Fashion from trees

Kirsten Scott & Karen Spurgin

Fashion from trees: a collaborative critical practice

Kirsten Scott & Karen Spurgin

UK & Uganda / Istituto Marangoni

In response to the damaging impacts to our planet and its people caused by mainstream fashion across all market levels, this cross-disciplinary, cross-continental and collaborative fashion and textiles practice draws upon conceptual frameworks more commonly associated with science, health, architecture and engineering - such as natural medicine (through Ayurvastra), biodesign, biophilia and biomechanics -  and uses slow, neocrafting techniques to enhance the wellbeing of makers and wearers of eco-utopian fashion garments. These garments are made from Ugandan barkcloth – a fabric formed from trees. Barkcloth is a sustainably harvested, non-woven, fibrous, heritage textile that has been produced by the Baganda of southwestern Uganda since at least the thirteenth century, from the bark of the wild fig tree. A question contained in this practice-led research is, that if just touching the leaves and bark of trees leads to a decrease in blood pressure and improves calm (Hansen et al, 2017, Putra et al, 2018), what might be the effects of wrapping ourselves in this bark, as our ancestors may have done?

‘Thinking through making’ (Ingold, 2013) continues to evolve our conceptualisation of fashion in ways that that challenge the status quo. Shape making has been synergised with barkcloth’s specific challenges in relation to body form and movement requirements (Gupta, 2011; Venkatraman and Scott, 2018). This, in turn, has prompted reflections on contemporary definitions of beauty, the body and conformity that have fed back into the design process, as connections are made in the brain while the hand is engaged in sampling, dyeing, pattern cutting and toiling. What happens if there is extra volume here, or there? What does it mean to our ideas of perfection? What beauty can be found in forms that must exaggerate humps, stress points and bumps to improve wear?

Our neocrafting techniques – including natural dye and finishes, embroidery, appliqué - strengthen as well as decorate garments to promote physical and emotional durability and provide therapeutic and anti-bacterial benefits (Armstrong et al, 2016). Our finishes are lustrous and compostable, promote human health and wellbeing and improve the strength and water resistance of fabrics. In slow stitching there is a meditative rhythm that brings calm to the soul and opens the mind to new possibilities. Using a zero-waste approach, all scrap materials are reintegrated into the project using biotechnology to create biocomposites for trimmings, finishes, and new materials for accessories, or to create a dye from the barkcloth itself. 

The propositional garments created demonstrate barkcloth’s aesthetic and material potential and challenge the conventions of beauty, materiality, design and the body. Thinking through making, a holistic design methodology for contemporary luxury fashion has been forged, which promotes the wellbeing of the Ugandan barkcloth makers, their community and local environment, as well as those who make and wear the garments. The garments will ultimately compost to become soil nutrients (Scott, 2019). This practice offers a critique of normative production and reconnects us to the natural world as we wrap ourselves once more in fabric from trees.

References

Armstrong, C. M., Niinimäki, K. and Lang, C. 2016. “Towards Design Recipes to Curb the Clothing Carbohydrate Binge.” in The Design Journal, 19:1, 159-181,

Gupta, D. 2011. “Design and engineering of functional clothing.” in Indian Journal of Fibre & Textile Research, 36:4, 321-326. http://nopr.niscair.res.in/handle/123456789/13226.

Hansen, M., Jones, R. and Tocchini, K. 2017. “Shinrin-Yoku (Forest Bathing) and Nature Therapy: A State-of-the-Art Review.” in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14: 8, 851. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14080851.

Ingold, T. 2013. Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture. London: Routledge

Putra, R R.F.A., Veridianti, D.D, Evelyn, N., Brilliant, D., Rosellinny, G., Suraz, C. and Sumarpo, A., 2018. “Immunostimulant Effect from Phytoncide of Forest Bathing to Prevent the Development of Cancer.” in Advanced Science Letters, 24: 9, 6653-6659(7). https://doi.org/10.1166/asl.2018.12804.

Scott, K. 2020.’Future Luxury: fashioning wellbeing through holistic design’ in eds. Cantista, I. and Sadaba, T. (2020) Understanding Luxury Fashion: From Emotions to Brand Building. London: Palgrave MacMillan

Venkatraman, P. and Scott, K. (2018) ‘Investigation of bark cloth for its surface texture and durability for apparel applications’ paper delivered at the Textile Institute World Conference, University of Leeds, 23/06/18-26/06/18. Found at http://www.tiworldconference.org

Bio: Kirsten Scott and Karen Spurgin - Istituto Marangoni

Kirsten Scott                 

website: www.kirstenscott.org

instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kirstenscottz/ 

#barkclothresearchnetwork #kirstenscottz #fabricfromtrees #barkcloth

Kirsten Scott is Programme Leader for MA Fashion Design Womenswear and MA Luxury Accessory Design at Istituto Marangoni in London. She has a background in fashion, accessories and textiles design and has worked for leading international designers as well as running her own label for many years. Her practice-based PhD in Constructed Textiles, at the Royal College of Art, led her to develop a series of natural materials and accessories in an alternative, ethical and sustainable way, in collaboration with a group of women in Uganda. As a passionate maker, Kirsten frames her research to ask questions about the meaning and value of the handmade in this post-digital era and interrogates the paradigm of luxury today. Thinking through making, her focus as a researcher has become increasingly holistic and multi-disciplinary, concerned with fashion’s potential in benign design.

Karen Spurgin

website: http://www.aotextiles.com

instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ao_textiles/       

#barkclothresearchnetwork #ao_textiles #fabricfromtrees #barkcloth

For many years I have run my own textile design business working for high profile clients. My strong environmental concerns led me to co-found and now work as part of a design collective, ao textiles. ao is a project based consultancy, specialising in the research and development of sustainable textiles. With a focus on circular design principles, my research into surface techniques and finishes includes revisiting natural dyeing techniques and proposes 21st century solutions for colour. All ao projects put sustainable choices at the heart of production methods and demonstrate that innovative textiles and environmentally responsible design are not mutually exclusive. I am currently a senior lecturer at Istituto Marangoni London teaching both fashion design and fashion business students.