The question of quality.

While evaluating the questionnaires of the latest Make{able} workshop, I came across one quote stating, that the level of value and the reasons for shopping new clothes are dependent on the quality of the garment. I do agree here fully, who likes to wear garments that have holes or lost their shape and colour? The participant stated, that the quality of the self made item differed a lot to what you get in the stores. I can agree here as well, because hand made vs. mass-produced items differ. Though, not necessarily in the aspect of quality, depending how we define quality. The items differ rather through a different feel, appearance and appreciation. If one is a passionate, skilled and detail-loving maker personality, achieving qualitative results is 'makeable'. Those clothes can easily compete with the mass manufactured garments coming from cheap labour countries.

Finishing a half-way Tunic.

Perfection does not need to be the goal of the first own garment. Using a sewing machine is not an extraordinary skill, its a tool of creative exploration. The fear of using the sewing machine, relates from the fact, that the majority has lost the skills and knowledge about this great tool already. They restrict themselves to a way smaller product choice, dictated by the companies and fashion makers. Don’t little mistakes show the learning process and will make the piece unique and facilitate learning by doing for the next piece? If one starts to enjoy sewing and overcome the fear, there is plenty of ways to improve skills to reach the level which makes you more aware of the crafting and design in all the pieces found in your wardrobe. The making process puts the user into another position of understanding the manufacture and duration needed to design and accomplish one piece of clothing. In addition, this knowledge helps to learn how clothes are put together, in case they feel the need to change it. Skilled users, are able to do smaller changes by themselves and thus redefine and create story within this piece of clothing as well.

Beyond this learning process, consumers will also start realising the real qualitative difference between, skilfully made garments, with high quality materials. How to check for longevity in products: http://www.alreadypretty.com/2011/01/reader-request-shopping-for-quality-and-longevity.html or: http://thestyleaficionado.com/2010/06/how-to-identify-quality-clothes/

Sustainable Fashion benefits at the most, form the longevity of products, through a long product lifespan. The less new products and resources the consumer purchases, the better. Therefore, designers have the responsibility to ensure a high product quality, as well as enforce and encourage the use of good materials, and preferably local production. The way people interact and behave towards their garments, is eventually based on the way they are designed.

Creating Stories – Uusix Locally 'MADE in Helsinki'

Me building the material forest.

Within the past months I have been rather busy with working at another project that is still closely linked to my thesis. 

It is focusing as most of my other approachs also, on creating stories and memory conected to products and the people. Memories captured in products are most often mentioned as the main reason why people value them higher. My goal is therefore to create stories, memory and meaningfulness within the products so they grow together with their owner, to be kept, cared for and valued for a longer period of time. Even though, if one day the owner decides to give them away, if he/she cares for them, they are less likely to just put them to the garbage, they rather try to find a new owner who will take care. This thought I got at least when talking with friends, and sellers at the flea-market. 
I had a nice encounter a few days ago at the big Valteri Flea-market at Vallila, I found a lovely dress saying 'Made in Finland', and the owner told my a sweet story to it, and that she had so many nice memories conected to it, so she wanted it to find a new owner who would take care of it as well. Now its mine, and I love it already :) I also stayed in contact with the former owner, which is a really nice aswell.

Uusix Room - A space to interact - dive into the material forest.

Also in the research feedback from the Make{able} workshop I often found the key point that creates the higher value, was the making by the owner, or at least finishing and fine-tuning - creating a personal stamp and fit. This will create a memory of making and working with it. 
Stamping things, leads me to my other bigger project with Uusix Verstaat, a social enterprise of the city Helsinki. I have been enjoying to work there and with Uusix since last autumn, creating textile prints for the WDC and 200 years of Helsinki and mainly organising and building their room in Helsinki Museum - Hakasalmi Villa.

Patchwork created from the left overs of the city prints.

Handmade by Uusix

Their products are mainly shaped by the people making them. Me as designer just had the role of providing them with a starting idea – the textile single prints. The products and patterns were mostly created by the people only with some feedback from my side. All the wonderful items are produced locally in their facilities in Kyläsaari, Helsinki. Uusix is part of Helsinki's rehabilitation unit, and is dedicated to people who have been longer-term unemployed. Its main goal is to help them finding back to working life. The products created at Uusix are mainly based on recycled materials, products that host a former life-story already, but have been a discarded or lost their original purpose. Within their various workshops, they find new ways to be reinvented and reinterpreted to become a new life or story. Uusix was now also represented in the recently opened 'Made in Helsinki 1700 -2012' exhibition at Hakasalmi. The past two or three months I was mainly involved in organising planning and building the exhibition room. Which I am after all very happy to see in real action. The room is also named after the whole concept of Uusix and tries to represent the organisation in the best possible way I could think of. The theme called 'New Stories' (Uusia Tarinoita) is very much conform with my thesis idea, therefore I will try to also include it within my writing and thesis studies. The whole room is based on the white space of an unwritten story, filled with materials, to touch and interact, and shaped by the people of Uusix, that surround the room with a 13 meter photography panorama. There are also going to be workshops once a month, always the first Wednesday of each month, starting with the Taideyö (Night of the arts) in August 2012. Currently there are pillows, filled with recycled materials to test, feel and move around as well as a stamping station to create your own postcards with my Helsinki illustrations on mould-made paper. Enjoy and Make! Address and more info straight from the Museums site: Hakasalmi Villa

Stamp your own postcards.

Making and sharing

Download and make :) After a successufl test-phase in the first workshop, I would like to share the pattern and instructions how to make your own tunic. 

The intention is, to research the possibilities of motivating consumer behaviour towards sustainability, by enabling the consumer with new skills to become active users and creators. The target group at the Recycling Fare was rather aware of the fact that there is plenty of material waste that needs to be reused, but the average participant did not think much about their possible impact. In fact, the half-way approach is not meant to be solely recycling design in the sense of using waste to generate new. In my opinion it is closer located in the area between customised clothing of the user, with partly design by designer and combined with the skills of the user. In this setting, all was produced locally in Helsinki, which was clarified in the small fill out-labels which I attached in the garments. The workshop and the half-way clothing item is designed to make it together. Either with the help of Designers, or with friends and family. This aspect I wish to emphasize by sharing pattern and instructions on this blog. For this reason I kindly ask everyone who is downloading the pattern to give me feedback and sends me an image of the process, or tunic variation they have completed. I would be very glad to see and hear your stories. Please email to al.hirscher(at)gmail.com

Of course there are several variations possible. Get some inspiration with the attached images and instructions. Also various levels of difficulty are included. For more info please download the Make{able} posters here:

Poster with Instructions

 Or a booklet with photographs and very detailed explanations can be found when following this link:

Download Booklet

 
The Pattern for the Tunic 02 can be found here: Tunic_02 download

'Make the people make'

at Kamppi (image by Siivuous Päivä)

Does making result in a closer product-attachment and through that has the impact of changing peoples attitude and behavior towards their shopping habits? This is one of the main questions I wish to follow up during my thesis research. As I mentioned before, the general feedback of the Make{able} - capable of being made (def. by the dictionary) - workshop was extremely positive, and in the hype of making, the participants were sure they will change their perception and attitude towards clothes. But how to keep up the image and feeling in ones mind for a longer time and in the bigger scale it is of course not only trying to change the attitude towards clothes, fashion and the service provided by the clothing industry, but make the customers aware of each story behind the things they purchase. Most of us, have lost the knowledge and skill to evaluate the amount of work, and resources used during the process of making the items, which are so easily and cheaply available in the next by store.
Is there a way to constantly keep the issue up, rise awareness and at the same time actually provide the opportunity of making things by oneself. If thinking now only on clothing, skills, tools and material needs to be provided, as well as the space. But it is not a Mission impossible in my eyes.

balloon kinda skrit

Like mentioned before we are just in the time were the making-culture is on its way back, just spotted yesterday in Helsinki an amazing sewing-workshop outdoors in lovely sunny weather. It seems the city and its inhabitants are willing and interested to gain back places and skills for making things themselves. The spirit of the place was the same inspiring as on the workshop I was organizing on the weekend. To see and feel people gathering, making and helping each other within a nice setting is just the best thing to end a busy working day for example. Through exchange among the participants and workshop leaders lovely items of recycled fabric were made. I think its not only about sewing, that it brings up that feeling of understanding and change of attitude, whichever way or material will be used, the making together can be one of the facilitators that bring the change. And that is what we as designers should keep in mind. Involve the future user in that process as much as possible. I of course had to participate a bit myself, and made a multi-functional skirt/top for the summer as well as a little shirt.

as a small dress or top.

shirt kinda thing.

The event was related to the upcoming  Siivuous Päivä. "Cleaning Day will convert cities into giant flea markets on Saturday 12th of May. Anyone can sell or donate their furniture, clothes, gadgets and more, right on the street, and shop new ones from their neighbors. During this neat day one can also sell anything self-made." http://siivouspaiva.com/

Well-being, Half-way products and ways to enable the consumer to become an active user.

How to motivate the consumer to get involved within the process of design? How to nourish the emotional attachment towards products? These are two main questions that have been in the air for a long time. Relating this of course to my thesis research I am trying to find ways to encourage and enable consumers to become active participants in the design process. So they are able to learn new skills, and though get the freedom of choosing over the only ready made products. Giving the responsibility and the choice into their hands."The sweing machine is an insturment for liberation and skills are a path to freedom!" (Otto von Busch) One way of doing so is that the designer, plays a role of facilitating the consumers with a set of skills and tools, providing knowledge and by doing so enhances their own creativity and imagination, to start the change by getting involved. Regarding to Ezio Manzini, the opportunities for designers lie in offering new solutions to the already existing ones, that tend to be seen as better and offer the user the chance to gain further abilities. “.. in order to promote sustainable wellbeing, one has to support the capabilities of people and communities to live better consuming less, i.e., their capabilities to rely less on products and services, and more on contextual qualities and on the possibilities for them to be active.“ (Manzini, 2008)

The following project “multiskirt” is my first try out and still be considered as a work in process to realise one of those ideas in a more practical approach. I am of course aware there are already made very great projects by numerous well known designers like Martin Margiela, who contributed in 2004 to the “Design_Download series”. he offered the downloadable pattern of a half-finished dress to be completed by designers or interested users.(picture: http://showstudio.com, pattern of Martin Margiela Dress)

Over that there has been preformed a very interesting research series by Kate Fletcher and Mathilda Tham on the lifetime and use of several garments. “This project is about trying to match fast and slow garments with fast and slow rhythms of use to save resources while simultaneously providing for people's symbolic AND material needs.” (Fletcher,Tham online) Regarding this research they have outlined a series of future scenarios, how can the future of several items be seen in a more sustainable context. The detailed description of the project can be found here: http://www.katefletcher.com/lifetimes/index.html

The Cookbooks by Otto von Busch are another valuable source of projects and ideas based on the idea of user-customised garments. They are a collection of methods to redesign garments and so empower consumers to make clothes really their own. Otto von Busch is known for researching and encouraging the fashion-hacking culture. “>self_passage< is a brand and research project that explores how fashion can be used for empowerment, self-development and personal growth instead of being a phenomenon of top-down decrees and collective anxiety.” (http://www.selfpassage.org/) Here is a snapshot of one of his workshops on youtube. Fashion – Otto von Busch lecture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Euk06ElNNH4