THE STITCH

Lilian Weiermann & Melenie Hecker | Berlin, Germany

The Sustainability Beginner's Guide is for citizens who do not know how to bring their love for fashion and sustainable attitudes into everyday life. It introduces the fashion industry's social and environmental impacts and offers action steps to create more sustainable shopping behaviour. Are you ready to become a consum'activist?

Melenie is an innovation enthusiast and wants to transform the fashion industry into a circular system based on algorithmic innovation. In dedication to responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), she is developing with the AI Design Competence Collective a sustainability self-assessment tool for AI fashion actors to reflecting on their customer data collection and adapt them for the SDGs. As co-founder of The Stitch, Melenie's work focuses on the fashion industry's intersection of design, education and sustainability, and show citizens how to be consum'activists. 

Lilian is a purpose-oriented sustainability advocate guided by empathy and creative solution-finding within the fashion industry. She investigates washing practices and their environmental impact to develop a model for sustainable fashion actors that conducts customer education on textile care. As The Stitch’s co-founder, Lilian focuses on the connection of fashion, sustainability and production. Being responsible for curating sustainable fashion, she carefully collects value-based brands in line with aesthetics and responsibility towards the planet and people.

CONTACT:
@wearethestitch
www.wearethestitch.com
contact (at) wearethestitch.com

CYCLES

Sydney Emeka Nwakanma, Dhanesh Jayaselan, Maddie Rose | Berlin, Germany

Three-Part Short Film Series about Circularity, Culture, Fashion & our Environment. We know we need to move towards a more holistic and circular understanding of the world in order to save it. But what does circularity really mean? How can we embrace it through fashion, through music, through dance, through culture?
With this film we want to explore the idea of circular culture. By uniting different fields of artistry under the topic of circularity, we will create a visual essay that can help us understand our possible future. 3x one minute long short films; composed music; spoken word poetry; dance choreography & stunning visuals.

Sydney Nwakanma is the Founder and Creative Director of EMEKA. Emeka is a circular lifestyle brand which creates clothing from upcycled Fabrics in rural Kenya. Through his brand he is bridging the two sides of his heritage while exploring new narratives of diversity and sustainability.

Dhanesh Jayaselan is an Australian/Indian Film and documentary maker with a keen passion towards illustrating forward-moving sociocultural topics and underground music movements. Being born in Malaysia, raised in Melbourne, Australia, and now based in Berlin, DE, Jayaselan has formulated a perspective of the world through the cross-continental eyes of the east & west, and aims on focusing his energy on visual art forms that spread awareness through beautiful aesthetic.

Madeleine Rose (b.Australian, 1991) is a choreographer, performer and project facilitator, specialising in theatre and art direction. Currently teaching dance, context and choreography in the HZT summer program at UdK Berlin. Meanwhile developing ‘101 Ways Of Existence’, a movement manual providing keys to access improvised voice & dance in the XXI Century. This book reflects an on-going research into the paradoxes of the human compass.

TEXTILE ARTS SUMMER CAMP

Caitie Wagenknecht & Alice Tsibulsky | Berlin, Germany

We have started Adore Textile Arts as a place for people to come together and learn about the fashion industry in a collaborative and interactive way. The project we are currently working on is a week-long summer camp for youth ages 8-12, with educational and creative activities that teach kids about the fashion industry and textile arts in an engaging and tangible way. The summer camp activities will be documented in a digital and analog zine to reach a global audience. We have partnered with Canadian non-profit Fashion Takes Action and will offer their My Clothes My World lessons, as well as our own creative arts practices so kids can learn to appreciate where their clothes come from and feel empowered to be leaders and fashion activists at home, in their communities and beyond.

Caitie is a fashion studies enthusiast, educator and entrepreneur with experience in UX design, marketing and jewellery upcycling. She has worked on various projects in the field of sustainability but has focused specifically on fashion for many years. Through her work in education in multiple settings, including the non-profit Fashion Takes Action, Caitie is inspired to continue to push for change in regard to fashion industry standards and inspire others to do the same. 

Alice is a multidisciplinary artist and educator in the field of textiles. With a background in sociocultural anthropology, her experience ranges from ethnography to teaching workshops in quilting and natural dyeing. Recently her focus has turned to the fashion industry in an attempt to address the environmental and social consequences through education, engagement, and awareness.
 

CONTACT:
@adoretextilearts 
caitie (at) fashiontakesaction.com 
alice (at) fashiontakesaction.com

PILLAR 5

Lilly Meuser & Aïda| Berlin, Germany

PILLAR 5 is a platform and marketplace, championing slow fashion and makers. We want to change the way we think about our consumption of goods like clothes. We want to keep the conversation going, surrounding sustainability and want to champion those who are using ethical practices in their work. As the world is moving forward and we are constantly adapting to different climates, we must reconsider the way we spend and consume. Most importantly, we must question the way we mindlessly purchase (or re-purchase).

Lilly is a 21 year old born in Germany yet deeply connected to London, UK, where she lived and worked for three years. As a freelance writer she discusses topics such as consciousness and sustainable development in the fashion and creative industries and is parallely completing a trainee position  at a PR Agency in Berlin. To Lilly, sustainability is a way of thinking, living, consuming and interacting. Being a creative working in the fashion industries, the fact that she would support a materialistic driven industry, where profit dominates progress, made her think of  founding a concept, which would unite creativity and consciousness - Pillar 5 was born. Together with her friend and co-founder Aïda, they have been working on the project outline for a year now.                                                                                           

 “I am confident that we will be able to shed a light onto the depth of opportunities and talent the industry holds, turning consumption into a justifiable action and fashion into an enjoyable, progressive niche again”. - Lilly

Aïda is an Afro-European 24 year old multi-faceted creative who grew up in Washington DC and Luxembourg. Her interests lay in music, visual storytelling and creating safe spaces for communities. She is currently completing her 2nd Masters, in Digital Marketing at King's Business School in London and working full-time as a Creative in fashion and media. She champions creativity and accessibility within the mindful fashion industry, empowering her peers to be sustainable in a way that feels authentic to them and hopes to see that translated into Pillar 5. 

“The aim of this platform is to open the conversation of slow fashion by championing ethical designers who upcycle, source sustainably with deadstock or other sources and by highlighting voices who share the same mission. Interviews, workshops, tips, and a curated marketplace all in one space.” - Aïda

CONTACT:
@pillar_5 | @lillymeuser | @aidaknipp

EN PLEIN AIR

Alice Fassina, barbara caveng, Hatim Alyafi, Aïcha Abbadi, Dr. Lina Tegtmeyer, Franceska Welp, Andreas Herbst | Berlin, Germany

EN PLEIN AIR - "Through the streets of the city on the way to your own style" - During the '48h Neukölln' art festival (Berlin) we are inviting residents and visitors to STREET-SHOPPPING with mobile clothes horse: As the creative minds and practitioners behind STREETWARE, we are rejuvenating the tradition of rag pickers and philosophising on the literal scrapheap, delving into the aesthetic dimensions of human existence. While we wander, we enjoy the flow of the circular lifestyle: We see the material found on the streets as an invitation to philosophise about the effects of fashion and the global clothing industry on the environment and on our lives: How does fast fashion impact air pollution? The stripped clothing shells challenge the European and white-centred view of fashion: Do we remove their history when we wash them? Is clothing donation a charitable act or a paternalistic gesture? Who wins in the deal of textile disposal?

The 90-minute city tours end in Körnerpark, the site of our sculptural intervention. The saved garments are displayed on 48 clothes horses. From found object to sought-after good - Everyone is invited to take one of these Neukölln textile items back home as a souvenir or as an urban outfit; to attach their own fabrics to the clothesline; or to exchange clothes with one another.

We understand the garment industry as a global net. What we wear as garments on our skin are not just textiles, but insignia of power that describe a complex and problematic cycle. We would like to contribute to a fundamental, inclusive social debate about economic power and the collateral social and ecological effects, to learn and recognise (colonial) ways of thinking and to create new approaches to solutions. We hope to raise awareness about this complex issue through the face-to-face encounter and interaction of a wide variety of contributors and experts. We believe that insight and empathy can serve as an impulse for a change in habitual consumer behaviour.

Alice Fassina is a costume designer, whose artistic approach and work methods are based on sustainability and circular economy. She imparts her knowledge about alternative ways to fast fashion also as a guide for Green Fashion Tours.

Barbara Caveng is an interdisciplinary working visual artist with a focus on three-dimensional artistic practice, participatory art, interventions and performances.

Hatim Alyafi is a studied Business Administrator and Is a Streetartlover. Sustainability, Life & goods cycle he learned and used in behalf of berlin water works there to discover that money makes the world go round, so he controlled the cash flow well and then turned around and founded NeissCaps.com in editions we grow in artists we invest to get you nicely dressed since he purely wants to express his experiences to let you know how Textil consume can shrink and unity consciousness will grow.

Aïcha Abbadi explores niche fashion practices and alternative ways of making and being in fashion. Exploring its boundaries, she reflects on the discipline itself: its narrative potential and poetry, the industry's complex social relations, its ethical and environmental shortcomings as well as its optimism, dedication and potential solutions.

With an academic background in Cultural Studies and Urban Studies, Dr. Lina Tegtmeyer completed her PhD with a study on the changing semantics in visual representations of urban decay in the context of urban crises and tourism in the US. The interdisciplinary approach is critical towards „new urban tourism“ as alleged remedy for socio-financial shortcomings of the modern democratic nation state. Currently, Dr. Tegtmeyer uses drawing as research method to explore the constraints and limits of scientific thinking and Enlightenment ideals within. 

Franceska Welp develops concepts of artistic research into socio-cultural issues - with a focus on the issue of sustainability - and the question of identity. Her practice is community-oriented and aims to initiate communicative processes through participatory projects. Creating spaces that open up possibility for reflection on one's own perception, identification and positioning, identity in relation to space and time; the renewed exploration of one's own environment are the subject of her work.

Andreas Herbst joins as a volunteer supporter. His interest is in second-hand clothing. He aims to understand its impact both globally and locally and to shed light on it in a critical and artistic way. Andreas is studying ethnography, focusing on the urban environment. This leads to questions about how and who is excluded from social location and what this means for space and people.

CONTACT:
@streetwaresaveditem
www.streetware-saved-item.net

FEEL THE GROUND

Oumou Nasri Aidara | Berlin, Germany

My project is about creating a film that discusses Sustainability and Fashion with humor and absurdity. I aim to show on one hand the overconsumption and excessive purchase of clothing and other textiles in the Western World and on the other hand the dumping of clothing and how judgemental the society is in Africa towards the purchase of vintage garments. It will be edited in a documentary style with fact-based information. The ideal length would be 15 minutes. This project will be supplemented with an installation for the viewing of the film. The working title is "Feel the ground".

Oumou Nasri is a technically trained photographer currently devouring different media. With a background from Dakar, Bergen, and Berlin, she draws upon not only her heritage and cultural experience but also her participation in the information society. She is an advocate for intersectional environmentalism as the first step towards decolonizing environmentalism, which means bringing in her particular cultural upbringing in a way that at the same time brings imminent stories to the foreground. Her current work focuses on Identity, Humanity, and Earth. Fascinated by nature, she often uses its elements as props to present the inherent beauty of organic forms and their lush colors.

CONTACT:
@fav.gardener | @kaname.studio
www.kaname.studio

EXCESS

Njola / Allen Nabukenya | Kampala, Uganda

“EXCESS” - I am looking at excess waste and garbage problems in Kampala ghetto communities and I am creating a solution where negative EXCESS becomes positive EXCESS using handcrafting skills. I would like to use the fund to complete the work into bag mural and its installation.

Allen Nabukenya lives and works in Kampala Uganda. She graduated from Kyambogo University in 2015 with Bachelor of Art and Industrial Design. Her work has been exhibited locally and Internationally. Her work aims at creating alternative use for plastic waste.

CONTACT:
@njolaimpressions

¡K'o ol ta sjaltic las 3Cs!

Mónica Parra Hinojosa + Helena Rojas (+ CIPRI /CPP/MIF) | Mexico

To help the fashion industry treat Indigenous and craft communities with fairness and equity, the Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative® developed the 3Cs' Rule: Consent. Credit. Compensation©. The 3Cs - Get Weaving! Campaign is an informative online, social media campaign focused on the 3Cs' Rule and the relevant terminology associated with it.The Chiapas Photography Project and Mujeres Indígenas Fotógrafas are joining forces with the CIPRI® to create a high impact translation of its original The 3Cs - Get Weaving! Campaign into two mayan languages of Mexico: Tsotsil and Tzeltal.

Mónica Parra Hinojosa is a Mexican designer, communicator and researcher specialized in traditional & indigenous textiles from Latin America. With her independent project MadejándoLA, she has traveled to Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Guatemala and various states within Mexico, meeting artisans and communicating their stories through short films and multimedia narratives. She has collaborated with several textile collectives and organizations around the continent as well as with the National Crafts Endorsement Fund (FONART). She has a Masters Degree in Visual Design and Communication from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and is currently teaching a class on Cultural Diversity and Misappropriation at the Department of Arts, Design and Architecture from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Puebla. At the Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative, she is serving as Latin America's liaison.

Helena Rojas: I am passionate about traditional indigenous textiles and I have been working voluntarily and as part of the team with some projects and non profits that works directly with peoples of different villages from Chiapas; exploring, documenting and co working on various creative areas. Currently I collaborate with the Chiapas Photographic Project (CPP) founded in 1992 as coordinator, CPP provides indigenous women, men and children of different ethnicities to allow them the opportunity for cultural and artistic self-expression through photography. Simultaneously I work with some other projects as a production management consultant and final I am the Local coordinator of the growing “Chiapas Maya Collection Project”.

Mujeres Indígenas Fotógrafas: MIF is a group of three women from of Tsotsil and Tseltal ethnic groups (Martha López, Juana López y Antonia Intzín) who coordinate CPP activities. They manage the office and give photography training workshops in communities and the city for indigenous people of several ethnicities. Their projects are completed as libritos/ Little books.

CONTACT:
@culturalintellectualproperty | @cppmif | @more.moni.mon | @helarl
monicaparra (at) culturalintellectualproperty.com, helenarojas.18 (at) gmail.com

RENTING FOR A GOOD CAUSE

Ivana Perbi | Berlin, Germany

Renting for a good cause - the Kantamanto Fire Relief. With this charity rental campaign we aim to raise awareness of the place most people don’t think about when purchasing a new (fast fashion) item. It will educate about one of the places where our clothes end up when we think we do something good by donating them to a charity collection bin. By opening three influential wardrobes to the public, renting, a circular way of consuming fashion is made attractive. With all rental proceeds going to the Fire Relief Fund we’re able to get them closer to their go-fund-me goal and have people looking good while doing good. 

I was born in Accra, Ghana and grew up in Germany where I started my journey in the fashion industry at the age of 17. Mainly I worked as a Visual Merchandiser for luxury brands. During the lockdown I retrained as a UX designer and founded WARD’ROBE AFFAIRE, a Berlin-based fashion rental company. Through the True Cost Documentary I have learned to cherish garments and began to radically reduce my own fashion consumption to no longer be a part of the textile waste problem that countries like Ghana have to face. 15 Million items from the western world are unloaded in Kantamanto (Ghana’s second-hand clothing market) every week. An estimated 40% becomes waste and is dumped in the Gulf of Guinea or sent to landfills where it burns in the backyards of Accra’s most vulnerable neighborhoods. My main motivation is contributing towards a fashion community which makes use of what has already been made to counter the production of waste.

CONTACT: 
@ivanaperbi / @wardrobeaffaire
www.wardrobeaffaire.com
info (at) wardrobeaffaire.com

UPTRADED

Anna Greil & Bruno Huber | Innsbruck, Austria

In our society, the desire for fashionable variety, environmental friendliness, and affordability of clothing is constantly growing. However, these three needs are in contrast in current business models and the minds of consumers. We want to offer a solution that combines the three described needs: unlimited fashionable variety, as cheap and as sustainable as possible. Uptraded is a Tinder-style clothes swapping app that allows people to exchange their unused clothes online. In this way, we want to support a positive change in consumer behavior and make this change possible for everyone.

Bruno is a creative mind from Germany focusing on triggering Anna all day long building user-centric products. His background is a BA in Business & Management and practical experience in the sales branch. With uptraded he is following his passion, to build stylish and user-friendly products that help save our planet.

Anna is a secondhand enthusiast from Austria working on circular economy models in the fashion industry. Her background is a BA in Business & Management and currently she is a MSc candidate in Strategic Management. With uptraded she is putting all her energy and time into solving fashion-related societal and environmental problems.

CONTACT:
@uptraded
www.uptraded.com
info (at) uptraded.com

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