London College of Fashion (LCF), University of the Arts London (UAL) is delighted to announce Designed for Life, a new, free, exhibition exploring London College of Fashion’s, and its partners’ and community collaborators’, decades long commitment to harnessing fashion, design and creative practice as a force for positive social change.
Coinciding with the opening of LCF’s new, single-site campus at East Bank, on Stratford’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, this inaugural exhibition features key themes including east London as home, reciprocal learning as community building, empowerment through making, global emergencies through creative expression and visions of a more sustainable and equitable future.
Presented across five immersive showcase areas in LCF’s new building, visitors will encounter textiles, design, film, photography, artefacts, personal testimonies and community building to discover the transformative power of creative action in shaping our world.
Designed for Life features many pieces never before on display to the public. Featured work includes:
Notable work from LCF’s Centre for Sustainable Fashion researcher and artist Professor Helen Storey, which will be displayed collectively as a whole for the very first time. This includes Dress for Our Time; a decommissioned refugee tent donated by the UNHCR, displayed with new data from the UNHCR’s work tracing migrant statistics, the Jacket of Wishes; designed to protect the modesty of those wearing the Dress for Our Time in the Middle East, and the previously unseen project Messages of Hope; created in collaboration with the TIGER Girls (These Girls Enjoy Reading).
Centre for Sustainable Fashion, LCF researcher and artist Lucy Orta’s project Traces: Stories of Migration, a collaborative series of textile-based artworks portraying images of the array of east London communities with migration experiences.
Work celebrating LCF’s Portal Centre for Social Impact and its ten-year anniversary of award-winning programmes including Making for Change; established by the Ministry of Justice and LCF, UAL in 2014.
Pieces from Centre for Sustainable Fashion LCF’s Decolonising Fashion and Textiles Project; a long-term community-based research workshop project led by Dr Francesco Mazzarella including short films by David Betteridge.
An interactive Living Room installation reflecting and representing a broad heterogeneity of lives and experiences in East London, co-created by a team of community curators.
Works and events by East London Art Prize recipients Woo Jin Joo, Sophie Cunningham and Alaa Alsaraji developed in collaboration with Bow Arts.
Innovative practices of Toyin Gbomedo and Noemi Gunea; part of SEEDED, an East Bank partner residency programme for east London-based creatives, communities and collectives supported by Foundation for Future London and the City of London Corporation.
Lindsay Pentelow, Head of Cultural Programming, London College of Fashion, UAL, said: “This exhibition serves as a momentous occasion, heralding the inauguration of our East Bank campus situated within the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Designed for Life stands as a testament to our mission to change lives through fashion and to lead the charge in cultivating a future where the impact of fashion is embraced and celebrated for its boundless reach and is the perfect way to launch our new Cultural Programme and welcome the public into our new home. We cannot wait to welcome our new neighbours and visitors to explore the countless stories of decades of collaborations with our partners and community collaborators through an array of textiles, film, photography, and personal narratives. With themes reaffirming our local, regional and global community’s unwavering dedication to harnessing the dynamic force of fashion and creative expression to instigate positive change we hope visitors leave Designed for Life considering all the ways fashion and creativity can forge unity and ignite empowerment through meaningful employment.”
Designed for Life Community Co-Curator for the Living Room, Pallavi Chamarty said:
“As an advocate for placemaking and reflecting minority experiences in the world of fashion, I am truly honoured to contribute to Designed for Life as a community co-curator. I see this exhibition as a way to give marginalised narratives a home and the Living Room installation in particular will hold space for people that live, literally or metaphorically, on the periphery of society. Within this interactive and functional space, visitors are welcomed to explore the stories woven into the fabric of the objects and artworks within the room. Like any family communal space, the Living Room accommodates a multitude of perspectives, whether they align with societal norms or push against them. Our team of co-curators, with the support of Dr Michael McMillan, are from various walks of life – bound together by a shared passion, we are inspired to create art that faithfully mirrors, validates and legitimises life. Decolonising methods and a drive to empower underrepresented makers and artisans has shaped my contribution to this multicultural, warm, inclusive room, where everyone may feel the comfort of home.”
Designed for Life is a collection of voices who are committed to societal change using research and arts practice to bring communities and underrepresented voices together. The exhibition as whole is a physical acknowledgement of these practitioners and their ongoing commitment to using creativity to change the world.
