Workshops-Fashion-British Council Arts

British Council Mexico

British Council Estonia

Franz Mayer Museum

	Fashion Workshops

Plaited ribbon detail of a dress inspired by Mexican colours and Frida Kahlo

Workshops create direct connections between people, get everyone working on something tangible and start conversations or ideas that grow into long-term relationships or big projects. The crucial factor is identifying the unique local brief or context for design. Here are two recent workshops tackling different fashion design briefs in opposite parts of the globe:

MEXICO CITY: FRANZ MAYER COLLECTION

Franz Mayer was German stockbroker and immigrant to Mexico in 1905. He collected more than 10,000 objects from the colonial period, all of which evoke connections with a much wider world, particularly the trade routes from Asia to Europe via Central America. These objects are displayed in a former religious hospital, now the Franz Mayer Museum, in the historic centre of Mexico City. The Museum has made a firm commitment to connecting the artefacts in their care with the objects and discourse of contemporary design. Textile designer Kate Lewis worked with students from Universidad Iberoamericana to create a collection of garments directly inspired by objects in the collection. A crowd of 1500 came to see these creations displayed “in motion” in the Museum and garden.

A student sewing colourful embellishments into a dress

“My inspiration came from the culture of miracles. People in México live all their lives around religion – around the virgin of Guadalupe and all the saints whom they ask for miracles promising something in return. There’s an important tradition in which people buy little miracle pieces according to what they need and pin them to the saint’s clothes. I asked everyone in the group what were their wishes. I made the miracles and then I pinned them to the dress and added some ribbons”. Lourdes Landa Arce, Universidad Iberoamericana

Lazercut and bonded skirt designed by a student at the Mexico fashion workshop

“The students would bring her something and she’d say ‘that’s quite good: keep going’. They’d say ‘I like it how it is’. But Kate always made them do more, push themselves further” Lydia Lavin, Textiles Tutor, Universidad Iberoamericana

"I really believe everyone can do this" Kate Lewis, Textile Designer

TALLIN: FASHION MAGAZINE WORKSHOP

Estonia boasts a prolific garment manufacturing sector but one which largely fails to combine with the country’s network of energetic young fashion designers. Fashion proper is only created when design, manufacture and many other accessory trades like styling, photography, journalism, show production and art direction join together as the hyperbolic machine we know. A workshop on styling and photography was the second in a series we masterminded with the Estonia Academy of Arts’ fashion department – the final outcome of which will be a magazine about Estonian fashion. Photographer Gavin Fernandes and stylist Marcus Ross spent a week with the MA students.

Photograph taken during the workshop in Tallin using the metaphor of linked hands

“We had trouble coming up with a simple visual device to carry throughout the shoot and had to spend a long time brainstorming. Eventually, one student commented that in Estonia you are only ever 3 handshakes away from everyone else. This cast up a significant image: Estonians all famously joined hands across the country when the Communist regime fell. We went on to use the linking of hands in a variety of scenarios from wrestling to lovers and friends”. Marcus Ross, stylist

For more information about our fashion workshops, please contact Alison Moloney.