Red Thread Project
A social design project safeguarding traditional
textile handicrafts and empowering the local artisan community
2021, Hochschule Luzern Design & Kunst,
Switzerland-Croatia
“Red Thread Project” is a name that comes from ambiguity hidden behind the words themselves. The “red thread” is associated with textile handicrafts, and especially the color red, which has left a great legacy in Croatian folk culture and can be found in traditional textiles and costumes.
The second meaning behind the word is the saying associated with storytelling and narration. The leading thought, the passing of time. The idea of the project is to highlight narratives that through past created a sense of meaning, community, belonging in people and speak about the intergenerational transmission of valuable material and non-material heritage, from older generations to the younger generation which is, in this example, valuable knowledge of the textile handcrafting techniques.
Red Thread Project is a social design project developed under the Hochschule Luzern Design & Kunst. The Project is based on facilitative action taken between the marginalised textile craftsmen with knowledge of traditional textile handcrafting techniques implemented in the case of rural parts of Croatia and the designer, connecting artisans with the needs of the modern market.
In detail, the role of the designer is to act as a facilitator and to investigate human, cultural, and natural resources specific for the selected region and respond with design intervention that optimises local potential navigating and encouraging the community of artisans in slow, transparent, and quality production of clothing garments.
The process starts with building an artisan community. The designer gets introduced to the geographical, cultural, and societal situation of selected regional context respecting the foreign environment. By integrating into the society, building a network, noticing problematics, areas of friction, the designer orientates oneself where design intervention is needed. In rural communities, reaching out to marginalised groups can present a challenge. Therefore, in the case of Croatia, most communication and basic, first networking was executed throughout the spoken word.
The goal of Project's logistical support was to think critically about how can carbon footprint be reduced by delivery, transportation, and it aimed for environmentally-friendly mobility solutions such as cars with electric drive.
The artisans were at the beginning of every handcrafting activity carefully introduced with the designs and the designer provided them all the important information. Moreover, they were offered a guidance throughout the whole process and therefore, as wishfully expressed, were visited frequently throughout the week. To highlight the focus, Red Thread Project aims to improve fashion production and by this, artisan's well-being. Hence, the intention is to carefully design the production process that responds and creates positive impact on their handcrafting experience.
Prototypes
womenswear fashion garments
results of facilitative action with artisan community
The main outcomes of facilitative action between the designer, the artisans, and the customer, are womenswear fashion products aimed for the summer season and warm climate. Garments were inspired by the local, traditional Croatian costume wear and therefore, they challenge conventions and propose a blend of traditionally considered female & male representation through breaking the symmetry, color palette, forms, and material combinations. Results are unique, handcrafted, hand-embellished clothing garments incorporating traditional Croatian textile handcrafting techniques, motives and patterns such as embroidery, weaving, lacemaking and crochet.
Garments are led by principles of sustainable fashion design strategies. Therefore, we created with the strategy of up-cycling optimising and using the existing textile resources (tablecloths, dead stock materials, crochets etc.). Garments are adapted to simple, modern cuts and meanings that express the blend of tradition and modernity.
Artisan stories
going beyond just a product
Fashion industry is a layered system and those who often face the negative consequences the most are the workers themselves. Each worker in fashion industry and artisan is a respected human being, has individual lifestyles, experience level, wishes and needs. Knowing that and understanding the context of the artisans, their pains, and objectives was in the interest of the designer to well observe, analyse using different methodology and tools and design as best possible process and the environment in which artisans feel appreciated and valued.
Therefore, let's do our best to design the environment which support ethical, thoughtful, and environmentally friendly fashion.
Fashion Editorial
Model: Ivona Šimunović,
Hair & MU & Photography: Eva Vučković
digital photography, 2021
The Red Thread Project, garments made with love to express the blend of tradition and modernity, intend to evoke the memories of the crude countryside while strolling throughout urban city streets. It is a haptic escape from the urban environment to the raw landscape. Due to the handcrafted properties of weaved, embroidered, crochet, and lacemaking patterns and details, garments stimulate the sense of a touch evoking memories that are deeply rooted into contrast fully different time, place, environment, and identity. Put in comparison with music, like jazz, garments have elements that are traditional in their core, however, exposed to new, current socio-cultural influences they adapted forming a unique version of themselves.
Clothing garments carry emotional connection and a story about the rooted time, place, community and identity. Garments bear the weight of social engagement of intergenerational lives from the rural, countryside corners of this world. In these corners of the small, rural, local communities time slows down, yet it passes them by very quickly. They tell the story of lost time, faded memories, customs, they are nostalgic yet joyful reminiscence of tangible, analog, haptic yet ethereal, mystical world called ‘the past’. Garments call back and revive the emotions of once a careless time when running through fields of wheat, meadow, overgrown gardens of our homeland’s countryside, stumbling over the ground, burning feet on the nettle leaves while playing explorers was in our reach. Like analog photography, faded black and white, it combines old technology with new digital and modernised meanings.
Exhibition set-up
Hochschule Luzern, Design & Kunst
2021, Switzerland
