An international fashion research project exploring the 'craft of use'

My Community

In smaller communities people can more easily see the effects of their own actions on each other and the environment. They can also better understand the ramifications of their choices; allowing them to take responsbility for them. Expressing community through our garment choices sews the seeds of a new type of self-reliance in fashion based on connection to people and place.

Jobs for the people

"This is a sweater of my mother's, from the fifties. It is the only piece that I have of hers. My mother used to own a clothing store, I grew up above the store… in the store, running around, trying on the hats (laughs). My mother was very influential on me… we were in a very small town in Canada, and I must have been seven or eight, when she gave me some money and said, ‘You need to buy yourself some sneakers’. ‘Go down the street and try to buy something Canadian if you can.’ And that really stayed with me. And later I understood. What she was trying to do, she was in business, and she understood the importance of having jobs for people in the community…"

Vancouver - January 2013
Photograph by Jeremy Calhoun