Caryn Franklin (MBE) is a disruptive fashion lover. In an industry stereotyped by dramatic, Prada bag-wielding divas and sad-looking models, Caryn’s fierce optimism and good-natured spirit shows that sassy attitudes are not only uncool, but unhealthy too. As the former fashion editor of i-D during the ‘80s, she has since focused on identity politics and the power of fashion to create positive narratives about individuality. In this fifth instalment for Fashion Unlearned, Address contributor Emily McGuire spoke with Caryn to discuss sustainability in her own terms – mental health in fashion …read more
At first glance, The Art of In-Between (May 4 – September 4, 2017) exhibition, curated by Andrew Bolton, celebrates Comme des Garçons’ designer Rei Kawakubo for challenging western ideas of beauty. Yet, at second glance, a number of problems arise from the way in which the show relies on colonial references. Address contributor Emily McGuire visited the exhibition in New York …read more
For Ruby Hoette, our clothes materialise the social, cultural and emotional transactions that we experience in our everyday lives. As a curator, researcher, maker and convenor of the Fashion and Embodiment studio, part of the MA in Design: Extended Practice at Goldsmiths (UK), Ruby is fascinated with the construction of value and meaning through fashion. In this fourth installment for Fashion Unlearned, Address contributor Emily McGuire speaks with Ruby about her creative work and the role of education in promoting sustainable ways of making, engaging with and thinking about fashion …read more
For most consumers, the fashion world represents a democracy. For Otto von Busch it is a dictatorship. Fascinated by the political forces of fashion, Otto has spent the last 10 years researching its complex relationship with agency, civic engagement and participatory design practices. In this third instalment for Fashion Unlearned from Emily McGuire, Otto shares captivating insight into the corruption fuelling the fashion industry, and questions how we might transform our engagement with clothing to create a better world …read more
Dedicated to creative approaches to patternmaking, Timo Rissanen is a designer, thinker and maker who pioneers zero-waste fashion design. Through his role as Assistant Professor of Fashion Design and Sustainability at Parsons School of Design, Timo is interested in how fashion can be used to enrich our everyday lived experience. In this second interview for Fashion Unlearned Address contributor Emily McGuire speaks with Rissanen about zero waste design processes and why systems thinking is essential to creating a sustainable fashion industry …read more
In this first interview for ‘Fashion Unlearned’, Address contributor Emily McGuire speaks with Orsola de Castro about her views on the systemic problems within fashion. Since co-founding Fashion Revolution in 2013, Orsola and her team campaign globally for brand transparency as a way forward for sustainability. With wholehearted urgency, Orsola explains the flawed relationship between fashion and sustainability, and why we need to unlearn what we know about fashion in order to create a sustainable future …read more
In this introductory article that lays the foundations for Fashion Unlearned series, Address contributor Emily McGuire sets off on a journey to explore how the fashion system could be re-designed for sustainability. In in-depth interviews with Orsola de Castro, Timo Rissanen, and Otto von Busch that will be published in subsequent months, Emily will unpick the topic in more detail with a focus on education, citizen agency, and consumer capitalism …read more
As a hybrid entity situated somewhere between a retail and gallery space, Centre for Style presents creative work from a dedicated group of practitioners who tinker with our understandings of taste, luxury and beauty. Matthew Linde established Centre for Style in 2013 in Melbourne, Australia to create a space for community and experimentation in an otherwise exclusory and standardised fashion world. Emily McGuire caught up with Matthew to discuss his creative practice and the slippery relationship between art and fashion …read more
As a visual artist, Yolanda Domínguez’ creative practice routinely subverts the numbing effects of fashion’s charms as a means to agitate social change. With a penchant for performance work, Yolanda often uses public space to create scenarios that enable viewers (and consumers) to question the fashion world’s complicity with oppressive gender norms, exploitation, and conspicuous consumption …read more
Fashion scholars play a key role in unpacking and shaping the way in which we understand fashion. As well as finding out about the people behind the books, thoughts and theories, in this new series, Address asks academics about their views on fashion educations, research and the industry as a whole. For this first interview, Address contributor Emily McGuire went to meet fashion scholar Jennifer Craik …read more
