LCF and Zegna Foundation use fashion to lead social inclusion project

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jun 29, 2017

The London College of Fashion, Zegna Foundation and weaving centre San Patrignano have joined hands on a social project that demonstrates fashion’s ability to promote rehabilitation and social inclusion.

The project, named ‘Conscious Contemporary Tailoring’, began when Tom Adams, LCF Course Leader for BA (Hons) Fashion Design Technology: Menswear, and menswear designer Bethany Williams visited the San Patrignano workshop in Italy in February 2017.

Created to give women in rehab a chance to learn the basics of weaving, the centre worked together with Adams and Williams to produce unique textile samples made by interlacing industrial waste materials, or textile fibres, paper or plastic.

The fabrics were used as inspiration for a design competition involving 70 LCF menswear students, with the final selection of six winning designed announced by a committee on June 28.

During the summer, women at Making for Change, a fashion training and manufacturing unit based in a UK women’s prison will use the fabrics to manufacture the winning designs.

“As seen already by its name, Conscious Contemporary Tailoring is a special project identified by three important words that give central focus to the value of the people, the contemporaneity of its inspiration, and the stylistic and textile reference points of the idea. The London College of Fashion, the San Patrignano weaving department and Fondazione Zegna have created something extraordinary by combining the manual skills of ancient crafts with innovative technologies and new elements of creativity. I am particularly attached to this project because it recalls the attention to social issues that was so dear to my grandfather, and that remains intact through the spirit and commitment of Fondazione Zegna,” said Anna Zegna.

“We are really excited to have worked together with the Zegna Foundation and San Patrignano, on this truly collaborative project with joint ambitions of supporting rehabilitation.  This project comes under our work of Better Lives, a term we use at LCF to describe how fashion can be used as a discipline to drive change, build a sustainable future and improve the way we live,” commented Professor Frances Corner, head of LCF.

A selection of clothing and accessories manufactured by women at Making for Change will be presented to the public in the autumn.