ETHICAL FASHION

Wed 29 Nov, 6–7.30pm

At the Museum and Online

The onsite event takes place in the Headley Lecture Theatre and the online event via Zoom

Booking is essential

Please note the in-person event is now FULLY BOOKED. There are still online tickets left

Chaired by artist Kate Turnbull, with contributions from designer-maker and researcher Mila Burcikova, poet Karen McCarthy Woolf and fashion designer Rahemur Rahman.

Join this live in-conversation event to explore ethical fashion through the lens of colour and to mark our Colour Revolution exhibition at the Ashmolean.

The event will include opportunities for the audience to talk and ask questions.

Topics will include the historic and contemporary use of sustainable, processes, materials and dyes.

The discussion will also include the global context and sustainable fashion processes that are embedded in Rahman’s work, inspired by South Asian textile designs and processes.

This event is taking place as a collaboration between the Ashmolean World in Colour season and the Everything is Connected season being produced by the Humanities Cultural Programme.

About the speakers

Kate Turnbull (above, left) trained at Central St Martins (MA, Fashion & Textiles), worked in industry for over a decade and has been Head of Textiles at Headington School Oxford since 2015. In her new capacity as Eco Textiles Lead, she has devised an eco-textiles A Level course promoting natural dyeing, printmaking and ancient craft techniques. Kate works from her studio, The Secret Dyery, in Oxfordshire, scaling up natural dye recipes for commercial use.

Rahemur Rahman (above, centre) is a designer with an eponymous brand. The menswear brand Rahemur Rahman uses design to reinterpret and retell stories of South Asian identity. The emerging Bangladeshi, London-born designer blends history and tradition with fantasy, playing with patterns and texture to create distinctive pieces 'for the people who dream in colour'. He has shown at London Fashion week and has his work exhibited at the V&A.

Poet Karen McCarthy Woolf FRSL (above, right) is the editor of seven literary anthologies and the author of two poetry collections, An Aviary of Small Birds, and Seasonal Disturbances which was a winner in the inaugural Laurel Prize for ecological poetry. She was writer in residence at the Promise Institute for Human Rights, UCLA. She currently teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London and has presented solo-authored and collaborative work worldwide - in Mexico, Trinidad, Jamaica, Brazil, Europe, America, China and the UK.

Dr Mila Burcikova (above, far right) is a designer-maker, researcher, and consultant in sustainable fashion. Her current work focuses on the connections between fashion and agriculture, and the role of time and cyclical patterns of nature in sustainable living. She is the Research Development Lead at Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion and has worked in advisory and research capacity for industry and academic projects worldwide.