Accessories made NOT to last

This workshop celebrates uniqueness and originality in fashion. We invite you to explore your creativity by challenging your assumptions about the way accessories are made and owned.

The session will start by exploring the way accessories enhance our existing wardrobes by adding a new twist to the garments we already own, but this need for new comes at a price, with many statement pieces languishing in a drawer after one wear. We will then be looking at the ways we can make accessories using biodegradable materials so that our accessories make a statement without having a negative environmental impact.

This hands-on workshop will give everyone the chance to create your own statement accessory using bioplastics and found materials. Using tried and tested recipes, moulds and freeform techniques, we will create statement neckpieces, earrings and cuffs.

The event is designed to enable social connection through the sharing of fashion skills, textile knowledge and practical approaches to reducing textile waste in creative and fashionable ways. This workshop forms part of the Collarts x M/FW23 partnership project and will use examples of the work produced by Collarts School of Design students (from Fashion & Sustainability, Fashion Marketing and Photography). This collaborative project (on show during the M/FW 2023 Underground Runway) focuses on how we can enhance the world of fashion through innovative use of textiles.

Neckpiece: Aleksandra Gichevska

Photography: Rikki Bunder