Atelier Martine

I have been interested in design and 'social change' for a long time, and have worked on projects teaching people new craft skills such as screen printing and trying to engage local communities in the creative process. But I recently came across an example from the beginnings of the twentieth century which could be an interesting model for the future of local fashion and textile production.

Paul Poiret, the French designer who had revolutionised fashion with his loose tunic dresses and eclectic influences in the 1910's, also turned his hand to designing interior fabrics. But rather than hiring designers or painters to develop the prints, he set up the Atelier Martine, a 'decorating workshop' which was a group of untrained, teenage girls who produced fresh, spontaneous, 'primitive' drawings which were turned into fabrics and wallpaper. His aim was to nurture their creativity and offer them an opportunity to develop their skills, and it was a successful business until the outbreak of the Second World War. 

His ambition wasn't purely charitable though. He also wanted the designs to have an authentic 'folk art' feel, and the best way to achieve this naive style was to use untrained people, as seen in the designs of the above fabric. In this sense Poiret was a bit of a revolutionary. To imagine that young untrained girls could produce designs that were as desirable and valid as a trained artist was quite radical. 

Built in DIY

I was at 100% Design last year and saw a piece by Tomoko Azumi and love its simplicity. A beautifully hand carved napkin ring that allows the user to print their own designs on the napkin - so the DIY capabilities are built in to the product. 

It was part of a project called Ten Again, where ten designers were given £10 to design and make something, only using materials sourced from 10 miles radius within their studio. A nice exercise in how limitations can often create great design.

Creativity as a mass activity

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'.