Transition fashion

Stage 2 BA students held their Fashion Show last week in Brixton Market. The project was called 'Transition' and was inspired by the Transiton Town concept of low carbon, resilient communiites and approaches. A whole host of different creative textile reponses to the theme of transition were paraded through the wonderful indoor market.

We will be trying to capture some of the projects and their themes being explored by some of the students.

More images are on Mel Bowles' flikr site

Images: Mel Bowles

A few competitions and projects have been coming our way which we would like to share:

Victor Papanek Social Design Awards are launching this year and the competition is open to designers and students who have developed a product, in realised or protoyped stage, which "aims to achieve net zero environmental impact, or which offer social benefit to underserved segments of society or which are driven by socially responsive considerations".

The judges will also consider Design Concepts not yet fully realized or produced but in development "which address transdisciplinary design perspectives on urbanization, in areas such as housing, transportation, accessibility (inclusive design), communication, social and medical care, and the implications of national and international migration."

Perhaps the textile/fashion students who are entering the VF/TFRC Competition may have developed design concepts that would be approporaite for this Award as well. The winners will be exhibited in exhibtions in both Autsria and at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in New York, and the application deadline is June 1st.

Nottingham Trent University has announced the following opportunities to study for an PhD under the supervision of Professor Tim Cooper. The first is a PhD Studentship in Consumers and Possessions: A Cross-Disciplinary Exploration of Sustainable Practices. This is a cross-disciplinary studentship involving research into how people use their possessions and the built environment with regard to sustainability and the implications of this for design practice. One of its key elements will be to relate knowledge in sustainable architecture, sustainable fashion and sustainable product design. For further information please visit here The closing date for applications is midnight on Friday 15 April 2011.

The other offer is the Vice Chancellor’s PhD Studentships – Sustainable Design / Sustainable Consumption / Product Longevity. Research proposals are invited for entry to a competition for one of twelve Vice Chancellor’s PhD studentships. Proposals supported by the Sustainable Consumption Research Group may be on any theme relating to sustainable design or sustainable consumption. Proposals relating to the life-span of consumer durables are especially welcome. For further information please visit here. The closing date for applications is Monday 18 April 2011. Image: Alistair Fuad-Luke's Design Seeds Workshops 2009

TED Wins Research Bid

We are very excited to announce that TED is part of successful bid for a large research project titled Future Fashion , funded by MISTRA, a Swedish government organisation. The TED project is one of eight individual / interconnected projects, and our research will specifically address the question 'How can sustainable design processes be created and embedded within companies and gain the participation of consumers?'.

The project will see TED work with a consortium of different partners including SV, Chalmers University, Copenhagen Business School, and H&M on exploring TED's ten sustainable design strategies for textiles. We will be working with CelluNova, a new cellulose fibre made using wood from the old paper making industries in Sweden.

The project will launch here at Chelsea in June, and TED will begin researching, documenting, promoting and disseminating soon after, through a new website – www.textiletoolbox.com. More info to follow shortly!

Designer in Residence Exhibition

Chelsea graduate Tope Tijani, has been the Designer in Residence here in the digital print department, as part of the AA2A scheme. The final show opened at Camberwell, and Tope showed some lovely digital prints that she mounted on the wall and made into a summer dress.

Tope also creates a range of fashion accessories using digitally printed plastics and the range is now available on new online retailer Bengt, that supports emerging designers.

The AA2A show continues at Camberwell College of Art until 19th April.