Sustainable Fashion, Migrants, Embroidery

Ateliers of 'Social Integration'

Alessandra Lopez y Royo

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN:
  9781350284098
• eBook ISBN:
  9781350284111
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Fashion Design

Sustainable Fashion, Migrants, Embroidery: Ateliers of 'Social Integration' tells of community-led 'solidarity ateliers' engaged in sewing and embroidery activities which, in the Global North and Global South, are providing a vital alternative to neoliberal and neo-colonial fashion paradigms.

On encountering several ateliers solidaires/sartorie sociali during her immersive fieldwork, for which she travelled to Morocco and Southern Italy, and contrasting her findings with her knowledge of parallel and analogous initiatives in London, Alessandra Lopez y Royo suggests that despite their different outlook and approach these ateliers can be inscribed within an ever-growing economy of solidarity and sharing.

With a uniquely combined focus on sustainability, fashion and migration, Lopez y Royo examines how the ateliers foreground a powerful social inclusion agenda, encouraging migrants (and refugees) to collaborate, exchange knowledge, and foster communities on a level playing field with locals.

Questioning widely accepted notions of 'empowerment' and 'social integration', and drawing on her background in archaeology and material culture studies, Lopez y Royo uses micro-studies to illuminate a broader path to a more inclusive, sustainable, and socially conscious industry, presenting a fresh perspective on repurposing and upcycling.

In a world grappling with the need to shift away from fast fashion's wasteful practices, this thought-provoking exploration shows how slow-growth 'solidarity ateliers' can challenge the widely accepted notions of both 'fashion' and 'social integration'.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Dedication
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• List of Plates
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Prologue: A mosaic of threads
• Part One Together we Sew…
• 1 Grainlines and Selvedges
• 2 Disambiguating ‘sustainability’: The ‘power–empowerment–agency’ nexus, ‘social integration’ and the ‘economy of solidarity’
• Part Two Fashion-ing Solidarity: Case Studies in Socially Sustainable Eco-Fashion
• 3 Sartorie Sociali in Apulia and Sicily
• 4 When in Rome: Solidarity fashion meets embroidery art
• 5 The London/South-East experience: Social agendas and Brick Lane chic
• Part Three Fashion-ing An Archaeological Sensibility
• 6 We are all fashion archaeologists now: Vintage clothes, upcycling and mending
• Epilogue: Cutting the selvedges
• Appendix: List of online sources
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Plates
• Copyright