Laura Neilson

Australia is addicted to the newness and cheapness of fast fashion. With the textile industry being one of the largest contributors to the climate crisis consumers feel that their actions are inconsequential to the scale of the problem. This is not true. Consumers have the power to make their wardrobe sustainable. This project aims to build an emotional connection between consumers and their clothing. Loving your clothes is a radical act of sustainability. To love your clothes is to wear them more, keep them longer and mend them instead of buying new. This project is a poster campaign and a three-hour workshop. The poster campaign will provoke people, introducing them to the idea of love as an act of rebellion and sustainability and introduce them to the workshop. The workshop will teach basic hand sewing skills while facilitating a conversation and reflection on the participants relationship with their clothes. The participants are encouraged to bring an unloved piece of clothing they own to be upcycled into a communal textile artwork. In the workshop the participants will all be working together on the same cloth. The final design of the textiles artwork is determined by the participants.