‘Craft, art, and design are words heavily laden with cultural baggage. For me, they all connote the profound engagement with materials and process that is central to creativity. Through this engagement form, function, and meaning are made tangible. It is time to move beyond the limitations of terminologies that fragment and separate our appreciation of creative actions, and consider the “behaviours of making” that practitioners share.’
David Revere McFadden
Chief Curator and Vice President, Museum of Arts & Design, New York
http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/contemporary/crafts/what_is_craft/

‘Slow is not a new concept in the crafts, it would seem that notions of ‘slow’ are epitomised by Craft and processes within craft production and life. The values that powered the development of twentieth century studio craft in Britain and informed its nineteenth century forebear, the Art and Crafts movement echo the ideas and values debated within the current Slow Movement. Truthfulness – to oneself, to materials, to humanistic principles of design, creative satisfaction, ethical production, process and sourcing of materials, were debated and practised by craft practitioners well before the advent of the internet and the current shifts we are experiencing in reassessing the impact of global production and consumption and the stresses it places on our lifestyles.

Many of the themes and debates within the slow movement persist within craft, both within our perception of the interests of many makers and the history and culture of studio craft. There are still generations of craftspeople for whom making and lifestyle are intimately connected and for whom the desire for autonomy is a significant motivation. The process and experience of making, of tacit knowledge that brings together the hand, eye, mind, the lived experience and bodily knowledge that understands material and goes beyond learned skill is one which is deeply connected and driven by personal value.

In 2007 we initiated a project for Craftspace www.craftspace.co.uk to explore the identity of contemporary craft within the philosophies of the Slow Movement. This project brought together some of our shared interests. A major ambition was to develop an exhibition, which could, through exhibiting the work of craft practitioners, who are responding to the ideas and values we are debating, and to present this for public discussion. This exhibition which we have called ‘taking time: Craft and the Slow Movement’ launches in October this year (2009) and will be touring around the UK.

A key process of the project has been to communicate our ideas – and to bring in the responses of others – through the blog: http://makingaslowrevolution.wordpress.com

We are hoping to regularly update you on how the project is developing and we welcome your questions and comments.

Comme des Garcons is a fashion brand, refusing to be one. The PradaGuccis use to build themselves monuments with fashion-capital’s flagship-stores - Comme des Garcons instead opens Guerilla Stores at alternative locations for just a year or so. And re-opens them somewhere else, always in hidden, unexpected  areas and locations such as former warehouses, etc. 

1972 Rei Kawakubo founds the brand Comme des Garcons (”like boys”) in Tokio, today she still is the head of design. Comme des Garconsis clothing which does not care about following or creating trends. Since 1984 the women’s collection is added by men’s fashion.

Rei Kawakubo is the first designer creating specific store architecture for her fashion (herself). After the luxury brands have done the same she developed: There’s a “fixed” store in Paris, one in New York, a few in Japan and the Dover Street Market in London, where Comme des Garcons is presented with other brands in kind-of-a-market environment.

The Guerilla Stores match Rei Kawakubo’s nature against the establishment. Often her fashion is angry, shapeless, provoking, anti-trendy black or bright, sometimes with sculptural elements. The Guerilla Stores are opened for just a year at each location. And the fans come.

Stephen Thompson, a designer in Mississippi in the southern United States, has put together a fascinating forecast of design trends for 2009. His conclusion: “If there is one overall theme coming for 2009, it might best be called SlowTec - a simple back-to-basics style that is all about less speed for better living - and a focus on quality craftsmanship and eco consciousness.”

Underneath this lovely slow umbrella, Thompson predicts lots of global influences, patchwork, rich color, wood, vintage items, and snowflakes, among other trends.  And though Thompson doesn’t talk about scale, maybe Sarah Susanka’s dream of the Not-So-Big-House will finally take hold, making all those mega-mansions suddenly appear as ridiculous and embarassing as we always suspected they were. Most of these design trends will fit perfectly in a human-scaled, size-appropriate dwelling.

The slow movement has been ahead of its time for years, ironically, but the world is finally catching up. A global economic meltdown just might get us to stop grasping for cheap, fast and easy, or oversized and expensive,  and wake up to authentic experiences rooted in creativity, community, and soul. So it seems like the perfect time for this blog, and I thank Carl for the invitation to post.

I’ve been working out my own definition of “slow” for textiles and cloth for about a year now on Red Thread Studio, my blog. I was inspired by Slow Food, the first part of the slow movement to be codified –  its rejection of the mass-produced, cheap, anonymous and ubiquitous and its embrace of history, regional origins and differences, skill, community and nourishment. Slow Food doesn’t have to take a long time to cook, but it does require making more space in your life for a relationship with food, a greater consciousness and respect for the choices we have.

These are the ephemeral qualities that I think translate to the world of cloth. Textile traditions and techniques need preserving and protecting. Skills that used to be handed down, most often from mother to daughter,  are in danger of extinction, replaced by an endless cycle of conspicuous consumption, disposable and forgettable choices, and outsourced production. We don’t know where our textiles come from, any more than our food; we don’t know whose hands shaped them, or designed their beauty, or stitched their warmth.

I’m lucky to have a lifelong and ongoing experience of making things with fabric. My hands, my senses and my imagination have explored the full range of the art-craft arc, and found immense satisfaction at every point on that arc. For a good part of my life, these activities were, let’s say, less than cool. People would comment that they’d love to make things too if they, you know, had time in their busy and important lives. That’s missing the point. If the process of making things wasn’t  hugely satisfying and fun for me, I would never do it.

Today it’s popular and even cool once again to make things, yet much of today’s “Craft 2.0”movement seems to succumb to fast principles: How can we make it quick, cheap, easy, and skip over all the hard part of learning how to do it well?

So I offer a different approach, and I’ve identified 10 qualities that I think characterize Slow Cloth. You can have a Slow Cloth sensibility as an individual artist or artisan or as a commercial company, and it bears repeating that “slow” is not literal. More than once, I’ve found myself emphasizing that slow cloth (or fashion, or design, or craft) has nothing to do with whether or not your creative work is done by hand or machine, or how long it takes to complete. Instead, the thread that runs through all these qualities is the idea of authenticity, one of those know-it-when-you-see-it things that is as vital as it is indefinable.

Slow Cloth:

1. Has the possibility of joy in the process. I often hear people say that they think they should learn to knit or sew, because they think they will save money or that it’s somehow virtuous. Nonsense. Everybody should know how to sew on a button or mend a seam, but beyond that, if you don’t love the process, there isn’t much point. In other words, it’s the journey, not the destination. If efficiency and sameness are the primary goals, it’s not Slow Cloth.
2. Can be contemplative. Not every moment of making is a serene mystical precious experience, but the totality of your work opens space for you and gives you room to think, to breathe, and to be.
3. Involves skill and has the possibility of mastery. Rather than choosing easy or instant-gratification methods (craft kits!), you’re aiming for originality, and an ever-expanding level of fluency and grace in the techniques you work with.
4. Acknowledges the rich diversity and multicultural history of textile art and craft. Textiles express culture and we live in a fantastically big and small world. Slow Cloth celebrates that diversity rather than eliminating it.
5. Honors its teachers and lineage. Most of us began to learn our skills with cloth from an ancestor or friend,  and there are many generations before us who used their inventiveness and creativity to expand possibilities in the world of cloth. Thank them and pay it forward.
6. Uses materials thoughtfully and respects their sources. Remember that it takes a lot of people and energy to make your fabric or yarn or dye, or the clothing you sell, and maintain an ethical and environmental perspective.  I don’t think everything has to be organic or even natural – some of my favorite textile artists, like Mary Ruth Smith, use some synthetics — but be mindful of your footprint and choose well and appropriately.
7. Honors quality. We want to make things that last and are well-made.
8. Honors beauty. Beauty is a whole complicated and wonderful subject all its own. I believe we have an innate need for beauty that’s driven us to make decorative textiles for many thousands of years.
9. Supports and encourages community. A Slow Cloth company respects all of its labor force; a textile artist or artisan acknowledges a relationship to other. We share knowledge, preserve history and legacy, and help our neighbors. Our skills give us common ground and a place to connect; it was as true for ancient weavers in the courtyard or 19th century pioneers at a quilting bee as it is on modern knitting forums and textile blogs on the Internet.
10. Is expressive of individuals or cultures (or both). The human creative force is reflected and evident in the work. Cloth is a language that can communicate values, myths, ideals, dreams, status.

As we develop this sensibility, our overall relationship to textiles changes and deepens. Your comments are welcome!

I began pondering the concept of ‘Slow Design’ exactly six years ago, and shortly thereafter I founded slowLab to capture what I envisioned as an important creative movement.   I cast around a curatorial eye and discovered an inspiring array of people and projects from product design and architecture and urban planning to performative media and virtual experiments.  I found objects, environments and social situations imbued with a different, ’slower’ rhythm, as well as ways of thinking, working and making that offered an alternative to the dominant, fast paradigm of today’s world.

In 2003, I began to gather some of those ideas, people and projects together, starting a network and building a web site.   I hoped to provide a forum for some of the existing voices and expressions of Slow Design, while challenging others to consider its potential within their own lives.  Back then it was just a compelling concept, but it has been growing… slowly!  Formalized as a non-profit organization in 2005, slowLab began to host public dialogues and exhibit projects and publish our ideas.  http://www.slowlab.net

In 2006, we introduced the Slow Design Principles, which were the outcome of research, dialogue and iteration within slowLab and its (by then) international network of design thinkers and practitioners. They are not fixed ideas, but rather a set of guidelines against which people are invited to interrogate and appraise their ideas, processes, motives, and outcomes.  They provide a lens through which to more intimately understand one’s own identity as a designer, to reflect upon the design processes one employs, to evaluate tangible outcomes, and to imagine new scenarios. This process of careful and continuous (self-) questioning challenges the designer to reach for the core of design and her/his role within it. http://www.slowlab.net/slow_design.html

What started out as a compelling idea is now widely recognized as vital form of creative and collective activism that can substantially contribute to environmental, social and cultural sustainability.  Slow Design imbues the people, places and things of the everyday with a renewed phenomenological richness, and revives a healthy reverence for nature.  It helps slow the rate of environmental resource consumption by resisting dominant models of production and consumption.  It stimulates new social connections, restores social accountability and strengthens communities.  A look through our web site reveals this, and so much more.  Importantly, Slow Design looks toward the future, and by so doing its definition remains malleable and open for dialogue.

And that dialogue is for ALL of us.  Being a ’slow designer’ does not apply only to creative professionals and graduates of design school.  Daily experience provides a myriad of opportunities for applying slow design knowledge and strategies to arrive at positive personal and social shifts.  Everybody is engaged in the act of designing her/his life, environment and community, and everybody has creative potential that can be harnessed toward a slower, more sustainable future.

We invite you to contribute your own projects and perspectives.  I hope you’ll tell us what ‘Slow Design’ means to you so that together we can continue to grow this wonder-ful movement!