Melbourne Design Week 23 MAY – 2 JUNE 2024

Untold Stories of Overseen Materials is an experimental three-part workshop that explores and reflects on the relationship between everyday garments and the poetic dimension of everyday materials. The workshop employs a unique approach that includes elements of humour, chance, and randomness, celebrating the magic in the everyday and making sense of nonsense. Through instructional prompts, participants will be encouraged to celebrate the process and performance of dressing, creating meaning and new experiences linked to the garments you are wearing.

As part of this workshop, participants will engage in innovative activities such as creating glitter from an old woollen jumper, developing a new typography directory from industrial care labels, or noticing through simple movements. These experimental activities aim to reveal untold stories of unseen materials, extend the value of garments, and celebrate the democratic form of creativity in which you become part of the design process. This hands-on approach aims to enhance our understanding of how objects influence our perceptions and interactions with the world.

The workshop is part of developing a manual as an open-source guide, created in collaboration with the creative community to foster a circular way of thinking through clothing reappreciation prompts and activities. The manual encourages shared values and diverse experiences, critiquing consumption in our material world and using ordinary materials to make meaningful contributions to fashion design.

The workshop culminates in the production of an experimental zine, reflecting the insights and experiences gained throughout the process and activating the manual, which will then continue to contribute to an archive of experimental material responses from diverse experiences and participants’ responses.

Join Hannah Berry and Vanessa Duque in the workshop to uncover the untold stories of unseen materials and reappreciate the wardrobe.

Participants

Hannah Berry

Hannah Berry is a multidisciplinary fashion practitioner whose material led creative practice swims amongst the pools of costume, performance art, sculpture, zine making, fashion artefacts and installation. They are primarily interested in social engagement art and how this can drive social change through human interaction with unconventional materials, humour and connection. They are very passionate about engaging the community to encourage new thinking whilst drawing attention to environmental and social issues.

Vanessa Duque

Vanessa Duque is a fashion practitioner and lecturer based in Melbourne. In addition to teaching and working in their practice-based research and denim-oriented studio, they also commission and collaborate with fashion practitioners, local brands and designers. They hold a Fashion Design MA from RMIT University, and completed a BA in Fashion Design in South America and subsequently worked in the fashion industry for six years, including artisanal design, denim design and production. Their ongoing practice-led research reflects on how the conception and definition of garments are affected by industrialisation and consumption.