Textile students ‘make an impact’ with new sustainable fashion project

Textile students at Leeds City College have been making an impact with a new project that focuses on sustainability.

The Make an Impact Project’s key focus is around upcycling and sustainability of fashion. All pieces have been created from previous garments or from recycled materials.

Learners have been asked to investigate and create different ways to reduce, reuse, recycle and re-wear clothes, and have used innovative methods to remodel the clothes donated by Yorkshire Aid.

They have also used waste items, fabrics and textile products to create original 2D materials and 3D fashion textile or art pieces.

Amelia Johnson, Visual and Digital Arts teacher at Leeds City College said: “This has been a materials-led project using experimentation and problem-solving to find the potential of what the students had available to them and we are grateful to our partner, Yorkshire Aid for sharing the donations they were unable to use.

“The fashion industry is the second largest polluter in the world and the environmental damage has continued to increase as the industry grows.

“With today’s society having a strong awareness of environmental impacts and the world of fast fashion, there are solutions and alternatives to mitigate these problems. Through building awareness and society’s willingness to change, this project will help shed light on the possibilities within the Textile industry.”

Meanwhile, sustainability and ethical concerns are the most pressing issues facing the fashion and textiles industry.

Amelia added: “It is important to educate emerging fashion and textile students, because they are the designers of tomorrow and they will need to gain the skills to solve the inhumane and ecological problems of the future.”

Yorkshire Aid collects items to send to asylum seekers, refugees and migrants in need. Some items are donated to the charity that are not essential for their purpose and have been donated to the college, enabling learners to utilise.

For more information about the charity visit the website.