Attunement, Behaviour and Sustainability: the debate grows

In anticipation of TED's Summer Debate on July 16th 2010.

The End of the World,

1851-3, oil painting on canvas by the English painter John Martin.

According to Frances Carey, Deputy Keeper in the Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum, the painting shows the destruction of Babylon and the material world by natural cataclysm.

A provocation relating to some psychological roots of environmental angst:

"The cultural tragedy is reflected in the personal tragedy of the infant with failed maternal support; the tragedy of the infant is reflected in a cultural wasteland of devastation and despair.

In this way, the deepest internal and widest external forms of disintegration interpenetrate at the point of environmental failure.

At the dark heart of the anti-group is the dread of insufficiency and, beyond that, of extinction."

Morris Nitsun, 1966.

Our Masterclass in Slow Fashion Opens up New Creative Avenues

In our Workshop No.16, Frances Cowper shares her techniques for unlocking the secrets of pattern taking without harming the original garment.

In the photo, a 1950s dress, a much loved garment of the owner, is recreated in paper using an unique but simple system.

The ownership of style is given a new lease of life by giving people the skills to recreate their favourite garments at the point the original becomes threadbare.

Women who know what suits them, reinforced by the response they've had when clothed in a favourite garment, can now extend the garment's life and its positive affect on their lives by creating new versions of it for themselves.

This marked an overriding motivation, joy and excitement expressed at the end of our first Slow Fashion Masterclass.

More Slow Fashion masterclasses coming in 2011.

Slow is Beautiful video

One of several animations from

Fashion Futures 2025

to help anticipate and conceptualize:

Slow is Beautiful from Alex Johnson on Vimeo.

YOUR FASHION FUTURES 2025 REPORT:

Full copy of report HERE.

Take Emma's place at the Gobelins tour on June 29th 2010:

I have a spare ticket for a visit to the Gobelins in Paris to see where Chevreul worked on the historic The Law of Simultaneous Colour Contrast (1837) that changed and informed the European concept of colour forever.

Please leave a message if you'd like it.

Slow Textiles Group at The Guardian

The Slow Textiles Group goes to The Guardian this week!

Watch for links soon.