2012-01-06T23:26:00.021Z

Silk print designed by Maria Genco, 2011.

Silk print designed by Pamela Schwartz, 2011.

These examples were created by the Born To Be Wild Group, a co-design group especially set up with the V&A Design & Interpretation Division and Slow Textiles Group members' company, The People Print!

Book yourself a place on any of our afternoon HANDS-ON WORKSHOPS (for example, Organic Geometrics (code W25), 1920s Parisian Pochoir Designs (code W26) or Pop Art Geometrics (code W27)) and learn how to print your own silk (from just £40)!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2012-01-01T11:34:00.005Z

"We have left it so late to put our human house in order, that the only strategy left is that of positive deviance. We can't wait for the international treaties, institutional reform or wise government leadership that will be too long coming.

"The only option is for as many people as possible to get on and do the right thing - wherever we are. It is a very positive revolution: against everything that leads back to behaviours that caused the ecological and economic breakdown in the first place, and for a stampede towards a future that puts improving the quality of life for people and the environment as the primary purpose of everything we do."

Taken from The Positive Deviant: Sustainability Leadership in a Perverse World by Sara Parkin.

Wishing You a Merry Christmas!!

2011-12-22T19:22:00.011Z

This Postmodernism at the V&A print is especially co-designed by Hatice Burgess, Pamela Schwartz and Emma Neuberg, members of the The People's Print's Born To Be Wild design group (the first co-design social textiles group) and experimenters in the future meaning, role and identity of textiles!

Slow Textiles Group Members Begin Planning the First Slow Textiles Film and Exhibition, Geometry Girls!!

2011-12-10T17:58:00.007Z

Traditional Painting Processes Converge With Open Source Fashion!

2011-12-07T21:40:00.007Z

Ideas of story-telling and narrative in future couture clothing. A co-design melange by Susana and Emma.

Susana Fernandez, who worked recently with traditional carpet manufacturers, Real Fabrica de Tapices, in Madrid, paints her Cubo-Futurist painting inspired by artists such as Baranov-Rossine, Lyubov Popova and Natalia Goncharova and begins a process of transformation for the painting to be applied to Maison Martin Margiela's open source dress pattern.

Some of the Slow Textiles Group Margiela dresses will be made in silk! Watch this space!

Slow Textiles Group Members Create A New Form of Co-Created Fashion Textiles!

2011-12-06T17:26:00.004Z

See what Jennie will be wearing at The People's Print Project 1 next week!

Slow Textiles Group joins Maison Martin Margiela dialogue!!

2011-12-05T11:19:00.049Z

Cubo Futurist painting by Hatice to start her design process.

Initial interpretations of the brief by Hatice and Emma.

Maison Martin Margiela, in true conceptual fashion style, made an open source offering several years back, to take up an unfinished dress pattern and create a new vision with it.

Here was MMM's challenge:

"Rather than merely allowing the downloading public a chance to recreate the garment, Margiela wished to offer an opportunity to engage them in a two-way exchange, a dialogue of mutation and innovation with the esteemed design house. The simple shift dress pattern, without sleeves and with no hemming, is the basis to make a design of your own conception - by augmentation and addition. As if joining the actual designers at the key stage in the making of a garment, this is your raw material to shape into the new."

The Slow Textiles Group have entered the dialogue! Members have just started a project that brings the MMM garment together with a Cubo-Futurist aesthetic. Inspired by the work of Baranov-Rossine, Alexander Bogomazov, Aleksandra Ekster and Lyubov Popova, the December 2011 workshop aims to introduce the layers of innovation, mutation and augmentation that Margiela decribes!

"At the vanguard of avant-garde designers, Martin Margiela and his eponymous Maison are masters of reworking existing clothes, fabrics and objects to create new garments and accessories!"

How nice it is to share passions and concerns!

Samantha Warren for Martin Margiela at Slow Textiles Workshop!!

2011-12-04T00:35:00.005Z

These gorgeous digital print designs are some from the first stage Cubo-Futurism digital designs that a group of designers produced at the Slow Textiles Group's Introduction to Cubo-Futurism: Learn to Create Placement Prints for Dynamic, Timeless Fashion Textiles workshop this weekend!

These six are by talented British textile designer, Samantha Warren. They represent her initial experiments on a Martin Margiela dress pattern.

Experiments Begin with Co-Design Postmodernism Prints!!

2011-11-30T19:55:00.005Z

Hot off the press!! Emma and Geraldine's postmodernism prints converge in an intergallactic collision! Geraldine's grass green and hot pink are softened for an older look...the red to catch the lips!!

Slow Textiles Group Members Pioneer New Design System!!

2011-11-29T18:38:00.003Z

Innovate the system and you'll innovate the product. That's what the Slow Textiles Group specialises in!

Here's a sneak preview of a new print identity methodology that some of our members are working on.
See the last page for a brief introduction to the methodology and further details:

Open publication - Free publishing - More co-design

Create a Cubo-Futurism Print on an Alexander McQueen Garment!!

2011-11-22T09:41:00.007Z

Learn to generate digital placement prints inspired by hand-painted Cubo-Futurism for an amazing Alexander McQueen
couture garment in The Slow Textiles Group's gorgeous London studio!!

Taking place on December 3rd 2011 at 2pm,
this is a pioneering workshop in slow processes married with fast to create a new, bespoke aesthetic - that you then make and wear! Anyone can do it - it's easy with stunning results!!

Scroll to Page 12 for details in our

Workshops 2011 Pdf booklet here:

"An Introduction to Cubo-Futurism: Learn to Create Placement Prints for Dynamic and Timeless Fashion Textiles"!!!!

Equipped with new skills, you'll be able to transfer your new knowledge to any Placement Print dress-making project!!

The Future of Sustainable Design in the UK?!!

2011-11-15T14:00:00.024Z

The Slow Textiles Group says take a good, long look at the Design Council's thinkers of the future of sustainable design in the UK:

Now practise your image analysis skills on the pics from the Design Council's Design Summit, 2011:

Lastly, Dr Emma Neuberg renames the Design Council's

Design Technology in Schools promotional video,

"Creative Britain in Reverse?," as

"Introduction to the Lost Object

or How to Kill Innovation in a Generation,

(As Communicated By A Soundtrack)":

Slow Textiles on Film!

2011-11-14T19:37:00.006Z

The first tremors...directed by Javier Barcala.

2012 is the Slow Textiles Group launch year!

The dynamic, pioneering group with its searing vision
and vibrant energy will showcase
international textiles as never seen before!

Watch this space!

Slow Textiles Five Year Plan Launches soon!!

2011-11-09T14:46:00.004Z

An exciting new publication,

New Wave:

The Five Year Plan to Kickstart Textiles in the UK Today,

is launching in the New Year;

it maps out the new route for all your talent and skills.

We have the best design talent in the world and what happens to it?

If you've got something to say, email

emma@slowtextiles.org!

NEWS!! FLASH!! London Calling!!

2011-11-03T13:26:00.040Z

The Great British Houses of Parliament designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin in 1840 in the midst of an economic recession and still standing!

Exciting news!!

Members of the Slow Textiles group are meeting
British Parliamentary Design and Sustainability Groups
and their MPs in Westminster next week to make a noise about the power of textile design talent in the UK, its offer, potential and future scenarios!

Slow Textiles Group member, Julie Behseta, shows her innovating textiles work at the Houses of Parliament exhibition, in tandem with Coca Cola and the Royal College of Art, Materials for Living, November 2011.

Slow Textiles Founder selected as Artist in Residence at Chelsea School of Art!

2011-10-28T16:27:00.005+01:00

We are delighted to announce that alongside three other artists, founder of the Slow Textiles Group, Emma Neuberg, is awarded Artist in Residence at Chelsea School of Art, London!

The other artists include Ryan Mcclelland:

Amex Apathy, 2005

And Nick Hornby:

All the work deals broadly with montage/collage and consumerism.

Exhibition dates:

Friday 4th – Friday 25th May 2012

Textiles New Wave is Here!!

2011-10-18T19:18:00.014+01:00

You coming or staying put?

After an amazing Slow Textiles open meeting on Saturday 15th October 2011,
we are delighted to announce that

Textiles New Wave has arrived!!

It has been a l-o-n-g wait!

With exhibitions abound (online and on site) and
exciting new hybrid textile forms on the horizon,
we offically announce that

Textiles New Wave Starts Here!!

What Business Model Are You Changing?

2011-10-11T17:43:00.005+01:00

Join us for dialogue in London at 2pm this Saturday!

Vous venez? 来る? ¿Viene usted? 您来? Eρχεστε? вы приходите? Você vem? Sie kommen?

Old and New Techniques Promise New Effects in Our Postmodern Textiles Journey!

2011-10-09T21:01:00.011+01:00

The first silk scarf experiments with artwork by Alison and Julie.

The first Slow Textiles workshop to set off our Postmodernist season started this weekend with a Memphis style bang!

It was a digital affair that had everyone getting to grips with painting blobs for the slave that is Photoshop, not to mention participants becoming experts in the difference between modernism and po-mo!

Our remote attendees will be able to access the webinar soon!!

Laptops and paint in action!

How Postmodern Are You?!

2011-10-05T11:22:00.034+01:00

Designed yesterday by Melanie Bowles and randomly animated by Emma today!

We look forward to working with everyone who has signed up for the many
Postmodernism in Textile Design Workshops.
There's 0 place left!

To see Melanie's original design tutorial layout go to the fabulous
Make It Digital!

Annie Lennox Opens Postmodernism at the V&A

2011-10-02T15:50:00.003+01:00

Participate in Our Postmodernism Workshops then Publish through the V&A and The People's Print!

2011-09-27T13:52:00.006+01:00

For further information!

The People's Print!

To book!

Call for International Researchers and Assistants!!

2011-09-20T12:33:00.015+01:00

Textile Workers,

silkscreen print, USSR, circa 1923,

reworked as an animated print by Emma Neuberg, 2011.

If you're interested in becoming an assitant and or researcher with the Slow Textiles group, please sign up to our London
October 15th 2011 meeting
at 2.00pm (GMT+1)
with webinar participation if you're not in town!!

To participate, email!

As part of our on-going research as an independent satellite of the academic research group Textiles Environment Design (TED), we develop themes that build upon the Top Ten Sustainable Textile Design Strategies to take these forward collaboratively into an open access space that can help individual designers, artist groups and makers, at any stage in their development, think about their practice, its meaning, context, offering and promise.

One of several areas that we are looking at is the reanimation of historical textiles as a route to "Dematerialisation" (TED's Top Ten Design Strategy #9), reinterpretation, education and discourse and "Looking Back To Look Forward" (TTDS #6), as engagement tool to re-examine and re-evaluate textile systems, structures, values and observations that were once in place. These are just two of the TED strategies that we are engaged in!

Ours is an open source activity and you may join us directly by becoming an associate member (associate membership opens October 2011) or participating for free through Facebook's Comment and Share and the blog's Comments feature below each post.

This call for assistants and researchers is to further your work - practical and or written - and its direction within 'slow', social textiles and or the Slow Textiles Group platform.

On October 15th from 14:00 to 16:45 in person (see Contact Us for London location) or via webinar:

A FREE Meeting for Future Researchers and Assistants of the Slow Textiles Group!

Join an Amazing Textiles Tetrad Today and Make the Cultural Artefact of a Generation! No kidding!!

2011-09-16T13:01:00.010+01:00

Nathalie du Pasquier, printed cotton, c.1984, animated by Emma Neuberg, Founder of Slow Textiles.

The V&A Digital Studio, The People's Print and the
Slow Textiles Group

offer you the chance of a lifetime:

to create the first postmodernist co-designed fashion textiles collection!

The group who create this collection will be called the
Born To Be Wild group
(echoing the Postmodernism exhibition content)

and the co-designed textile collection they create will be featured in the international press.

No kidding!!

Go HERE to book the Born to be Wild group class (£320) that takes place Friday afternoons in the V&A Digital Studio (October 14th to December 9th 2011) or here to book a conceptual and practical introduction to the class on Saturday October 8th 2011 from 2pm til 5pm (GMT, London UK), from £20 remotely to learn more!

Join Us to Become THE Textiles Group of a Generation!!

2011-09-10T22:44:00.000+01:00

MAKE HISTORY. PARTICIPATE IN THE FIRST SLOW TEXTILES LIVE ONLINE WORKSHOP!!

CLICK SHOP WORKSHOPS!!

Learn about postmodernism and social textiles and what they can do for you.

Publish the first postmodern collaborative swatchbook (that will lead to publication and promotion of you, the participants) with the V&A and the exciting new textile print platform, The People's Print.

Attend one of our Postmodernism workshops to find out how, why and where!

All artwork for textiles by Bruno Basso and Chris Brooke.

Attend one of our Postmodernism upcoming workshops with top design educators Dr Emma Neuberg and Melanie Bowles to find out how, why and where!

The beginnings of our trad/tech textile conjuncture

2011-08-20T17:48:00.050+01:00

Japanese textile motif,

animated print,

Emma Neuberg, 2011.

Plus ça change

2011-08-16T13:41:00.025+01:00

Summer Sales,
digital surface pattern inspired by Horace Taylor's 1926 poster,
Emma Neuberg, 2011.

Horace Taylor,

The Electric Railway Company,
London, 1926

This is British designer, Horace Taylor's poster (animated by Emma Neuberg) encouraging women in the suburbs to get into town via the London Underground and "buy British"!

Taking a closer look at the ladies' hats (especially the one on the far right), and the designs on sale, they pre-date Nathalie du Pasquier's postmodern designs for Memphis by fifty years. (Not to mention nu rave).

Here they have been rearranged to create a digital narrative with history and humour. The experiments continue..

Summer Sales Circle,
digital surface pattern inspired by Horace Taylor's 1926 poster,
Emma Neuberg, 2011

Slow/Fast Experiments

2011-08-11T17:29:00.019+01:00

Pastel and digital prints animated,

Emma Neuberg, 2011.

Experiment 1: Slow Hues,
Pastel and digital print animated,
Emma Neuberg, 2011.

Over the next few weeks, we are experimenting at the juncture where slow, traditional, hand processes meet fast digitised ones to stimulate dialogue on surface pattern and new hybrid forms.

The aim, loosely, is to combine old with new, tradition with technology, in ways that offer new creative textile possibilities and textured digital forms.

Experiment 2: Slow Lace Hues,
Pastel and digital print animated, Emma Neuberg, 2011.

To see more examples of Emma's digital sketchbook go to
http://www.emmaneuberg.blogspot.com/

A British Floral Print Moment

2011-08-09T19:13:00.012+01:00

Mary Katrantzou, 2011.

Holly Fowler, 2011.

We're having a flora and fauna escapist day celebrating some of the wondrous digital prints coming from British designers in 2011.

Building upon a tradition of floral regalia, all these Central Saint Martins' graduates are breaking new ground not only taking the genre to new heights but transforming the silhouette.

Holly Fowler, 2011.

Mary Katrantzou, 2011.

Stella McCartney, resort 2011.

Postmodernism (Digital) Style and Subversion

2011-08-05T12:52:00.031+01:00

Jean-Paul Goude styles Grace Jones, front over of PHOTO, France, c.1981.

Slow Textiles and Make It Digital join forces to create
The People's Print
and we aredelighted to announce that as such we will be attending the Postmodernism ball in celebration of our latest textile design course at the V&A, London.

Electronic Fabric Experiments

2011-07-26T18:49:00.004+01:00

Here at Slow Textiles we are experimenting with electronic fabric samples.
It's playtime at the moment!

What Are You Making?

2011-07-20T21:02:00.010+01:00

At the Slow Textiles group we believe in making conscious.

This is why we craft media.

You can make for 5 years as an 'emerging talent' design graduate;

you can make for 10 years if you find the space and money;

you can make for 20 years if your vision has roots;

you can make for a lifetime if you need it to live.

This is where making conscious comes in.

How deep is your conscious? How far can you see?

How much further do you need to see?

How much further do you want to see?

It is this focal length that keeps the Slow Textiles group making.

If you're interested to learn more,

please join us for a FREE workshop at the

Slow Design School, London, 4:30pm on November 12th 2011.

Click red circle 'Slow Design School', top right, to attend.

Flash View! New Work for Animated Textiles

2011-07-19T20:40:00.017+01:00

Repetitive Triangles II,
Emma Neuberg,
animated silkscreen print and plastic on paper,
2011.

Emma Neuberg develops ideas for the next Slow Textiles workshop (taking place at the V&A in September and October). These mark an experimental phase inspired by bringing Italian design house, Memphis, into the digital age.

The initial objective is to bring slow hand processes together with digital crafting for online dissemination and 'new' meaning.

Repetitive Triangles II builds upon old textile 're-animations' that Emma created during the V&A Quilts exhibition last year:

Inheritance I,

Emma Neuberg,

re-animated rayon,

2010.

Japanese Floral Prints at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

2011-07-19T12:58:00.057+01:00

Decorative Paper With Design of Chrysanthemums, artist unknown, 19th century, Japan.

The great popularity of chrysanthemums in eighteenth century Japan led to the cultivation of many different varieties.

As a Japanese floral print lover, we thought you'd be interested in this wonderful exhibition taking place in Boston, USA, dedicated to the oeuvre:

Flowers and Festivals - Four Seasons in Japanese Prints.

The best news, however, is that you can enjoy the entire show from the comfort of now as we found this site that has streamed the whole exhibition:

Flowers and Festivals - Four Seasons in Japanese Prints slideshow!

How cute is this?

2011-07-18T21:12:00.001+01:00

Summer Lovin'

2011-07-17T19:14:00.004+01:00

Erte, Paris, c.1929.

In 1910-2, Erte or Romain de Tirtoff (his real name), moved to Paris to pursue a career as a designer.

He was 20.

He made this decision despite strong objections from his father who wanted Romain to continue the family tradition and become a naval officer.

Romain assumed his pseudonym to avoid disgracing the family.

Erte, Paris, c.1929.

In 1915, he secured his first substantial contract with Harper's Bazaar. Between 1915 and 1937, he designed over 200 covers for the magazine and his illustrations would also appear in Illustrated London News, Cosmopolitan, Ladies' Home Journal and Vogue.

No prizes for guessing this week's weather forecast on these very British isles.
Thank heavens for pattern and colour!

New Re-use Models for Waste Plastic Packaging

2011-07-14T13:22:00.053+01:00

Emma Lundgren, Royal College of Art, 2011.

There is a growing generation of young women designers presenting innovative yet accessible ideas for reusing plastic waste materials as textile.

Employing an array of polymers, from nylon to HDPE, these creations offer exciting new models for re-use, the slowing of disposable materials' metabolisms, localisation and inspiration.

The samples below become all the more significant when we consider the ecological impact of disposable plastics on the environment.

Suzie Crisfield, Chelsea College of Art & Design, UAL, 2008.

Designer Suzie Crisfield mixes virgin silicon with waste plastic materials to create fluid and versatile fabrics.

Suzie Crisfield, Chelsea College of Art & Design, UAL, 2008.

In these samples, Suzie offers ideas for combining waste plastic with selvedge and fabric, reinvigorating the work of Luisa Cervese and passing it on another generation.

Suzie Crisfield, Chelsea College of Art & Design, UAL, 2008.

Tope Tijani, also a graduate of Chelsea College of Art & Design, takes similar techniques a step further by applying heat-printed plastic to contemporary jewellery.

Her work can re-use plastics and combine it with digital print technology to create 'hybrid' commercial yet coveted pieces:

Tope Tijani, Chelsea College of Art & Design, UAL, 2009.

Look out for Tope's bags that should be stocked at Collette,

in our humble opinion!

Royal College of Art graduate, Jane Bowler, pares down sheet plastic into silhouettes that recall the exotic glamour of Isabella Blow, Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and Antonio Berardi.

Jane Bowler, Royal College of Art, 2010.

Recent Royal College of Art graduate, Jungeun Lee, moulds plastic around a wooden form to create garments that echo the voluminous work of Issey Miyake and Maria Blaisse:

Jungeun Lee, Royal College of Art, 2011.

Using similar techniques to those in Tom Dixon's Fresh Fat Plastic series and Richard Liddle 's RD4 chair, this evocative technique can employ any percentage of recycled plastic in its mix:

Jungeun Lee, Royal College of Art, 2011.

These young designers build upon the previous generations' work with plastics recycling (see Colin Williamson, Jane Atfield and Emma Neuberg) and bring us closer to interventionist styles of working/making that elevate waste plastic to treasured, even bespoke, artefact.

Our Next Workshop at the V&A

2011-07-07T14:58:00.046+01:00

Eclectic prints by Emma Lundgren, Royal College of Art, 2011.

Eclecticism, postmodernism and engineered prints are working their way into our exciting new plans for the next Slow Textiles/makeitdigital textile design course.

Due to take place exclusively at the V&A, this cutting edge course, Born To Be Wild (and open to everyone), is designed in tandem with the forthcoming blockbuster,

Postmodernism: Style & Subversion 1970 - 1990.

Watch this space.

Techno inspired prints by Emma Lundgren, RCA, 2011.

Engineered prints by Lauren Barfoot, RCA, 2011.

Exquisite Textiles at the Royal College of Art

2011-06-20T10:57:00.026+01:00

Temperley Brides, 2011.

The RCA Degree Show opens this week, June 24th, at Kensington Gore, London.

A wealth of inspiration and future talent, this is the MA Textiles show to see -

in the world!

Think of Alice Temperley.

She's a RCA graduate of 1999 and look where she is now.

Pippa Middleton wears Temperley,

the Royal Wedding, London, April 29th 2011.

Temperley's Bridal Salon event takes place in Notting Hill, London, on June 29th 2011.

The Politics of Fashion

2011-06-01T21:21:00.004+01:00

The first lady of politics and fashion to catch the Earth Day surge of 1970s environmentalism and dress receives an CBE from the Queen today celebrating 30 years of pro-ecological and sustainable fashion/textiles activity.

Slow Textiles to launch the Slow Design School in 2012

2011-05-30T17:16:00.004+01:00

Slow School Pdf

Keep on drawin'

2011-05-14T18:39:00.004+01:00

Future Scenarios for Synthetic Fibres, Fabrics and Materials

2011-05-04T12:22:00.066+01:00

Members of the Slow Textiles Group, the V&A Conservation Department, the Museum of Design in Plastics, Pli Design, Cohda Design and key academics in Polymer Technology join together at the Arts University College Bournemouth on

May 18th 2011

to discuss

Futureproof Plastics,

future scenarios for polymer technologies in

design, innovation and sustainability.

You are warmly invited to attend this exciting event and join the dialogue on the future of polymer innovation in sustainable fashion, textiles, product and biomimetic design.

The event is free of charge.

Details here. Book your free place by emailing Susan Lambert at the Museum of Design in Plastics,

slambert@aucb.ac.uk

The Story of Stuff

2011-04-16T10:38:00.003+01:00

To watch the full version go to The Story of Stuff.

New York, Delaunay Workshop?

2011-04-12T22:33:00.000+01:00

Need we say more?

Joie de Liberty - Design Your Own Scarf

2011-04-07T19:21:00.015+01:00

Wear your own scarf design inspired by the Liberty prints on show in the Cult of Beauty exhibition now showing at the V&A, London.

In fact, why not learn how to design and make your own silk chiffon one with Slow Textiles Group members Melanie Bowles and Emma Neuberg on their exciting new textile design course at the Sackler Centre Digital Suite in the heart of the V&A.

Draw inspiration firsthand from the exquisite Cult of Beauty exhibits and, with the guidance of textile designers Bowles and Neuberg, learn to use the latest digital printing techniques to create beautiful textiles that combine tradition with innovation. All in the heart of the V&A.

Tuesday evenings from April 26th 2011.
Details and booking HERE.

Graduate from this class and watch your make-your-own textile business grow.

Organic Cotton Farmers Seeking Buyers

2011-04-05T18:01:00.002+01:00

If you're interested to make contact with the farmers, please go to info@justcleancotton.co.uk.

Slow Textiles at the House of Lords

2011-03-24T18:53:00.007Z

Baroness Lola Young, Dilys Williams, Kate Fletcher and others listen to William Kroll present his weaving and indigo dyeing process in the Committee Room at the House of Lords, March 2011.

Recently, Slow Textiles have been liaising with MPs and members of the House of Lords.

Sustainable Fashion and Sustainable Textiles are on the political agenda.

It's official.

All Party Political debate is now formally engaged in the subject and so, fellow Slowsters, the qualities, characteristics and yield that Slow generates are rising up the cultural agenda.

Anchors

2011-03-22T22:43:00.010Z

Liberty Prints 1890 -1910

2011-03-09T21:23:00.007Z

Melanie Bowles and Emma Neuberg recently spent time at Liberty's archives getting inspiration for the next Slow/Fast Textiles Print workshops coming up at the V&A in April, May and June, running in conjunction with the new

The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860 - 1900

exhibition.

The class is called

"Textile Design from Digital to Hand"

and details are available here:

Digital Courses & Events - Victoria and Albert Museum.

Brain Food - once daily

2011-03-02T22:13:00.009Z

Worldchanging: Bright Green

Design Observer

we make money not art

Design Activism

The Designers Accord

http://www.backspace.com/

The Development dictionary: a guide ... - Google Books

Doors of Perception weblog

http://www.justicedesign.com/

www.fuad-luke.com

www.designcouncil.org.uk

www.slowlab.net

www.slowdesign.org

Sustainable Everyday Project

KickStart

Foxfire Museum Gift Shop - The Foxfire Books

The Context of 'Low Product': How designers can help articulate a new social language, by Ann Thorpe

FastCompany.com - Where ideas and people meet | Fast Company

Doors of Perception weblog

Worldchanging: Bright Green

Jurgen Bey – The Doctor Moreau of Design - Design Build Network

Phoebe Philo and Slow Textiles

2011-02-14T12:06:00.003Z

Phoebe Philo for Celine, SS2011.

Pheobe Philo, Tracey Boyd and founder of the Slow Textiles Group, Emma Neuberg, are to feature together in an exciting new book.

A new venture that brings together fashion, textiles and accessories designers is to be launched next year. The book promises gorgeous photography, intimate interiors, beautiful textiles, objets de maison and each designers' relationship with these.

Still under wraps, Emma Neuberg's embroidered textiles will be a central feature of the publication.

You heard it here first.

2011-01-27T18:13:00.001Z

Some of the people our members work with.

Shoe-Making in Spain

2011-01-23T13:31:00.001Z

For clarity

2011-01-21T18:38:00.005Z

there is only one book.

The Best Choice of..

2011-01-08T19:07:00.005Z

Nurture your potential

2010-12-30T13:50:00.009Z

What can you design? What can't you design?
What are the politics inhibiting your style?

Timelines

2010-12-18T21:08:00.000Z

In Stylus

2010-12-06T11:43:00.002Z

Slow Textiles Group members were interviewed about their vision and promotion of the cultural shift in re-animating making, revitalising education, sharing and upskilling collectively, relational working methods and their positive health and entrepreneurial effects. All through textiles.

Look out for it here:

Stylus.

2010-12-05T16:16:00.001Z

2010-12-04T15:52:00.000Z

2010-12-02T23:05:00.001Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMdWNwOWnng

Our V&A Course Ends on a High - Next Workshop Jan 22nd!

2010-11-26T21:41:00.000Z

Vivian Hidalgo Nava (l) and Amanda Goode (r)

In our final Ballets Russes class everyone's designs came together.

Inspired by the V&A exhibition with particular focus on the work of Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov, and their influences, each textile was a true hybrid of slow and fast processes with digital and manual tools.

A new textile horizon emerges that combines history, museum archives, tradition, imagination and interpretation with the latest in digital technology.

Jennifer Glastonbury

Julia Brendel-Lee

Pat Shenstone

Inspiration from Mikhail Larionov's Buffoon costume for Les Ballets Russes production, Chout, 1921, and Goncharova's Le Coq d'Or's Stage curtain, 1914.

Some of Natalia Goncharova's inspiration was ours also.

For instance, Ivan Bilibin, who was introduced in Week 5:

More pics coming..

Liberty's scarf link.

Pics from our recent freestyle patchwork workshop:

2010-11-24T23:07:00.001Z

A co-design discussion followed the making process and products made from post-consumer fabrics will be developed from some of the constellatory ideas. Watch this space!

Co-design workshop in Stitched Portraiture:

2010-11-24T12:23:00.001Z

Students start by drawing the person opposite in stitch.

Colours are timed to keep the pace up.

After 30 minutes, students give their drawing to its subject to finish off.
The image becomes collaboration.

Stage 1: observed.

Stage 2: self-portrait.

This exercise represents part of a larger exercise introducing co-design systems, group working and participatory design to students.

Derick Melander sculpture

2010-11-16T23:11:00.000Z

American artist, Derick Melander, is creating some interesting work.

Clothing Loop, 2004

Description:

Seven articles of clothing are drawn and arranged one inside the other, as they are typically worn.

Gather 14, 2003

Description:
A figure wearing a suit is delineated by piercing rag paper with needles and awls of varying diameters.

Slow Textiles at the V&A - week 5

2010-11-15T10:22:00.001Z

The Goncharova and Larionov Ballets Russes themes begin to find their new landscape in the work of contemporary textile designers.

Here is the work of British artist, Pat Shenstone, as she works on a structured sleeve in class,

and Brazilian designer, Luz Rodriguez as she composes her applique and quilted effect before sewing:

Slow Cards on the Table

2010-11-14T11:05:00.001Z

Simon Cook Illustration

2010-11-11T21:46:00.003Z

We recently discovered British illustrator, Simon Cook's collage work and feel somewhat enamored.

His montage effect is like a cross between Mary Blair, El Lissitzky and Memphis.

All his work is generated in paper.

He did these two screen wallpapers for iPhone:

We can feel a workshop coming on.

On 'shop-placing'

2010-11-10T20:10:00.000Z

Grafitti with a sponge.

We found the following passage on 'shop-placing':

"Shop-placing" is a collective of artistic inquirers who investigate relational understandings. It is an emerging concept from the dialogical understandings among artworks, written works, musings, and conversations of many artists, researchers, and scholars. Other artists/researchers/pedagogues are investigating relevant themes/issues/concepts.

"Shop-placing" is used as a variant to "shoplifting."

Shoplifting occurs when items are stolen from a place of commerce by an impersonating customer. Shopplacing, in contrast, occurs when a "shopplacer" generously "places" a voluntary constructed artifact in a specific context with the intent of it being received by a willing, and hopefully delighted recipient. This is done with intentions of good will, generosity, whimsy, inquiry, pedagogy, and to provide feedback for artistic inquirers.

"Baptism into a way of sustainable thinking"

2010-11-09T17:51:00.000Z

The recent Fashion Transitions conference at CCANW was described as "more than a conference, it was a baptism into a way of sustainable thinking.."

We look forward to seeing the presentations here.

Co-designer, Alistair Fuad-Luke gives his presentation after Otto von Busch , Fashion Transitions, 4th November 2010.

Slow/Fast Making in Progress at the V&A

2010-11-06T09:28:00.001Z

On our course at the V&A, students are progressing with their

Diaghilev & the Ballets Russes-inspired

scarf and cushion designs.

Here is some of the work in silk before the final upcycling stage:

This week, digital textile design expert, Melanie Bowles, gave participants a fascinating introduction to the application of digital print in fashion, with particular focus on

'the engineered print'.

Melanie also explained how digital print is bringing back local industry, reducing US cotton exports to China and stimulating home-grown designers and textile production while consuming 30% less water than silkscreen printing.

Introducing Social Enterprise

2010-10-29T10:00:00.000+01:00

Slow Textiles in Israel

2010-10-24T17:19:00.000+01:00

This week Slow Textiles is giving workshops at the vibrant Shenkar College in Tel Aviv.

So far, we met the original designers of the Maskit group, a group of women who made Israeli fashion glamorous by translating ethnic craft skills into fashionable hippy glamour that was at its peak in the 1960s and 70s.

Today, however, there is an underlying localised question for young designers as to what makes up Israeli style and aesthetic identity.

This is summed up in the following statement by Israeli fashion writer, Ayala Raz:

"What was that something that made Israeli fashion gain international prestige and reach impressive peak sales abroad, in the early 60s and 70s?

Can it be reconstructed or can an up-to-date substitute be found for it?

Can a formula, which fuses global influences with local characteristics, exist in our time?

It seems that this magic formula is not easy to figure out, both because its components and the relations between them are flexible and unstable, and because of the rapid pace of change in contemporary fashion..

In the 60’s and 70’s it was natural that the Israeli characteristics in fashion would be based on the ethnicity and authenticity of the clothes worn by the new immigrants (Olim Chadashim in Hebrew) who arrived in Israel in unprecedented numbers.

The ornamental and rhythmic Yemenite embroidery, the sensual colours and textures of the Bukharan and Kurdish clothing, the free dressmaking patterns of the Moroccan robes (galabias) – all these provided an accurate answer to the need for an exotic fashion, that formed in the world fashion market following The Beatles’ visit to India.

Israel of those years succeeded – with the generous help of the Minister of Trade and Industry at the time, Pinchas Sapir, and with the right orientation – in providing an original answer to this need.

The combination of East and West was natural to a country that absorbs immigration from seventy Diasporas, and in her designs for Maskit, the fashion designer, Pini Leitersdorf, managed to find the optimal balance between the two.."

From Ayala Raz's larger article called Is there a local style in Israeli fashion?

Found here: blog.

Textiles Environment Design Green Days

2010-10-23T20:53:00.000+01:00

A central aspect to interconnected thinking is making the space in which to reflect and review as a working group.

Without this, ideas are not exchanged and built upon.

The Ever and Again Upcycling Textiles Project, with Becky Earley at Chelsea College of Art, London, made time for such meetings.

The results were fruitful and exponential.

The meetings acted as springboard for the textiles sustainability agenda to flourish and disseminate.

In order for the systems of industrial ecology to continue to be applied wholeheartedly to the fashion and textiles agenda, the Slow Textiles Group proposes a new discursive platform and regular meetings of minds..