There is such a flurry of fashion and textile, DIY - activity on the web these days, as people have started to make their own clothes, knit their own garments and to share it with each other. This type of activity is in direct contrast to the traditional model of the consumer as passively being fed their 'well being ' through the purchase of products made by someone else. The satisfaction and empowerment you feel when you have made it yourself is infectious, but it was something we had lost in the years since cheap clothing became standard.
Aside from clothing design, any type of DIY promotes creativity, and information sharing and it changes our relationship to design and mass production. It doesn't mean that we should make everything ourselves, or is it a return to the "good ol'days" before mass production and technological advances. In fact, the internet and new technologies have helped to spread the enthusiasm, by creating linked up communities who can share information, and even offering a platform for product designs to be sent in and manufactured instantly, like eMachine Shop.
Make Workshop in NYC, teaches classes on sewing, knitting and textile printing from a studio space in Manhattan.
The Refashioned Wardrobe blog, encourages people to 'pledge' to resist buying any new clothes for a certain period of time, and to post images on the site of the clothes they have made themselves.
Burda, the company who have been providing sewing patterns to home sewers for years, has a section called 'open source sewing' on their website, for people to share information about their projects.
There are tons of blogs and activity on knitting including Yarnstorm,Yarn Harlot, and I Knit London.
It is the 'democratisation of making things'.
1 comments:
Clara I loved this piece, full of interesting information and leads to more info. I am a passionate re-cycler and am so happy to read your words of encouragement. Will be a huge fan. Kate
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