Radically Local
Kirsten Scott, Emma D’Arcey, Clare Lopeman
Research question: How might we create clothing in radically benign and transparent ways, regenerating local ecologies and communities and reducing its carbon footprint?
The Radically Local project explores the potential of reviving heritage British fibre, fabric and fashion systems for the 21st century, to reimagine contemporary, sustainable, and luxurious clothing solutions that are distinctive, culturally-grounded and expressive of a heritage that has been almost erased by the industrialisation and globalisation of fashion, and by the dogmas of modernity and growthism.
Through their creative practice, supported by interviews with key stakeholders and field visits to farms and mills, our team is investigating a series of local sourcing, design and making strategies, analysing their successes and challenges, to formulate strategies and recommendations that may assist small-scale designers in transitioning to regenerative approaches. We characterise our research as a process of excavation: working with local fibres, materials, techniques, processes, heritage and aesthetics, rediscovering and extending their potentials, to reconstruct a vibrant local vernacular, and a system for post-growth fashion that is compelling and persuasive, and aim to develop resources that support a just transition. Ultimately, we will test the viability of this research and disseminate its findings through a range of locally-produced garments and textiles whose provenance is clear and which embody a vision of optimism for small-scale, craft-based British manufacturing that is beautiful, luxurious and operating in harmony with people and planet.
Sub-project 1
A practice-based investigation exploring the potential of the technical, creative, and regenerative possibilities of local tree colour derived from bio-debris and agricultural waste, and its contribution to the development of emotionally durable, scalable and sustainable heritage textiles. Emma D’Arcey
This research investigates the use of naturally occurring bio-debris and agricultural waste from UK trees to dye heritage textiles. Initiated by an unexpected move to Somerset, the work builds on 15 years of industry experience developing natural dyes for yarn production as part of AO Textiles consultancy.
Responding to the climate crisis, the research focuses on scaling dyes through a regenerative approach, emphasising local production, community, and circularity. Colour is sourced from a network of farms, willow growers, a historic heritage garden, and nature reserves, located within a 20-mile radius of Emma’s home in Somerset.
A central aim of the research is to develop visually compelling and aesthetically appealing outcomes. Consequently, the methodology focuses on achieving rich and vibrant circular colours. Through a rigorous process involving pre-treatments, mordants, soaking, heating, and after-baths, the research optimises colour intensity, variation, and lightfastness. Recipes are refined to meet industry standards, producing biodegradable local colours.
The work presented in the exhibition is the first step towards addressing the research aim and explores a seasonal colour palette of UK tree debris-derived dyes spanning the months of May through to November 2024.
Also on display linking to this research was a proof of concept trial in heritage jacquard weave as one of the AO Textile exhibits. Agricultural waste and bio-debris from Borough Hill Cider and Brandy farm and The Bishops Palace gardens in Somerset are used for the colours.
Sub-project 2
The Emotional Atelier: A Regenerative Couture? Clare Lopeman
Could an ‘Emotional Couturier’ form the ultimate couture, a draping of the soul, a tailoring of the self?
How might an ‘Emotional Atelier’ contribute to and collaborate with rare British heritage textile crafts and artisanal practices to shape regenerative innovations that centre slow fashion as an emotional durable artefact?
This practice-based research proposes an original and significant repositioning of fashion and textile design practices. The Emotional Atelier critiques notions of the term couture, reimagining it as a philosophically bespoke, critical space of consciousness; a draping of the soul, a tailoring of the self, a secret second skin. Contradictory perceptions are at play with private expressions felt and embodied rather than seen or performed. Various design scales facilitate different registers of expressions and distillations that oscillate between conspicuous and inconspicuous, as illusion and in plain sight.
Emotionally led design strategies utilise artisanal encryptions to craft fashion and textile design practices as intrinsic, constructed metaphors of the soul. These inherent signifiers become enduring reminders of our positioning, who we are as a constant, what we believe in and stand for in an intimate way.
Beyond emotionality The Emotional Atelier advocates for enduring and ethically engaged approaches to fashion. As part of the Radically local research project The Emotional Atelier explores future possibilities through historical legacies, craftsmanship and archival inspiration. It commits to an integrity of making through artisanal collaboration with Gainsborough Silk Mill in Suffolk, one of the last jacquard weaving houses in the UK, tracing its provenance to the Huguenot silk weavers in the late 1600’s and early 1700’s.
The collaboration evidences an exploration into bespoke, Jacquard weaving where poetic fragments of life-writing are encrypted into the cloth, conceptualising fabric as a construction of the self, as inherent signifier, an intrinsic material enriched with implicit, embodied meaning.
This practice-based research aims to generate a new lexicon of possibilities that mediate emotionally durable design strategies with the provenance, heritage, legacies and future potentials of UK based craftsmanship.
Sub-project 3
Heirlooms: heritage aesthetics, fibres, colours and textiles for regenerative, local fashion futures. Kirsten Scott
This research examines indigenous knowledges associated with British heritage fibre, fabric and fashion – arguably sacrifice zones to industrialised fashion – to gain insights into the ways that people have worked resourcefully and creatively with local materials to form distinctive regional products and aesthetics. It advances the possibility of reviving aspects of these traditional systems to construct emotionally durable vernaculars for post-growth fashion that offer persuasive counter-narratives to fossil-fuel fashion.
Specifically, my practice research investigates the potential of using local fibres, colours and yarns in high-quality, contemporary knitwear - speculatively conceptualising a local vernacular through handknitting and pattern, using organic, undyed British wool. It plays a crucial role in generating and processing knowledge and in constructing possibilities, prompted by the affordances offered by the materials in hand. This is underpinned by qualitative interviews with farmers, fibre processors, mill owners, designers, and textile historians to identify traditional good practices, and the opportunities and blockages they face. This pragmatic and reflexive approach has enabled dynamic feedback loops through which to understand, test, extend and refine understanding and outcomes of the research to date.
Results suggest that vernacular design strategies may have the potential to promote sustainability, community cohesion and to reconstruct cultural identity. While obstacles are faced in reviving local clothing systems - including affordable access to fibre processing equipment, inconsistency of outcomes, lack of locally-produced resources such as fastenings and threads, and the loss younger and skilled workers – there is a resurgence of local crafting activity that may have the capacity to bridge these and other gaps.
Websites and instagram handle:
www.researchiml.com/radicallylocal
www.aotextiles.com
www.clarelopeman.com
www.kirstenscott.org
@emma_darcey
@ao_textiles
@clarelopeman
@kirstenscottz