RENÉE LACROIX

Renée Lacroix and The Create Place, a community arts-and-crafts studio, customized an iconic British trench by lining the inside with a bright patchwork of donated fabric scraps. The Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood showcased the trench at an ethical fashion show and will auction to benefit The Create Place.

London College of Fashion, clothing repair, slow fashion, eco-fashion, sustainable fashion, green fashion, ethical fashion, sustainable style

A FEW SMALL REPAIRS

Although the students were told to mobilize their communities to repair or adjust an existing garment, the project wasn’t about designing a specific garment or conducting a group of people to solve a problem. Rather, Community Repair tasked participants to use repair as a tool for social empowerment, skill-sharing, and the practice of “do-it-together” versus “do-it-yourself.”

Community Repair tasked participants to use repair as a tool for social empowerment and skill-sharing.

“In the end we were asked what impact this repair has had on our emotional attachment to the garment, but realized it also had a deep impact on the emotional attachment to our communities and ourselves,” Testa says. “Many of us discovered people and places right near our homes that we never would have taken a second look at had this project not challenged us to explore our surroundings.”