Round Table Discussion at the Ethical Fashion Show, Paris

Becky Earley will be contributing to a round table discussion next Monday, 27th September 2010, at the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris. She will be talking about upcycling textiles and the creative and innovative approaches that the TED designers explored through the Ever & Again project.

"Sustainable management is no longer a marginal phenomenon; it has become the starting point for companies that wish to reposition themselves by fully accepting the responsibilities they carry for the environment and for society...

"Textile innovation is unequivocally compatible with the principles of sustainable management. The round table on innovation aims to prove that the new technologies and the innovative new materials in the field of intelligent textiles that have appeared during the last decade are compatible with the criteria of sustainable management (social and environmental responsibility).”

Dr Isa Hofmann, quoted above, is an expert in the field of new, innovative textile technologies. She will lead the session, and will be joined by:

Florence Bost, textile designer based in Paris

Michael Kininmonth, Lenzing Fibers

Hanne Louise Johannesen, Danish design company Diffus

Francesca Rosella, founder of CuteCircuit

Stijn Ossevort, wearable computing

Karsten Bleymehl, Director Library & Materials Research Material ConneXion Cologne

Alexandre Cappelli, Head of Environment Affairs Department, LVMH

Doris Hartwich, German designer of menswear

and Tzuri Gueta, textiles designer

For those of you who will be in Paris next Monday, the discussion will take place between 2pm and 4pm at -

Cité de la Mode et du Design

34, Quai D’Austerlitz

75013 Paris

TED's Summer Debate - Friday 16th July 2010

“Sustainable design in the real world is just an educator’s fantasy…”

This is the (e) motion that Professor Kay Politowicz is proposing for TED's AGENDAS 2010 event, here at Chelsea on Friday 16th July 2010. Join us between 2pm and 4pm, to hear four eminent speakers argue both FOR and AGAINST this motion. They will spend five minutes arguing each case, and they aren’t allowed to use slides!

This event is timed to coincide with the UK Texprint ‘First View’ Exhibition, held at Chelsea at the same time. Delegates will be able to view this closed exhibition in the Triangle Gallery between 9am and 5pm on the day. The event will be an informal ‘platform’ debate, intended to bring the issues of sustainability and design to the attention of the assembled Texprint audience, exhibitors and sponsors who are all involved in the design and production of textiles for fashion.

Our intention is to make it a combination of IQ Magazine’s ‘Intelligence Squared’, which says that it is “creating knowledge through contest” and TV’s ‘Argumental’ which claims to be “a celebration of the art of argument”. This event is a chance to do both with speakers having a chance to put a point of view in a series of headline statements and then argue with themselves with contradictory and counter argument.

This fun event is intended to raise the serious issue that is essentially: HOW, not WHETHER to address sustainability in the education of designers. It gives us the opportunity to air concerns about what any of us can or should be doing about it in our different professional circumstances.

Lines should not remain uncrossed. Sensitivities should not be spared, and there will be ample opportunity for the audience to make comments, and for speakers to respond if they wish, followed finally by a vote by all on the motion.

This promises to be a really lively and informative afternoon. Join us if you can – it is free and there is no need to book. Just come along to the lecture theatre at Chelsea (entrance on Atterbury Street). Watch this space over the next few days as the confirmed line up of speakers is announced…

(Image credit: 'Venn Diagram', Matthew Sawyer 2010)