How our global network got busy for MAKE SMTHNG Week!
As an act of rebellion against Black Friday, Fashion Revolution and it’s global network took part in MAKE SMTHNG Week.
‘An international festival of making that challenges our consumerist culture – instead of going shopping, we will spend quality time with friends, family and our community.’
The week ran Nov 23 to Dec 2 and aimed to demonstrate our power to innovate towards a better, more resourceful way of life.
We spread the word to our amazing country coordinators and they got busy, engaging, protesting, teaching, inspiring, and promoting. Taking action and standing for change!
We wanted to share their inspiring work.
Fashion Revolution Croatia
Fashion Revolution Croatia organised a workshop in Rijeka on 26.11.18. Together with Miss Tanja Blaskovic, a designer who transforms plastic bags into accessories, they organised a MAKE SMTHNG Workshop in beautiful local cafe. The workshops theme was Christmas presents made from plastic bags that participants could take and use at home.
The event was a sell out! And the team were sad to turn people away due to limited capacity. However, the participants enjoyed crafting Christmas decorations from waste plastic bags. FRC happily assisted Tanja to coordinate the guests and prepare all the necessary materials for the workshop.
RiHub, an organisation which runs socio-ecological events in Rijeka spotted the event and got in touch with Fashion Revolution Croatia. As a result they have gladly accepted the opportunity to collaborate with the good people from RiHub and Tanja Blaskovic to launch a series of workshops in the future. The team are now launching, new dates for all the registrants that couldn’t participate in MAKE SMTHNG Week.
Through their work for MAKE SMTHNG Week Fashion Revolution Croatia are now giving many people the opportunity to learn first-hand how to create from, and recycle plastic bags, diverting waste from landfill and challenging our consumerist culture.
Fashion Revolution Italy
Fashion Revolution Italy partnered with Greenpeace Italia (local group of Greenpeace Milano) and hosted a range of different events.
The images below are from their Milan event held in Cascina Cuccagna, where throughout the day makers organised workshop on how to make Christmas decorations from scraps, accessories. They then held a swap party of both clothes and toys involving kids also.
Their event in Rome also had a woodworking workshop, alongside a swap party of books and clothes.
These where just two of the 44 events that took place during Make Something Week in Italy, all of them had the same purpose: take action and demonstrate that there are plenty of solutions to create something alternative and unique instead of buying something new.
Fashion Revolution Scotland
Fashion Revolution Scotland partnered with a few organisations to create workshops across Glasgow and Renfrewshire. The week started on Black Friday with a youth workshop in Lochwinnoch with Remode, where teens made zero waste trousers from waste materials inspired by Holly Mcquillan’s zero waste pattern. Remode also held repair workshops across the week, involving local community groups and Paisley University. And The Glasgow School of Art’s Responsive Art and Design Society held a paper making workshop with Lin Chau.
Tuesday, the team held ‘East End Mend’, hosted by Decent Projects in Glasgow’s East End. People had the opportunity to bring along their clothes to be mended and prolonged.
Finally, Thursday The Kinning Park Project in Glasgow hosted ‘Meal and Mend’ with the Repair Cafe, Glasgow and KP Couture. The Mending and making workshop took place alongside their weekly community meal made with surplus supermarket food and was followed by French Film Festival’s screening of the documentary about chef extraordinaire Alain Ducasse.
Their protest against Black Friday and campaigning for Make SMTHNG week has inspired their plans for Fashion Revolution week 2019, here’s a picture of the team kicking off our plans for next years campaigns…making good!
Fashion Revolution Philippines
Our fantastic team in the Phillipines worked incredibly hard over the past couple of months. As well as organising numerous workshops and a clothes swapping party, they secured feature on two TV stations. Ensuring the message against over consumption is truly reaching the masses!
Although hard work Sophia the team Country Coordinator said it was worth it and ‘we’re seeing the growth of our network, a fantastic lead up to FRWeek 2019’.
Check out their interviews here:
Fashion Revolution Hungary
Anna from PINKPONILO, a sewing/clothes studio in Budapest is part of FR Hungary. With RePityke and the PINKPONILO team she organised the ‘Zero waste is the new black week’ in the artist courtyard, Paloma Budapest. The team are constantly working on zero waste patterns, textiles from sustainable backgrounds, and encourage people to wear good and local clothes, and also be conscious about choosing and materials.
Anna and her team organised a sustainable wardrobe / stylist course with Gabi Balla stylist and Messzelátó Association. Whilst the event was limited to eight people, due to the intimate nature of the course, the interest was phenomenal and the team are already planning to hold more courses.
In addition to the styling course PINKPONILO held a zero waste turtleneck shirt workshop and a collaborative clothes repairing workshop.
Anna said “the programmes we did were surprisingly popular and we hope to make a new zero waste event in the spring”. Promoting the skills and knowledge of her team proved a demand that Anna never expected they are inspired to continue educating others on how minimise waste.
Fashion Revolution Germany
Fashion Revolution Germany had a jam packed Make SMTHNG week, connecting Students and City-Ambassadors of Fashion Revolution Germany with local Greenpeace groups. Distributing posters all over Berlin in cooperation with Greenpeace Berlin, and in cooperation with the sustainability office at Humboldt University.
The teams main event was the Make Smthng – Berlins größte DIY-Party. The event included up-cycling and a natural dying stands, as well as talks from CC assistant Nora Vehling. Nora was also interviewed on Rbb Abendschau and Flux FM radio.
As well as their poster campaigns and events, other campaigns across the FRG network included students of the sustainability office at Humboldt University and other Initiatives (zB BUND Jugend) holding an illegal demonstration in front of the new shopping center “East Side Mall”, screaming Fashion Revolution Facts and blocking the entrance of the mall.
Phoebe English and Fashion Revolution Open Studios
We partnered with Phoebe English to host a hand made patchwork quilting workshop. The focus was to reuse black waste fabrics from the production of her collections at her studio located in Deptford, South East London. Using the leftover black fabric from the last year of garment construction and toiling Phoebe held an open studio event where attendees could help construct a part of a heavily textured quilt which will then be later exhibited.
Phoebe said “we had a great group of sewers and the quilt is growing nicely! it’s exciting to see it all coming together!”
She is already planning to do another day of quilting in January. Again bringing people together, in from the cold for some sewing and chatting, to boost their mood.
Whilst Make SMTHNG week has come to an end the messages shared and lessons learnt are something we must adopt in our every day lives and our coordinators are continuously helping spread those messages.
