The Karighor Archive: MA Fashion Futures join codesign challenge to explore digital tools and exhibit at The Lab E20
- Written byLondon College of Fashion
- Published date 19 September 2023
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Invited by the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, the MA Fashion Futures program will exhibit, share, and test ideas and student projects in The Lab E20 throughout the autumn term 2023.
On Saturday 16 September, the first public event took over the space to exhibit a knowledge exchange project the course had run with Design Studio Peut-Porter. Led by Alexa Pollmann and Bine Roth, students of London College of Fashion's MA Fashion Futures and Chelsea College of Arts's MA Textiles participated in a codesign challenge in 2022 and 2023, connecting them with Bangladeshi handloom artisans – specialists in the local weaving techniques of Jamdani and Benarasi textiles.
The Karighor Archive is a digital tool currently being developed in collaboration with Bangladeshi textile makers to document their heritage craft processes and digitally display their work. The platform will facilitate co-design and co-creation between the highly skilled textile artisans of Bangladesh and international artists, designers, and creatives. Based on the principle ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’, Dhaka-based textile artisans were invited to discuss their vision of future-craft through workshops led by Design Studio Paraa (Dhaka) and Design Studio Peut-Porter (London).
A first codesign challenge between Bangladeshi Master Weavers and design students from MA Fashion Futures (LCF) and MA Textile Design (CCW) acts as an exploration into how digital tools such as the Karighor Archive could shape and define the future of craft by honouring the skills, knowledge, creativity and cultural setting of all individuals involved in the production and development of a textile. Eliminating hierarchies between design and production, the project encourages an exchange of practice and knowledge, open-source working methods, and collective forms of organising and producing fashion
Watch this a short film about the project and its different voices as well as the impressions from the participating students premiered during the event at the Lab E20
After the screening, a panel of specialists in heritage and digital textile craft came together to discuss the ideas and principles behind the project and how it is situated in the context of Bangladesh as a country where a vivid local fashion- and the textile sector now must rival for markets, resources, and recognition.
On the panel was Gabrielle Shiner-Hill of Bureau 555, a partner on the project who supported the Archive through the creation of digital twins of heritage textiles, Mettilda Thomas – a current MA Fashion Futures student and Clo3D specialist who participated in the project, and Maher Anjum from the organisation OITIJ-JO Studios, a Bangla inspired women-led social enterprise from Tower Hamlets.
Yasmin Jones-Henry, curator of the Lab E20 highlighted the further context of the event.
How do we conserve the knowledge, the skill, the heritage? What role does technology play, not in replacing the artisan, but in facilitating the EVOLUTION of the ARTISAN in recording, preserving memory, and democratising access to these skills and education?
Blurring the lines between textiles innovation, craft, and heritage at a time when so many luxury conglomerates and fashion houses are casting their gaze towards Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria) - aka "the Global South" for their aesthetic, their ingenuity, and their innovation... how do we ensure these processes are enriching these communities of creatives, rather than exploiting them?
Could not be more grateful to London College of Fashion, UAL, and the Centre for Sustainable Fashion team for bringing this conversation about accessible craft and co-design to The Lab E20 as part of our programming for London Fashion Week.
The collaboration between students and artisans was a live test of the Karighor Archive. To engage directly, to explore the art of heritage-making techniques, and to bridge the current divide between design and craft, students dove into existing sustainable and slow heritage-making processes of Bangladesh in a virtual, collaborative setting. The primary objective of this design challenge is to develop new ways of seeing and critiquing the status quo. The participants leveraged digital and physical means, shared best practices, open-sourcing their ideas, and embraced the traditionally collaborative spirit of craft. Artisans Rafiq and Jabbar, with their deep-rooted expertise in the traditional heritage Benarasi and Jamdani weaving techniques, have been instrumental in creating the final exceptional textile samples. The students from MA Fashion Futures (LCF) and MA Textiles (CCW) had a series of virtual meet-ups to get to know the artisans, exchange thoughts, and co-develop textile samples based on their conversations and findings.
This project has been supported by the British Council, Crafts Council England, Crafts Council Bangladesh, University of the Arts London, Bureau 555, and the Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative. A special thank you also has to be given to The Lab E20, Raeburn-Design, and GetLiving for inviting and hosting us.
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