The degree shows are all finished now here at Chelsea and it has been an outstanding year for textiles. There was a wide variety of work, including several students who are exploring sustainability issues. It is not compulsory that students incorporate sustainability into their work however they are introduced to eco textile ideas from their first year, and this continues through to many of them writing their final year dissertations on the topic as well as exploring it on their studio work. We will be featuring a few of these graduates on the blog in the next few weeks.
First up is Ania Szyszkiewicz, who produced a collection of simple dress shapes using second hand fabrics that she has quilted into squares, creating pixellated images of faces and the slogan 'say no'.
Ania really engaged with fashion and sustainability issues and also wrote her final dissertation on the topic. It was titled Slow Down Fashion – Utopia or the Way to Reconnect with the Environment and Ourselves? and explores the negative impact of fast-fashion on the environment and society. She analyses human needs in order to determine the reasons for why customers buy, keep and discard their clothes and also looks at possible solutions such as the slow design movement and case studies an Internet community of bloggers who incorporate the slow ideologies into their activities.
